Environmental Problems within Social Science: From Tragedy of the Commons to Planetary Boundaries

The course begins by covering explanatory perspectives on environmental problems in the social sciences. It discusses collective action problems as well as how population, technological development and material proseperity relate to environmental problems. The second part of hte course analyzes the arenas and actors of environmental policy, that is, how environmental policy works in practice. Here we cover topics such as the connection between governance and environmental protection, the implementation of environmental policy in public administration, and environmental policy opinion. The third and final part covers green political theory and thus focuses on what may and should be done with regard to the environment. Here we discuss the environment using normative concepts such as value and justice. Examples of questions posed in this part of the course is how environmental consequences can and should be incorporated into cost-benefit calculations and what the relationship between human rights and the environment looks like.