Geografiske tilnærmingar til klimatilpassing og -forebygging

Objective and content

This course examines the social, spatial, and political dimensions of climate change, focusing on mitigation and adaptation across different sectors and scales. Students will develop a critical understanding of the social drivers and consequences of climate change, engage in discussions about uneven spatial power relations, learn theories of transformation, examine the role of technology and innovation, and explore various pathways to alternative futures.

Students will learn to apply human geography theories and concepts to real-world cases, analyze policy and discourse framing, and identify opportunities and barriers for rapid, just, and deep transformation.

Lectures will address the relationship between local and global issues as well as north-south relations, including current debates in Norway.

Knowledge

The student

• can explain the concepts of climate change mitigation and adaptation across different sectors (e.g. mobility, construction, food, energy, nature) and scales (e.g. individual, local, global)
• can identify different social and economic drivers of climate change, including globalization, culture, capitalism, and different features of modernity
• can outline different social implications and consequences of climate change
• can illustrate the uneven geographies of greenhouse gas emissions and critically assess the implications of spatial power relations and historical inequalities
• can explain different theories of transformation and identify opportunities and barriers to achieving a rapid, just and deep transformation
• can explain the concept of ecological modernization and discuss the role of technology and innovation in addressing climate change
• can outline and discuss different pathways for alternative futures, e.g. green growth and degrowth

Skills

The student

• can analyze the role that discourses, beliefs and worldviews play in framing climate problems and solutions
• can critically assess mitigation and adaptation policy with attention to geographical context
• can apply human geography theories to the analysis of empirical cases

General competence

The student

• has acquired theoretical knowledge and insight into contemporary debates about climate mitigation and adaptation
• can use concepts of place, space and scale to analyze how climate change and responses to it generate different challenges and opportunities in different contexts
• can demonstrate how social sciences can contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of climate change