The ocean and planetary health justice
THIS COURSE HAS BEEN CANCELLED
In this course, we will examine on the health and livelihood challenges facing coastal communities and equip PhD candidates with the practical skills to undertake analyses in planetary health.
Planetary health is an emerging field that highlights the dependence of human health and wellbeing on Earth’s natural systems, including the stability of the climate and marine ecosystems. Conceptualising health in this way – within rather than apart from nature – has far reaching implications for ethics, policy and public health which will underpin discussions, groupwork and analyses throughout the course.
Norway’s long relationship with the ocean provides an ideal entry point to explore planetary health in practice. Fish farming, for example, has serious implications for nutritional intake and food security in West Africa, highlighting the complex causal chains which connect ocean ecosystem with the health of human, animals and the natural environment.
We will use local and global case studies, combining theoretical perspectives with lived experiences, to explore how changes in industry, livelihoods and the environment shape the health and wellbeing of people across generations. Particular attention will be given to studying the local decline of small-scale fishing around Bergen and its social, cultural, and intergenerational health impacts, through field trips to coastal communities.
Learning outcomes
Learning outcomes for the course will follow the Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH) recommended planetary health learning objectives:
- Values: describe the history, values, and functions of global health
- Globalisation: explain how travel, trade, and other aspects of globalisation contribute to health, disease, and health disparities
- Socioeconomics: summarise the economic, social, cultural, and political contributors to individual and population health
- Environment: examine the connections between human health and environmental health, including considerations of water, sanitation, air quality, urbanisation, ecosystem health, and climate change
- Ethics: discuss the relationship between human rights and global health
- Health-care systems: compare the financing and delivery of medical care in countries with different types of health systems and different income levels
- Governance: examine the roles, responsibilities, and relationships of the agencies and organisations involved in prioritising, financing, and implementing public health interventions locally and internationally
- Epidemiology: compare the burden of disease, disability, and death from infectious diseases, reproductive health issues, malnutrition, non-communicable diseases, mental health disorders, and injuries in countries with different income levels
- Interventions: identify evidence-based, cost-effective, sustainable interventions for promoting health and preventing illness across the lifespan from the prenatal period through older adulthood
- Evaluation: evaluate policies that seek to solve major population health concerns and achieve health equity
In line with the BSRS 2026 theme of Ocean Expectations, the course will engage with interdisciplinary dialogues across health sciences, the humanities and social sciences and marine studies.
Participants will emerge better equipped to situate their research and understanding within a broader planetary health framework, helping to advance innovative, interdisciplinary scholarship on health, wellbeing and the oceans.
Literature list
TBA
Credits
Participation at the BSRS is credited under the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS). Participants submitting an essay, in a form of a publishable manuscript of 10-20 pages, after the end of the summer school will receive 10 ECTS. Deadline for submission will be decided by your course leader.
It is also possible to participate without producing an essay. This will give you 5 ECTS. In order to receive credits, we expect full participation in the course-specific modules, plenary events and roundtables.
Course leaders
Anand Bhopal
Postdoctoral Fellow
University of Bergen
Anand Bhopal is a medical doctor and Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Bergen Centre for Ethics and Priority Setting in Health (BCEPS). He holds a Masters degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics of Health from University College London and a PhD from the University of Bergen.
His work combines ethical, health policy and empirical approaches to examine the intersection of priority setting, climate change and healthcare decarbonisation. He is a Commissioner on the Lancet Commission on Sustainable Healthcare and in the secreriat of the Lancet Regional Health Europe Commission on climate change, migration, displacement and health.
Simon Øverland
Professor, Director Centre for International Health
University of Bergen
Professor Øverland is a psychologist, public health expert and leader with wide experience from research and use of knowledge in policy and practice. his main interests are in population health and global disease burden, mental health and social determinants of health as well as occupational and environmental health.