Admission requirements
Only students of the MSc Crisis and Security Management can take this course.
Description
Even though climate scientists strongly agree that tackling the climate crisis is extremely urgent, it proves difficult to do so: to make governments sign international climate agreements and to let these governments and individual citizens live up to them. In this course, we will delve into this dilemma. We will focus on a wide variety of actors and aspects of climate crisis politics, to see what blockages and possibilities are out there for moving towards a more sustainable future. We will start with actors that are actively blocking this move, such as climate change denialists and anti-environmentalist lobby groups. Then, we will discuss actors who on the one hand agree that climate crisis solutions are much needed, but at the same time find it difficult to adjust their behavior to make this possible (in fact, probably the majority of all citizens). Finally, we will turn to various possibilities for moving towards a sustainable future, such as framing climate change differently, social movement activism (e.g., Extinction Rebellion), interventions by the IPCC, and political agreements.
Course objectives
Upon completion of this course, students will:
Understand the various constraints and opportunities that are out there concerning successful climate crisis politics
Have an overview of the various actors that are involved in climate crisis politics and their social positionings towards the issue
Be able to analyze and advise on what actors, given their social positionings, can do to overcome climate crisis constrains
Have a more general understanding of the relationship between media, politics, science, social movements and crisis politics
Timetable
On the right side of programme front page of the studyguide you will find links to the website and timetables, uSis and Brightspace
Mode of instruction
This course consists of 7 seminars. Classes will be dedicated to (guest) lectures and group discussion. Students are required to participate actively in class discussion. Attendance is mandatory.
Assessment method
Assessment for this course is based on the following:
Class participation
10% of final grade
Grade needs to be compensated
Midterm: group assignment
30% of final grade
Resit not possible
Grade needs to be compensated
Final exam: individually written paper
60% of the final grade
5.50 is required to pass the course
Resit is possible
Resit will take the same form
The calculated grade of the assignments must be at least 5.50 in order to pass the course. Students are also permitted to resit the 60% assignment if they have a calculated overall course grade lower than 5.50.
In the case of written assessment methods, the examiner can always initiate a follow-up conversation with the student to establish whether the learning objectives have been met.
Transitional Arrangement
Please be aware that passed partial grades obtained in academic year 2023-2024 are no longer valid during academic year 2024-2025.
Reading list
The literature will consist of academic texts and policy documents, links to which will be provided in the syllabus.
Registration
*Please note, registration for block 4 electives will be organised by the OSC in a different way from the regular course registration for semester 2. More information about this will follow in the beginning of semester 2.
Contact
Dr. Thijs van Dooremalen t.j.a.van.dooremalen@fgga.leidenuniv.nl