Climate, Sustainability and Wellbeing

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 humanities, the course approaches the climate crisis as a relational crisis—between ourselves, others, and nature. Critical social scientists and humanists argue that sustainability and wellbeing touch upon the foundations of everyday life, making these issues not only practical, but also political and personal.

Key questions include: What worldviews, values, and emotions drive a changing climate? How is climate change related to other contemporary trends, such as growing inequality, mental health problems, and biodiversity loss? How can individuals, collectives and systems transform towards sustainability and wellbeing at the rate, scale, speed, and depth that is called for by international agreements?

The course is structured into three parts:

Part One: Understanding the Climate Problem
We begin with the physical science basis of climate change, examining how human activities drive the greenhouse effect. Beyond the physical science, we explore often overlooked inner dimensions—such as dominant scientific and societal paradigms—and introduce a relational worldview that broadens and deepens the solution space.

Part Two: Responses to Climate Change
We evaluate various development pathways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climate impacts. Using intersectionality as an analytical tool, we explore how vulnerability to climate change is unevenly distributed within and between different communities . This leads to a central focus on equity in climate adaptation and mitigation efforts.

Part Three: Historical and Transformative Perspectives
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. We reflect on historical transformations to inform and inspire deliberate transformations toward sustainability and wellbeing.

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

Course objectives

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

• explain three concepts that illustrate the social and human dimensions of climate change

• identify three practices that enhance personal, societal and planetary wellbeing

• anchor climate, sustainability, and wellbeing in the everyday 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 wellbeing

Course material

The course material comprises a textbook, along with selected articles, book chapters, reports, and documentaries. The designated textbook for the course is Climate and Society: Transforming the Future by Leichenko and O’Brien (2024). We engage with reflexive texts from the social sciences and humanities – including sustainability science and transformation literature 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 – 43 hours

• Working on the interdisciplinary podcast – 14 hours

• Preparing for the group presentation – 7 hours

• Working on the free creative project – 28 hours

The rule is that students can miss 2 sessions of the course, except for the first (The physical science basis of climate change) and last session (Scaling transformation to sustainability).

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

This course is based on transformative pedagogy—an educational approach that views learning as a process of personal transformation. It is designed to offer students the theoretical and practical tools to contribute to transformative change in their everyday lives.

Climate, Sustainability and Wellbeing 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

The course consists of three types of assignments:

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

2 Interdisciplinary group assignments (pass/fail)
Interdisciplinary groups record a podcast episode in which they analyze everyday issues related to climate, sustainability and wellbeing from a chosen theoretical vantage point. Groups also give a presentation in which they answer the question: How can science, society, and self spark, scale, and sustain transformation towards sustainability and wellbeing?

1 Free creative project (pass/fail)
Students are given the freedom to engage with the course in a creative way. Students, individually or in pairs, anchor the things they have learned during the course in the everyday. Possible formats include a documentary, short story, painting, interviews, and a manifesto.

Language

The English language is used during the sessions. Group assignments must be submitted in English. Individual assignments can be submitted in English or Dutch.

Skills

The skills predominantly covered in this course are shown in bold:

Timetable

The sessions start at 18:00 (no Leiden quarter). * The excursion and the Saloon are optional.

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