Course Description
The emergence of environmental issues in contemporary international relations, especially since the 1970s, has challenged students of International Relations to develop adequate theoretical explanations for the changing global political order. A key question to be explored in this class is: What is meant by environmental change as a phenomenon of power relations shaped by international relations? This course invites participants to recognize various perspectives to explain the phenomenon of local environmental change by considering the broader political context. Power struggles take place not only over control over the environment as a material object but also as a discursive object whose existence has been a source of contestation by various political actors from the beginning. Participants will also be invited to explore various forms of emancipatory politics involving state and non-state actors.
Expected Learning Outcome
- Students understand what is meant by environmental change as an object of power contestation in global politics and demonstrate its manifestations in everyday life.
- Students can explain the theoretical assumptions put forward by market-oriented, institutionalist, structuralist, and discursive perspectives in the context of explaining the phenomenon of the politicization of environmental issues.
3. Students capable of elaborating the theoretical perspectives they have learned in the form of operational analytical tools.
Syllabus
Read the full syllabus here.
