Reshaping Human-Nature Relationships
Beschrijving
Course goals
After successful completion of this course, the student will be able to:
1. Reflect on and analyse their relationship with nature as an individual – and as a member of different communities, using methods, theories and practices introduced in the course (e.g., from Psychology, Ecology, Geography and Systems thinking).
2. Identify and evaluate individual motivations, collective agreements and policies related to human-nature relationships based on methods, theories and practices introduced in the course.
3. Understand and critically evaluate frequently used approaches and their underlying assumptions for studying human-nature relationships.
4. Apply systems thinking to understand how humans interact with and influence the natural and built environment as agents of change.
5. Create effective strategies to stimulate pro-environmental behaviour at the individual, community and global levels to foster planetary health.
Content
We humans are deeply interwoven with the rest of the living world, and the fate of non-human species is increasingly affected by human actions. In the few hundreds of thousands of years that our species exists, the way humans have interacted with (and perceived our relationship with) the more-than-human world has changed substantially. Today, there exist many contrasting, conflicting and complementary perspectives on human-nature relationships, for example, there are cultures that perceive non-humans as relatives, and others that view nature mainly as a resource that could be extracted to fulfil human needs. These perspectives, or worldviews, profoundly affect how groups of humans interact with the living world. It also influences the way scientists view and conceptualize ‘nature’ in the questions we ask, and how we seek to answer them. Being aware of these perspectives is crucial for re-envisioning our relationships with the rest of the living world and building towards a more nature-inclusive society.
In this context, reshaping human-nature relationships has great potential to foster planetary health, nature-inclusive societies, promote human well-being and stimulate pro-environmental behaviour. To realize this potential, a holistic understanding of the interwoven relationships between people and nature is required. Therefore, the aim of this course is to experience, understand, assess, and strengthen human-nature relationships at individual, community, and global levels.
This course consists of regular outdoor sessions in which students will experience how ecosystems are shaped by human culture and actions, and how being in nature affects human health and behaviour. The course is centred around the development of human-nature relationships across individual, community and global levels. We will assess how these relationships are shaped by human behaviour, actions and worldviews as well as ecological- and environmental dynamics. We explore how citizen science initiatives can help to reshape nature-human relationships. Finally, students will learn how to leverage quantitative and qualitative methods for upscaling pro-environmental behavioural change.
Reviews0 reviews
Heb jij dit vak gevolgd?
Deel je ervaring met toekomstige studenten. Inloggen met je Universiteit Utrecht mailadres duurt één minuut.
Schrijf een review