Utrecht University

This course examines the triangle of politics, public policy, and implementation. It looks at the issues of making policy work in practice; the academic perspective on everyday government practice; the promises and pitfalls of policy implementation; professional relationships; autonomous agencies; public management; and policy implementation theory.

This course examines different ideas as to why some countries have flourished and others have failed to do so. Why are few countries rich and many poor? How can we explain big differences in wealth even within countries? If the turbulent development of countries like China and India is any measure to go by, we are likely to see major changes in the future. To understand how such economic transformations work, and what their effects might be, this course looks to the historical record. Why did the Industrial Revolution take place in England and not in China? Why could other western countries easily catch up with England, while large parts of Asia, Africa, and South-America remained underdeveloped? Many theories and concepts have been developed to help answer these questions, ranging from the role of climate, culture, or population, to the institutional approach that is currently fashionable. In this introductory course students discuss an overview of these theories and concepts, and analyze the social, economic, and political development of societies in different parts of the world from the Middle Ages to the present.

This course reviews the interdisciplinary view on happiness which includes different theoretical perspectives (e.g., on micro-, meso- or macro-level factors) as well as different methodological approaches to understanding well-being of individuals and societies. Broad views on complex societal issues are adopted and how to evaluate scientific evidence from various domains is learned. This interdisciplinary course, with contributions from psychology, public administration, and interdisciplinary social science, focuses on happiness in its broadest sense. Key questions are: What factors influence individuals' subjective well-being, why are some societies happier than others (and why are some individuals within these societies affected more by these factors than others?) What can we do to foster happiness in our future generations? There are four specific themes of interest: health, education, finance, and sustainability.

This course offers a broad overview on the fossil record of plants with special emphasis on evolution and biodiversity changes since the Palaeozoic. In this course basic principles of plant evolution from the Palaeozoic to present-day are discussed. The major steps of terrestrialization are placed into a comprehensive overview on feedbacks between large-scale geosphere processes such as plate tectonics, atmosphere-biosphere interactions, and the global carbon cycle through time. The second goal is to critically reflect on natural dynamics of biodiversity versus modern biodiversity loss, the human induced “mass-extinction” of the 21st century. The course includes assignments such as rock and fossil labs, computer aided labs, and a one day practical held in the botanical garden.