Growing ecological problems such as climate change, air pollution, the degradation of soil or the acidification of the oceans call for prompt and effective political solutions and environmental regulations. However, many green policies are accompanied by or even cause new social problems. For example, energy poverty can occur if measures of climate protection raise energy costs for private households. While on the one side green policies are not necessarily social, social policies are, on the other side, often not ecologically sustainable. Particularly the comparatively generous Western welfare states have large ecological footprints and cannot be adapted by the rest of the planet if environmental concerns are considered. As a consequence, research has begun to search for possibilities to decarbonize the welfare state and reduce its material and energy consumption. More and more welfare and prosperity concepts are emerging which take into account ecological and social issues equally and share the hypothesis that much of what is required for welfare and human flourishing is non-material once a decent material standard of living is attained, and that this is achievable at much lower than current levels of environmental damages.
The seminar deals with the interplay of these normally unconnected policy fields of environmental and social policies. The following topics will be addressed:
• Basic concepts and theories of social policy
• Scientific assessment of global environmental problems and ecological concepts (ecological footprint, biodiversity etc.)
• Growth critique, social and economic factors of ecological problems
• Basic concepts and theories of environmental sociology
• Comparative welfare research: which types of welfare states are sustainable?
• Alternative models of society-nature relationships: degrowth, steady-state economics, post-growth society, sustainability and sufficiency etc.
• Examples of eco-social policies: reduction of working hours, unconditional basic income, minimum and maximum wages etc.
Details about literature and schedule will be announced during the first class and published online in the respective section of the Lernraum in eKVV.
Rhythmus | Tag | Uhrzeit | Format / Ort | Zeitraum |
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Modul | Veranstaltung | Leistungen | |
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30-M24 Fachmodul Arbeit, Wirtschaft, Sozialpolitik I | Seminar 1 | Studienleistung
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Studieninformation |
Seminar 2 oder Vorlesung mit Übungsanteil | Studienleistung
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Studieninformation | |
- | benotete Prüfungsleistung | Studieninformation |
Die verbindlichen Modulbeschreibungen enthalten weitere Informationen, auch zu den "Leistungen" und ihren Anforderungen. Sind mehrere "Leistungsformen" möglich, entscheiden die jeweiligen Lehrenden darüber.
Requirement for participation (“Studienleistung”; 4 Credit Points):
Participants are expected to read one article/ book chapter or a similar amount of literature for each session. Moreover, participants are expected to complete three tasks during the term in order to encourage a deeper reflection and examination of the topics of the course. These can be protocols of classes, excerpts of articles, short presentations etc.
Requirement for examination (“Prüfungsleistung”; 6 Credit Points):
Written paper (“Hausarbeit”) of about 4000-6000 words. No other kind of examination is available.
ERASMUS students:
ERASMUS students can earn the same Credit Points as German students. If a different number of Credit Points is needed, please contact the examinations office or the faculty member which is in charge of academic exchanges with your country.
Zu dieser Veranstaltung existiert ein Lernraum im E-Learning System. Lehrende können dort Materialien zu dieser Lehrveranstaltung bereitstellen: