Description
Theme 1: Ecological Change, Ecocide, and Environmental Policy
Theme 2: Climate Change, Environmental Justice, and Rights
Theme 3: Innovation and the Green Transition
Description
It is widely recognised that human-induced climate change, long-term sustainable
development and social and environmental justice represents some of the most pressing
and multifaceted societal challenges which requires decisive and resolute actions, and
rests on a multitude of factors, stakeholders, and actors. Tackling the aforementioned
issues is central to achieving the green transition of societies around the world and
addressing the 2030 Agenda. The aim of this elective is to understand the processes of
socio-ecological change and to explore how state and non-state actors are responding to
these challenges and shaping the green transition in the global North and South. These
topics can be formulated within three interdependent themes that each or in
combination form the overall focus of the ESST thesis.
Theme 1: Ecological Change, Ecocide, and Environmental Policy
The first theme focuses on the problems and dilemmas related to environmental sustainability, the emergence of environmentalism as a political force, and policy responses to addressing environmental challenges. From a political ecology perspective, this theme discusses the relationships and dynamics between political, economic, and social factors that are central to environmental issues from a range of spatial scales.
Theme 2: Climate Change, Environmental Justice, and Rights
The second theme considers the relationship between environment and society by examining the environmental injustice of climate change and its impact on human and environmental rights. Through an environmental justice lens, this theme focuses on climate policy and the power dynamics associated with climate change, the role of knowledge of climate change and its drivers, the inequalities, and injustices of climate change, as well as environmental and climate justice movements.
Theme 3: Innovation and the Green Transition
The third theme discusses changes to the social, economic, and political landscape to enable the green transition towards a sustainable society and the changing ways society views and values the environment. This theme looks at different innovative ‘green’ solutions and policy instruments for green growth and innovation as countries embark on the green transition.
Description
Description
In recent decades, decision-makers and publics alike have realized that contemporary societies are confronted with a number of serious challenges such as climate change, food security, health, and social and environmental justice. While it is anything but certain what the future of humanity will look like, even whether it will survive and be able to find ways of long-term sustainable development, it is quite clear that governance and innovation will be at the core of how societies deal with the challenges they are facing. This ESST specialization will thus focus on interrelationships between science, technology and innovation, governance, and sustainability. It will combine STS with other social science perspectives and explore selected case-studies in-depth.