After completion of this course students are able to:
- Analyse practices aimed at promoting sustainable development as societal transformation processes;
- Frame specific governance practices in terms of (i) the problem(s) they are aiming to resolve, (ii) the stakeholders involved, and (iii) the causal assumptions they are based on;
- Frame governance practice in terms of the governance modes framework (e.g. key actors, institutional aspects and content elements);
- Conduct a review of the scientific literature on a particular governance practice aimed at sustainable development
- Identify the most important theoretical and analytical approaches applied in studying these practices;
- Link such reviews to the existing theories of governance for sustainable development (covered in Foundations of Earth System Governance Research(GEO4-2306);and Governance Theories (GEO4-2332);
- Develop a model for scientific analysis of practices in three alternative modes of research: as descriptive/reflective; as normative prescriptive and as empirical explanatory/analytical theory testing.
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The central objective of this course is to train students in applying skills to analyse governance practices (e.g. public and private policies, projects, programs, initiatives, etc.) aimed at promoting sustainable development in the following fields:
- Water
- Climate and energy
- Biodiversity
- Sustainable Production and Consumption
- Urban Development.
To that purpose they will apply some of the theoretical and methodological skills, gained in classes preceding this course.
In small groups, students will work on a problem description that regards a specific policy application field.
Using (various) theoretical perspectives students will work towards the formulation of an explanatory model to be used in research or ‘policy advice’ aimed at the putting in motion of societal transformation processes towards more sustainable outcomes.
Building blocks are the following:
- in a small group, students choose a specific example of a governance practice
- they conduct a review of the available scientific literature on this application field
- they make a proper description of the governance practice, based on literature and some interviews;
- they compare the framing and the evidence found in scientific literature with what is done by governing actors in practice
- and they finally translate this either into an overview of research implications or an evidence-based policy advice.
After a series of introductory lectures, students will choose one of these four issue fields. They will work in small groups (3-4) following a set of clear steps, presenting it to each other and working towards a group paper.
Academic skills: Critical analysis of academic research; constructing explanatory models; academic presentation
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