University of Copenhagen

This course provides an understanding of the challenges associated with the transition from fossil-based fuels to renewable energy, considering both the supply and demand side of energy markets. This includes the technological challenges of introducing renewable energy in the energy system and the regulatory challenges of designing optimal policies to facilitate the transition. While the course generally deals with the several energy markets, special emphasis is placed on electricity markets due to the significant role of electricity in a carbon neutral energy system. The course applies theory and analytical tools from microeconomics, macroeconomics, and econometrics. A large part of the course is also based on numerical structural models of the energy system.

This course offers contemplative reading and discussion of the works of Copenhagen’s most radical author, Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855). Kierkegaard's thoughts about the struggle for meaning take us through unusual philosophical territory. His works—which are as novelistic as they are philosophical—treat themes like the existential meaning of anxiety and despair, beauty and boredom, humor and seriousness, the sicknesses and health of the soul, the joy and pain of embodiment, and, finally, commitment and love.

This course address how the economy works and how it affects individuals and society by focusing on a critically important domain of the economy—namely, financial markets. Overall, the course provides a sociological understanding of why we have financial markets, who the key financial actors are, how financial markets are evolving, as well as how finance and financial logics affect individuals and society. More specifically, it introduces recent sociological discussions of two aspects of finance. The first concerns “financialization,” that is, the growing use and importance of financial logics in otherwise non-financial fields. One example of this is when production companies generate more revenue from finance operations than from their core production activities. Another dimension of financialization relates to the everyday life of ordinary citizens who are increasingly embedded in financial logics. For example, the course discusses inequalities pertaining to the ability to obtain loans (credit). The second aspect of the course focuses on the inner workings of contemporary financial markets. In addition to discussing the backdrop to the 2008 financial crisis, particular emphasis is given to understanding how financial markets have transformed in light of automated trading, that is, fully automated algorithms acting in markets without direct human involvement. It covers the main elements in present-day markets, including trading firms, financial exchanges, so-called dark pools, and financial regulation, as well as discusses the kinds of financial crashes automated trading might give rise to. The course draws upon a combination of classical sociological analyses and theories of financial markets (from Max Weber to Wayne Baker); more recent sociological discussions of performativity in markets; financialization literature; and social studies of science-inspired analyses of automation.

This course explores the key problems that the oceans are contemporarily facing and how global governors, law enforcement agencies, and other actors intend to address them. The course is organized in three blocks. In the first part, it revisits the contemporary foundations of ocean governance, including international organizations and the law of the sea. It then revisits the key contemporary ocean discourses. In part two, the course investigates major issues on the ocean agenda, such as shipping, fishing, piracy, smuggling, or deep seabed mining and how international actors address them. Following an independent writing period, the course concludes with a workshop where case studies are presented. The course is assessed on the basis of participation and the independent project.

This course explores the factors that have triggered the evolution of environmental law and governance beyond state (since the development of the UN Sustainable Development Goals), and how the theoretical approaches of environmental studies developed in that context. Additionally, it reflects on how and to what extent environmental law and governance can be resilient and adaptive in facing global challenges.

This course provides an interdisciplinary examination of human trafficking, exploring its nature, impact, and responses from various angles. Through a combination of readings, discussions, and research, it critically analyzes the complexities of human trafficking, including its forms, anti-trafficking advocacy, challenges in research and evidence, psychological effects on victims, funding mechanisms, and public perceptions. Drawing on seminal texts, recent research articles, and recommended readings, the course provides insight into the global phenomenon of human trafficking and its implications for policy, advocacy, and social justice. Throughout, it explores pertinent psychological phenomena, including trauma bonding, learned helplessness, dissociation, complex post-traumatic stress disorder, cognitive dissonance, survivor's guilt, and post-traumatic growth, which significantly influence victims' experiences and recovery processes. Through this comprehensive examination, the course develops a deeper understanding of human trafficking and its impact on individuals and societies.

This course investigates the economic and political causes and consequences of rising economic inequality. In doing so, it reviews and discusses both classic and recent work that seeks to provide answers to the questions: what is driving dramatic changes in economic inequality, and how does rising economic inequality affect democracy, politics, and political preferences? Specifically, the course discusses how the post-1980 era is different from the one that came before; how economic inequality affects the redistribution of income from the rich to the poor; how it transforms preferences for redistribution and taxation; whether rising inequality is a democratic problem; and whether it increases political inequality and the distribution of political power.

This course explores questions concerning personal identity and transformation raised by the two Golden-Age writers who hold a pivotal position in Danish cultural heritage: Hans Christian Andersen and Soren Kierkegaard. The course treats the question of searching for one's identity and themes of self-examination, self-definition, inner exploration, as well as understanding one's values, belief's, passions, and purpose in life. Through the works of Andersen and Kierkegaard, these themes are explored in their connection to cultural, social, emotional, and personal dimensions. The course considers how, though both writers are intimately connected to their contemporary society, there is something in their works that far surpasses the limits of the national and historical consciousness to which they adhere, and extend to a wider, global, and modern consciousness. It examines what it is in their writings that merits such a prolonged actuality and such an extensive, modern appeal. Through a vast proliferation of conceptual, fictive, and allegorical narratives, Andersen and Kierkegaard outline a map for the individual to navigate a path toward self-realization, without giving any definite directions nor any fixed points of orientation.

This course traces the conception of authentic existence in the works of thinkers from the Existentialist tradition, such as Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, Hannah Arendt, and Copenhagen’s own Søren Kierkegaard. Among other things, the course observes how ethical thinking has moved from the language of duty to that of personal answerability, and how the search for meaningful personal existence has increasingly become the responsibility of the individual. The unique vocabulary of these authors appears not only in works of philosophy, theology, and psychology, but also literature and theater, which illustrates that we understand ourselves via the stories we tell, and that these narratives are necessarily told in dialogue with “the Other,” our fellow human beings.

This  course explores the theoretical and practical intersections of filmmaking, social impact, and activism in international relations. It does so with a core focus on how filmmaking has been used to explore phenomena related to humanitarian issues globally, especially those linked to contexts of conflict, migration, and violence. Based on an interdisciplinary approach, the course delves into the rich scholarship of visuality across the social sciences, introducing that work both theoretically and practically in three main ways. First, the course engages with critical interdisciplinary perspectives on the role of visual media within contexts of violence through theoretical literature and audio-visual material. Second, it explores practical skills in visual research methodologies. As such, in this section of the course, students develop a short filmmaking project of their own. Workshop-format sessions are offered to develop the skills necessary to achieve this. Thematically, the course explores how filmmaking can illuminate questions concerning violence, humanitarianism, conflict, and migration in ways that connect local (i.e., Copenhagen) and global contexts. In addition, guest lectures inspire and connect students to experts in the field. Finally, the course reflects on broader questions, debates, and dilemmas that concern the use of filmmaking for social impact, activism, and/or political intervention. This ranges from the critical examination of storytelling techniques, ethical considerations, and the influence of the filmmakers situated gaze (i.e., positionality) on crafting visual narratives. The course engages these issues by collaboratively reflecting on the filmmaking project that each student develops in the preceding section of the course. Overall, this course provides a nuanced understanding of the transformative potential of filmmaking, alongside tools to navigate the many ethical challenges intrinsic to visual research.