Geographies of transformation: mitigating and adapting to rapid climate change

Objectives:  

The course presents the state of the art in critical research on challenges and possible solutions for climate mitigation and adaptation. The course presents alternative theoretical and methodological approaches within the field of environmental geography for assessing pathways for decarbonization, reversing ecological degradation, and social fragmentation alongside the role of scale in transformations of societies and landscapes engendered by anthropogenic climate change.  

Content:  

Climate mitigation and adaptation are urgent areas of inquiry as social movements and policy makers seek to address rapid climate change. The field of geography is well situated to inform debates about the relationships between human and natural systems and has been on the forefront of climate research. This course will present approaches and methods within environmental geography to climate mitigation and adaptation and conflicting narratives about the best way forward. Key themes include emissions accounting practices, trade-offs in resource management, land grabbing/ green grabbing practices, land use and landscape changes, Nature v. ecology, risk management, energy transformations, connection to place and the role of local people and groups. Adaptation is analyzed from the preconditions of adaptation, decision making processes and institutions, and to adaptation outcomes. Within the scholarship on climate adaptation, overlapping frameworks can be identified; we will draw from contemporary critical theories to evaluate them. The course will also provide an overview of relevant qualitative methods and quantitative approaches applied to climate actions and discuss their potentials and limitations. The course will give opportunities for students to compare and discuss contemporary debates to develop skills in critical thought as well as better understand the challenges climate change poses, the role of uncertainty in adaptation policies and alternative possible futures, such as post-development and decolonial post-growth. Lectures will address global issues through situated cases and their relations to other places across the global north and south with a particular focus on current climate adaptation efforts and debates in Norway.

On completion of the course the student should have the following learning outcomes defined in terms of knowledge, skills and general competence: 

Knowledge  

The student 

• can provide a basic overview of some central geographical approaches to climate adaptation at scales ranging from individual to local to global. 
• can outline and discuss contested pathways to decarbonization, reversing ecological depletions and social fragmentation as forms of just climate adaptation  
• can outline and discuss a multiplicity of pathways for alternative futures
• can discuss contemporary debates about adaptation using concepts in the literature and examples from specific cases 
• can elaborate on the role of research and uncertainty in climate adaptation policy 

Skills  

The student 

• is able to use relevant theory in the analysis of empirical cases.
• can select and critically assess methodological choices for empirical work
• can communicate complex thoughts through academic discourse
• can synthesize and evaluate various readings in group discussions.

General competence 

The student 

• has acquired theoretical knowledge and insight into contemporary debates about climate adaptation, and can apply place, space and scale as concepts to analyze challenges and alternative responses to climate change.