Course content
This course focuses on the politics of sustainability and sustainable economics, in the framework of institutional structures of global and regional governance, including the UN and UNFCCC, the WTO, World Bank, and regional arenas such as the EU. This course gives an overview of such forms of international and regional governance, enabling in-depth examination of key topics, such as trade, investment and sustainability; development issues and the UN Sustainable Development Goals; climate change policy; and labor rights.
The course discusses forms of global and regional governance, as well as relevant policy regimes and instruments. For example in the EU, where supranational institutions are vested with the powers to coordinate a range of economic, social and environmental policy areas. Yet the record of the EU on sustainability issues is uneven, and some policy areas are strongly contested, for example the implementation of the European Green Deal.
In this course, emphasis is placed on the importance of critical reflection on theories and concepts taught in the course. It involves questioning assumptions and reflections on the relationship between power, interests, knowledge and different policy solutions. The course also has a strong emphasis on the accumulation of subject-specific concepts and vocabulary, as well as speaking the English language accurately, fluently, and in a manner appropriate to discussing complex issues at an advanced level.
Finally, Politics of Sustainability builds upon knowledge obtained in the first semester course Globalization and Sustainability and the third semester course International Business and Sustainability, and complements the fourth semester course The Corporation in Society.
See course description in course catalogue