Sustainability and Health

Description

This course explores the interconnected and interdependent relationship between personal, societal and planetary wellbeing through the study of the social and human dimensions of climate change.

Drawing on the ‘relational turn’ in the social sciences and the humanities, this course approaches the climate crisis as a relational crisis between ourselves, others, and nature. We examine questions such as: What are the worldviews underpinning a changing climate? How is climate change related to other contemporary trends, such as growing inequality and biodiversity loss? What is the relationship between climate change and gender? How does sustainability touch upon the foundation of my everyday life, and is thereby personal?

The first part of the course explores the nature of the climate problem. We discuss the biophysical drivers of a changing climate, such as the burning of fossil fuels. We study how climate change impacts public health. We discuss the important, yet largely neglected inner dimensions of climate change, such as beliefs, worldviews, and paradigms. We broaden and deepen our understanding of climate change by studying it through a relational lens.

The second part of the course explores responses to climate change. We analyze the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions through different development pathways. We study how climate change enters particular local contexts of pre-existing intersectional vulnerabilities, and discuss how to adapt to the unevenly distributed climate change impacts.

The final part of the course invites us to obtain a more demanding relationship with history and the world. We study historical and recent transformations to better understand the nature of transformation towards sustainability. We discuss the postcolonial critique that climate change is inextricably linked to colonialism, the genocide of Indigenous peoples, and structures of organized violence that are foundational in forming the modern global order.

Climate change is transforming the life-support systems that our very existence depends on, and simultaneously calls for a transformation towards sustainable and equitable futures for all life on Earth. This course therefore addresses the existential question that many are confronted with in these turbulent times: how can I matter more meaningfully in this world?

Course objectives

Through this course, we strive to achieve that students are able to:

• provide three examples that illustrate the social and human dimensions of climate change

• provide three examples that illustrate the interconnected and interdependent relationship between personal, societal and planetary wellbeing

• analyze issues related to sustainability and health from a particular theoretical vantage point through diverse formats: interdisciplinary podcast, free creative project

• develop a well-reasoned argument on how science, society, and self can spark, scale, and sustain transformation towards sustainability and health

Course material

The material for this course comprises a textbook, articles, chapters, reports, and documentaries. We read Climate and Society: Transforming the Future by Leichenko and O’Brien (2024) and the Synthesis Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2023). We also engage with a diverse body of critical and reflexive social scientific texts, ranging from sustainability science, philosophy of science, and critical animal studies literatures as well as feminist, queer, post-colonial, decolonial, and Indigenous scholarship.

Mode of instruction

Students are expected to invest approximately 112 hours for this 4 ECTS course by:

• Attending 8 sessions (participation is mandatory) – 20 hours

• Engaging meaningfully with the course material – 50 hours

• Working on the individual reflective assignments – 16 hours

• Working on the the interdisciplinary podcast – 8 hours

• Preparing for the debate and group presentation – 6 hours

• Working on the free creative project – 12 hours

The rule is that students can miss one session of the course, except for the first (Climate change as a public health crisis) and last session (Scaling transformations to sustainability).

Students can obtain one additional studypoint (1 EC) for their Honours College track if they attend the excursion (re-)connecting with nature and hand in the associated assignment.

This course is based on transformative pedagogy. Sustainability and Health forms a case study of transformative approaches in higher education in Guzman, P., & Buijs, J. (2023). A transformative approach to cultural heritage education for climate action. In I. G. Curulli, D. I. Kaya, & A. Khaefi (Eds.), Heritge education for climate action (Vol. 2, pp. 177–190). Wiley.

Assessment methods

Assessment includes 6 individual assignments, 3 group assignments, and 1 individual or group assignment.

6 Individual reflective assignments (pass/fail)
Prior to the plenary sessions, students answer reflective questions about the course material and themselves to enhance the transformative potential of the plenary sessions.

3 Interdisciplinary think and do tank assignments (pass/fail)
During the course, students are placed in an interdisciplinary think and do tank. The tanks produce a podcast episode in which they reflect on issues related to sustainability and health from a particular theoretical vantage point. The tanks first submit a proposal to receive qualitative feedback for growth. The tanks also engage in a debate about statements pertaining to sustainability and health. During the final session, the tanks hold a group presentation in which they answer the following question: How can science, society, and self spark, scale, and sustain transformation towards sustainability and health?

1 Free creative project (pass/ fail)
At the end of the course, students are given the freedom to engage with the course in a creative way. Students anchor the things they have learned during the course in the everyday. Possible formats include a documentary, short story, poem, interviews with practitioners, podcast, essay, manifesto, and much more. Students submit a proposal to receive qualitative feedback for growth. The free creative project can be done individually or in pairs.

Language

The English language is used during the sessions and in the interdisciplinary think and do tanks. Group assignments must be submitted in English. Individual assignments can be submitted in English or Dutch.

Timetable

The sessions will take place in the Hague. The excursion in the Hague and the feedback session are not mandatory.

Admission requirements

This is an Honours Module meant for second and if places available third year students of the Honours College Science, Society and Self track. You have to participate in at least one Honours Module in your second year.

Registration

You can register for the Honours Modules via MyStudyMap until five days before the start of the course.

Contact information

If you have any questions for clarity, please contact the course coordinator j.p.r.buijs@fsw.leidenuniv.nl