Admission requirements
There are no compulsory pre-requisites, but having prior knowledge about economics, global megatrends in sustainability and population are a benefit. Having followed the advanced IO course would provide a better understanding of national accounts and how GDP is built up and measured.
Description
The recent Beyond-Growth conference in Brussels in May 2023 was symbolic of the renewed interest in beyond-growth paradigms such as degrowth, green growth and Doughnut Economics. Fundamentally these discussions are all about achieving inclusive and sustainable well-being, but they differ significantly in their proposals. Given the many ecological and social crises of our time, the discussion could not be more urgent.
Yet warnings about the limits to growth have been around for many decades. It is imperative to move beyond just analyzing the problem or suggesting policy solutions. We need to move beyond pointing to the impossibility of a growing economy within planetary boundaries or pointing to the fact that inequalities are growing despite economic growth. The main problems that society faces is that the diagnosis and solutions from the scientific literature are not sufficiently implemented.
This course will provide students with scientific tools and insights which will help them develop their ideas about how to work towards concrete implementation of post-growth ideas. This will require knowledge of the scientific and empirical literature as well as an understanding of the role of institutions and narratives in shaping society.
Course objectives
After this course students will be able to:
Theory of Change
Understand how economic narratives became so powerful at the technical, governance and policy levels.
Assess and analyses the major Beyond Growth initiatives in the European Union, OECD and at the United Nations.
Technical Level
Understand the scientific underpinnings of movements such as De-growth and Green growth
Understand the theories behind the top Beyond-GDP metrics and be able to link them to accounting structures like input-output tables and the system of environmental-economic accounts (SEEA).
Analyze and interpret the WISE database hosted at www.beyond-GDP.world
Understand the insights from the major models related to well-being, inclusion and sustainability (ecological-economic models, sufficiency models, Earth4all, IAMS etc)
Governance/Policy Level
Know the governments that have been experimenting with the well-being economy and understand how national governments and international institutes are involved.
Understand the thinking behind the Policy guide of the Wellbeing Economy Alliance (WEAll).
Narrative Level
Develop ideas about why post-growth is not covered in media or through other channels. This will be done based on a case study of the media coverage of the Beyond-Growth conference.
Think of strategies to spread post-growth narratives.
Analyse the framework of Jonathan Haidt, to understand the different moral foundations that people have, including typical progressives an conservatives, and its implications for narratives in society.
Link the role of scientific and activist communication in the theory of change
Skills
- Demonstrate skills working collaboratively with peers.
Timetable
You will find the timetables for all courses and degree programmes of Leiden University in the tool MyTimetable (login). Any teaching activities that you have sucessfully registered for in MyStudyMap will automatically be displayed in MyTimeTable. Any timetables that you add manually, will be saved and automatically displayed the next time you sign in.
MyTimetable allows you to integrate your timetable with your calendar apps such as Outlook, Google Calendar, Apple Calendar and other calendar apps on your smartphone. Any timetable changes will be automatically synced with your calendar. If you wish, you can also receive an email notification of the change. You can turn notifications on in ‘Settings’ (after login).
For more information, watch the video or go the the 'help-page' in MyTimetable.
Please note: Joint Degree students Leiden/Delft have to merge their two different timetables into one. This video explains how to do this.
Mode of instruction
The course starts with introduction lectures and two presentations. There will be a lot of group discussions involved. There are also two weeks reserved for the group presentations. There will also be one week with external guest speakers for which the students will have to prepare questions.
Assessment method
Assessment
There is a group presentation on 1) Beyond-GDP metrics and 2) a group presentation at the end of the course. Groups will be 2-3 people depending on the number of people joining the course. In addition an individual reflection will be part of the assessment.
Weighing
The first presentation is 25% of the final grade and the second 75%.
Resit
The student will be allowed to redo the group presentation, if it is insufficient.
Reading list
Relevant literature and studymaterial will be communicated and disclosed on BrightSpace Leiden University.
Registration
Every student of all years must enroll via MyStudyMap.
In this short video, you will see step by step how to enroll in courses in MyStudyMap. Note that your enrollment is only completed when you submit your course planning in the 'Ready for enrollment' tab by clicking 'submit'.
There are two registration periods per year: registration for the fall semester opens in July and registration for the spring semester opens in December. Please see this page for more information.
Please note that it is compulsory to register for every exam and retake. Not being registered for a course means that you are not allowed to participate in the final exam. Keep in mind that there are enrollment deadlines, see this page for more information.
Extensive FAQ on MyStudymap can be found here.
Contact
Coordinator: Rutger Hoekstra
Remarks
MSc Industrial Ecology students can register for the course and exam via MystudyMap. Other students need to contact the study advisors of the programme via studyadvisor-ie@cml.leidenuniv.nl