Admission requirements
There are no compulsory pre-requisites, but having prior knowledge about economics, global megatrends in sustainability and population are a benefit. Combining this course with Environmental Input-output Analysis (EIOA) will be beneficial, but is not necessary.
The course is open for Industrial Ecology and Governance of Sustainability master students. There will be a maximum of 20 students allowed in the course (15 from IE and 5 from GoS). This will be on the basis of first-come-first-serve (online registration not email).
Description
The world is plagued by many environmental and social problems. Climate and nature crises, rising inequalities (with countries and between the global north and global south) and polarization are just some of the issues with which societies are grappling with. Many scholars relate these problems to the economic system and the constant drive to growth the economy and the profits of companies and finance.
There is a 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 similar warnings about the “limits to growth” have been around for many decades. It is not sufficient to simply articulate the problems or suggest policy solutions. These are often know and have been repeated many times. The main problem is one of implementation: the available diagnosis and solutions are not sufficiently adopted. Why is this the case?
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/policy levels.
Assess and analyse 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 long-term relationships between economic growth, wellbeing, inequalities and sustainability
Understand the theories behind the top 10 Beyond-GDP metrics and be able to link them to accounting structures like input-output tables and the system of environmental-economic accounts (SEEA).
Understand the core features of the System of National Accounts (which prescribes how to measure GDP).
Analyse and interpret the WISE database hosted at www.beyond-GDP.world
Apply some basic statistical tools (simple regressions and (kaya) decomposition) to analyze trade-offs and win-wins between variables
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 importance of formal political institutions and citizen led, and how they can be a barrier or opportunity for change.
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.
Create strategies to spread post-growth narratives.
Apply the framework of Jonathan Haidt, to understand the different moral foundations that people have, including typical progressives and conservatives, and its implications for narratives in society.
Skills
Demonstrate skills working collaboratively with peers.
Be able to empirically analyse (using simple regression and/or decomposition) to analyse long term developments in wellbeing, inclusion and sustainability and other underlying foundations such as economic growth, governance, technology etc.
Timetable
In MyTimetable, you can find all course and programme schedules, allowing you to create your personal timetable. Activities for which you have enrolled via MyStudyMap will automatically appear in your timetable.
Additionally, you can easily link MyTimetable to a calendar app on your phone, and schedule changes will be automatically updated in your calendar. You can also choose to receive email notifications about schedule changes. You can enable notifications in Settings after logging in.
Questions? Watch the video, read the instructions, or contact the ISSC helpdesk.
Note: Joint Degree students from Leiden/Delft need to combine information from both the Leiden and Delft MyTimetables to see a complete schedule. This video explains how to do it.
Mode of instruction
The course is based on 8 interactive lectures with a lot of group discussions and exercises. Four external guest speakers (from finance, business, NGO and government) will also present real world post-growth perspectives. Students will be asked to prepare questions for these guests.
Assessment method
Assessment
There will be one individual written report which will be due by the end of the course. An individual oral exam of 20 minutes will be done to provide feedback and make sure that it is original (non AI-generated) work.
The content of the written report will be on a trade-off or win-win which the student themselves choose from the WISE database. Some examples are the relationships between 1) gender inequality and wellbeing 2) education and the economy 3) inequality and the economy
The student will be asked to cover various aspects of this relationship (scientific literature, causal mechanisms, measurement issues, statistical analysis (regression/decomposition), policies and governance, persuasive narratives to sell the policies to various audiences.
The topics covered coincide with the learnings in the weekly lectures and group exercises and so attendance is key to finalizing the report and passing the oral.
Weighing
The report/oral exam is 100% of the final grade. A rubric will be made available in the first week of the course.
Resit
If the report/oral exam is deemed to be insufficient the first time. Procedure for the retake: a new report should be handed in within 1.5 weeks and a new oral exam should be scheduled within 2 week of the first oral exam.
No retakes are held for a higher grade.
Reading list
Relevant literature and study material will be communicated and disclosed on Brightspace Leiden University.
Registration
As a student, you are responsible for enrolling on time through MyStudyMap.
In this short video, you can see step-by-step how to enrol for courses in MyStudyMap.
Extensive information about the operation of MyStudyMap can be found here.
There are two enrolment periods per year:
Enrolment for the fall opens in July
Enrolment for the spring opens in December
See this page for more information about deadlines and enrolling for courses and exams.
Note:
It is mandatory to enrol for all activities of a course that you are going to follow.
Your enrolment is only complete when you submit your course planning in the ‘Ready for enrolment’ tab by clicking ‘Send’.
Not being enrolled for an exam/resit means that you are not allowed to participate in the exam/resit.
Contact
Coordinator: Dr. Rutger Hoekstra
Other involved teachers: Annegeke Jansen, Inge Schrijver and external speakers.
Remarks
MSc Industrial Ecology students can register for the course and exam via MystudyMap Leiden. Other students need to contact the study advisors of the programme via studyadvisor-ie@cml.leidenuniv.nl to check for availability.
Software
Starting from the 2024/2025 academic year, the Faculty of Science will use the software distribution platform Academic Software. Through this platform, you can access the software needed for specific courses in your studies. For some software, your laptop must meet certain system requirements, which will be specified with the software. It is important to install the software before the start of the course. More information about the laptop requirements can be found on the student website.