Environmental Studies and Sustainability Science: Economy and Sustainability

In this course, you develop competencies in critically assessing the implications of different economic paradigms for transformative change and weighing the trade-offs for each. During the course, students will:

• Critically review and problematise the economics of growth, including the tensions between economic growth and environmental protection, and the policies and economic tools that address and potentially reconcile these tensions. Based on this understanding, the course then introduces different paradigmatic and critical perspectives in economics;
• recognise and evaluate different approaches that aim to decouple economic growth from environmental degradation, ecological footprints and carbon emissions and problematise different claims of decoupling in relation to welfare, equity and environmental degradation;
• critically address the claims of alternative ideas for transforming the economic system(s) and practices, including ways to reconcile different societal needs with environment (for example post-growth, de-growth, responsible consumption and production).

The course applies a range of practical, qualitative, and quantitative research methods in both fieldwork and deskwork, including, but not limited to, observation, questionnaire interviews, cost-benefit analysis, and life-cycle analysis.

Course literature

The course literature listed may be updated up to eight weeks before the course begins.

Prerequisites

To be admitted to the course, the student must have fulfilled course requirements of at least 30 higher education credits in the programme. A good command of spoken and written English, equivalent to English 6/B (advanced) proficiency in the Swedish secondary system, is required. Equivalent assessments will be made according to national guidelines.

Selection criteria

Admission guaranteed

Tuition fees for non-EU/EEA citizens

Citizens of countries outside:

• The European Union (EU)
• The European Economic Area (EEA) and
• Switzerland

are required to pay tuition fees. You pay an instalment of the tuition fee in advance of each
semester.

Tuition fees, payments and exemptions

Full programme/course tuition fee: SEK 16,875
First payment: SEK 16,875

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Note that you may also need to pay an application fee, or provide proof of exemption.

Application fee

No tuition fees for citizens of the EU, EEA and Switzerland

There are no tuition fees for citizens of the European Union (EU), the European Economic Area (EEA) and Switzerland.