HEN618a Environmental change and governance (Zahraniční expert)

Faculty of Social Studies
Autumn 2012
Extent and Intensity
0/0. 4 credit(s). Type of Completion: z (credit).
Teacher(s)
Dr. Christos Zografos (assistant)
PhDr. Jan Krajhanzl, Ph.D. (assistant)
RNDr. Naděžda Vlašín Johanisová, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
doc. Mgr. Bohuslav Binka, Ph.D.
Department of Environmental Studies – Faculty of Social Studies
Supplier department: Department of Environmental Studies – Faculty of Social Studies
Timetable
Tue 23. 10. 18:00–19:30 P22, Wed 24. 10. 18:00–19:30 U23, Thu 25. 10. 16:00–17:40 U34, Fri 26. 10. 12:00–13:30 U34, Mon 29. 10. 18:00–19:30 U33, Tue 30. 10. 16:00–17:40 P22, Wed 31. 10. 19:45–21:15 U23, Thu 1. 11. 16:00–17:40 U34, Fri 2. 11. 10:00–11:40 U32
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
The capacity limit for the course is 20 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 0/20, only registered: 0/20, only registered with preference (fields directly associated with the programme): 0/20
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
The course will be taught, in English, by Christos Zografos, PhD, Institute of Environmental Science & Technology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB), Spain.
The main topic of the course will be Environmental Change and Governance. The timing of the course in 2012: One session daily between 23d October (Tue) and 2 November (Fri).
The course will explore the interlinked themes of environmental change and governance, from an environmental social science perspective. The first part of the class will focus on human action and interaction with the environment that generates change. The field of political ecology that aims at explaining this change will be presented and brought into the class with a view to achieving a critical understanding of environmental change and the relevance of power and politics in incurring this. The second part of the class will focus on normative approaches to environmental governance. It will draw upon the discipline of ecological economics and its suggestions for achieving democracy, voice plurality and inclusiveness in environmental decision-making. Moreover, the course will familiarise students with two specific methodologies used for conducting research in political ecology and ecological economics. Learning outcomes:
After the end of the module, students should be in a position to:
1.Explain how the concepts of politics and power are useful for studying environmental change;
2. Explain the importance of value plurality and democracy for environmental governance;
3. Use the methods presented in the class to conduct research in environmental social science;
Syllabus
  • Course structure:
  • Classes will be based upon one reading (e.g. one book chapter or journal article) done by students before the class. Students will be asked to produce a short summary of the reading (max. 500 words) where they will describe and reflect upon what they have read. One student will collect all summaries before the class and present their main points at the beginning of the class (5 min), which will then be discussed (15-20 min). After that, the tutor will discuss and summarise the main points of the class.
  • The following is a programme of class sessions:
  • 1. Introduction: Political and a-political approaches for the study of environmental change and introduction to environmental governance
  • 2. The politics of environmental change: structuralism
  • 3. The politics of environmental change: post-structuralism
  • 4. Video projection: ‘Forbidden Forest’ (followed by discussion)
  • 5. Methodological tools for political ecology research: Case Study Research
  • 6. Taking environmental decisions: perspectives from socio-ecological economics (value incommensurability, value pluralism, etc.)
  • 7. Deliberative ecological economics for environmental governance
  • 8. Methodological tools for ecological economics research: Q methodology
  • 9. Student presentations
Teaching methods
lectures, projections, class discussion, student assignments
Assessment methods
The student evaluation tool will be one essay (3-4,000 words) that students will hand in after the end of the course; results will be communicated to students by e-mail. On the last day of the course, each student will present their essay-project plans in a ten minute power point presentation to the class, which will be followed by five-minutes Q+A feedback. The idea of this presentation is for students to receive comments from the tutor concerning their planned essay.
Language of instruction
English
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
Study Materials
The course is taught annually.
Information on course enrolment limitations: Nelze zapsat poté, co již student absolvoval předmět HEN611
The course is also listed under the following terms Autumn 2013, Spring 2015, Autumn 2016, Spring 2018, Autumn 2018, Autumn 2019.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Autumn 2012, recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/fss/autumn2012/HEN618a