Sustainability Governance in a Changing World

Course goals

Content

The MSc Sustainable Development consists of four tracks, one of which is Earth System Governance. The course “Sustainability Governance in a Changing World” introduces this track by providing students with conceptual, theoretical, and empirical tools to apprehend the intricacies of collective action in an increasingly unstable geopolitical order. Governance is the process of collectively steering societal actors towards desirable goals. The course will cover all levels of governance, from the local level of village politics to the top level of decisions of the United Nations, and will explore the role of traditional and emerging actors therein. Governments are an important part of governance, yet other actors (environmental activists, cities, youth movements, science associations, philanthropic foundations) all play important roles as well. Our discussions will shed light on the interconnections and interdependencies between governance levels and actors, providing students with a critical understanding of the challenges and opportunities associated with strategic decision-making within complex environments. Throughout the course, our discussions will emphasize on change: students will be able to capture the myriad ways in which the world is changing, and analyze how governance can respond to such an ever-changing environment to achieve sustainability transformation.

The course is organized into four components. The first part sets the stage with real-world sustainability challenges; it introduces and critically discusses key empirical or conceptual sustainability issues for students to develop a holistic understanding of contemporary sustainability debates, challenges, and policies. We then introduce the most important theoretical approaches in the field of sustainability governance, focusing on both foundational and emerging theoretical and conceptual paradigms, including earth system governance, institutionalism, ecomodernism, degrowth, and geoengineering. These two sets of foundational and contemporary approaches give students the largest possible overview of the theoretical and conceptual tools that help making sense of the empirical dynamics of sustainability governance. In addition, normative issues as well as governance dynamics and tensions are introduced, as well as key theories to envisage the transformation towards sustainability. In the third part, we present and discuss the role of agents of change in sustainability governance, including the state, international organizations, civil society, philanthropic foundations, cities, and courts. Finally, we conclude the course by discussing upcoming sustainability governance milestones and exploring governance frontiers in a changing context marked by geopolitical shifts, democratic breakdown, and an increasingly polarized political climate.  Issues: Each of the components will be illustrated with empirical examples based on the research fields of the Environmental Governance group at the Copernicus Institute. In particular, leading representatives of our group will discuss climate governance, urban governance, the Sustainable Development Goals, ocean governance, providing students the opportunity to specialize in more depth in one area, also with a view to possible topics for their later MSc thesis.