ENP-33306 Environment and Development

Vak

Studiepunten 6.00

Language of instruction:

English

Assumed knowledge on:

ENP-10806, or other policy courses of other MSc (IDS, LTE, FNC and UEM)

Contents:

The course studies the relation between environment and development in developing countries with an eye to societal problems, such as poverty, migration, and a weak institutional and political structure. The students will learn to identify possible policies and strategies for environmental improvement through the review of case-studies from different countries and sectors. Particular attention will be paid to the situation in low-income rural and peri-urban regions. The causes of environmental problems are analyzed on the local, national and international level. The current course consists of lectures and guest-lectures. It will touch on such issues as the depletion of natural resources; democracy and good environmental governance; globalization and the international dimension of environmental problems; and the "greening" of developmental debates. The course will be given in English and caters for regular and MSc students from the environmental studies.

Aims:

The course aims to enable students:
- to understand the nature and socio-economic causes of the main environmental problems in developing nations;
- to become acquainted with the various concepts and theories on environment and development;
- to distinguish critically between concepts and theories of development and environment, versus their practical applicability.
Moreover, this course is meant as a preparatory course for writing an M.Sc. thesis. For this reason, after following this course students should:
- have a better overview of theories and themes related to environmental policy and development enabling them to focus on possible thesis topics;
- be able to locate the relevant literature on environment and development; - be able to evaluate critically the quality of literature sources;
- develop the skills to write as a team a well-argued and logical paper conforming to current academic standards.

Activities:

Lectures, discussion, writing paper.

Examination:

Written exam and paper.

Literature:

Literature will be provided.