Environmental Studies

This course provides international students with an overview of Danish architecture and urban planning over the last 100 years with an emphasis on the human perspective of architecture. Examples of architecture with a Nordic approach to the planning and design of the physical environment are demonstrated. The course discusses the key elements of culture, climate, and scale in relations to the way the profession and the Nordic welfare states have been dealing with the international trends and styles as they have been translated into the local settings. Field trips to explore examples of the architecture and planning are important elements of this lecture based course.

This is an laurea magistrale course and is intended for advanced level students only. Enrollment is by consent of the instructor. The course introduces students to the emerging field of urban studies in connection to climate change issues. The principle topics covered include the relationship between two global driving forces: urbanization and climate change; different theoretical and methodological tools used to understand, manage, and deal with the transformation of cities facing climate; and different approaches that promote more sustainable and resilient forms of urbanization and urban life. Climate change and unprecedented planetary urbanization remain two of the most urgent issues of our time, reshaping societies. Climate change has worldwide implications - from the exacerbation of urban inequalities, to the loss of environmental, social and economic security. In this regard, sustainable urbanization has moved more and more to the forefront of policy agendas and research. The course uses several theoretical approaches and empirical studies, and focuses on the forms and impact of urbanization processes; how climate change impacts different social groups in our urban systems; and post-carbon cities: adaptation and mitigation strategies being currently implemented.

In this course, students discuss current topics related to global environmental change. Topics include nature of contemporary/ongoing global warming; recent climate variability: models and reconstructions; discerning natural versus anthropogenic changes; future sea level rise; stability of ice sheets; atmospheric changes, rainfall, and extreme weather; future climate change predictions; and dangerous climate change & 2 degree warming.
 

This course explores the relationship between ecology and cultural processes. It examines various current ecological issues, from an anthropological perspective. This course also discusses means of subsistence, sustainable development, land management, and conservation.

What can individual citizens contribute to making cities greener and more ecological? Will a concept of a climate‐friendly and healthy city grow over this ‐ in the truest sense of the word? And how specifically can urban and private areas be gardened? What are private and municipal strategies for dealing with urban gardens and their implementation? What are the costs to cities of private urban gardening? Which horticultural and which structural engineering aspects have to be considered? Which psychological and healthy effects does a green city have on its inhabitants? What kind of biodiversity exists in green cities? These questions form the thematic framework of this course. The questions are dealt with and answered within an interdisciplinary framework.

This is an advanced course that is part of the Laurea Magistrale program. The course is intended for advanced level students only. Enrollment is by consent of the instructor. There are three versions of this course; this course, “GEOGRAPHIES OF GLOBAL CHALLENGES,” UCEAP Course Number 177A and Bologna course number 81952, is associated with the LM in History and Oriental Studies degree programme. One of the other versions, “GEOGRAPHY OF GLOBAL CHALLENGES,” UCEAP Course Number 177B and Bologna course number 95931, is associated with the LM in Local and Global Development degree programme. The final version “GEOGRAPHY OF DEVELOPMENT,” UCEAP Course Number 176 and Bologna course number 19695, is associated with the LM in Local and Global Development degree programme.
Climate change offers the opportunity for a multidisciplinary analysis. The course discusses various aspects of the topic through a primarily geographical approach. The course is structured into three parts. Part one introduces climate change as a global phenomenon, with its natural and anthropogenic root causes. Students discuss and reflect on the socio-spatial inequalities inherent in the climate crisis. Part two analyzes climate governance, the Kyoto Protocol, and the Post Kyoto adaptation and mitigation strategies. In addition to the policy-making process, the course critically examines theoretical frameworks of adaptation, notions of climate justice, and intersectional approaches to addressing the climate crisis and its colonial roots. Part three concerns climate change and mobility. The course examines the complex interconnections between climate change and (im)mobility. Empirical examples are drawn from the #ClimateOfChange [https://climateofchange.info/publications-press/] interdisciplinary research project to contextualize the climate crisis as it is manifested, resisted, and understood from diverse locations across the globe. At the end of the course students show understanding of some of the global challenges the population of the planet has been facing since the second half of the twentieth century. Among these, the critical relation with the natural resources and with the concept of development and, above all, climate change, with its connections to territorial development, ecological risk, food security, and the consumption of natural resources. At the end of the course, the students have acquired the theoretical and empirical tools to critically analyze the global strategies of climate resilience and cooperation and the relation between climate change and tourism.

This course covers the history of international environmental politics and examines various approaches, actors, and aspects of environmental politics. While in-class discussions focus on climate change, students work in groups to apply the concepts and approaches discussed in class to specific environmental problems, such as biodiversity loss, marine plastic pollution, or deforestation and desertification. This course is a partnership with the University of the West Indies (UWI), St. Augustine Campus. All students have access to material from Sciences Po and UWI. Additionally, some students complete their coursework with peers from UWI.