Admission requirements
Entry requirements for Exchange students: familiarity with political theory (or related fields such as political philosophy or the history of ideas) is recommended.
Description
How do environmental factors shape the ways we think about and practice politics? To what extent does an environment in crisis beget political crisis? How might political actors and institutions respond to climate change and why have responses been largely so tepid to date? In what ways do environmental challenges intersect with, or perhaps exacerbate, perennial political concerns about power, equality, freedom, and justice?
Engaging with such questions, this course offers students an introduction to environmental politics. It begins by surveying dominant paradigms of thought – such as political ecology and ecological modernization – within the field. We then examine political challenges to these dominant outlooks, like environmental authoritarianism and eco-socialism. Following this, the course turns to issues of environmental inequality, exploring the ways in which material inequities may track the legacies of colonial and gender hierarchies. Finally, the class explores various drivers of and impediments to environmental political action, ranging from environmental social movements and calls for climate justice to potentially apathy-inducing phenomena like eco-grief, -guilt, and -anxiety.
Course objectives
This course aims to familiarize students with foundational schools of environmental political thought as well as with key concepts and pressing questions in the field of environmental politics.
Schedule
The timetables are available through MyTimetable (see the button in the upper right corner).
Teaching method
Lectures
Assessment method
Final exam, 70% MC questions
Resit, review & feedback
The time and location of inspection and debriefing of the exam will be announced via Brightspace no later than the publication of the grades.
Reading list
See Brightspace
Registration
General information about course and exam enrolment is available on the website (https://www.student.universiteitleiden.nl/en/your-study-programme/courses-and-exams/enrolment/social-and-behavioural-sciences/international-relations-and-organisations-bsc?cd=international-relations-and-organisations-bsc&cf=social-and-behavioural-sciences#tab-1).
Contact
For substantive questions, contact the lecturer(s) (listed in the right information bar). For questions about enrolment, contact the Student Services Centre: ssc@leiden.edu.