Forest & Landscape | |||||||||||||||||
Earliest Possible Year | MSc. 1 year to MSc. 2 year | ||||||||||||||||
Duration | One block | ||||||||||||||||
Credits | 7.5 (ECTS) | ||||||||||||||||
Course Level | MSc | ||||||||||||||||
Examination | Final Examination oral examination All aids allowed Description of Examination: 30 minutes preparation followed by 30 minutes oral examination, including assessment. 7-point scale, internal examiner | ||||||||||||||||
Requirement For Attending Exam | A written assignment has been submitted and passed previous to exams | ||||||||||||||||
Organisation of Teaching | Combined lectures, theoretical exercises, project work, supervision, and one or more excursions. | ||||||||||||||||
Block Placement | Block 3 Week Structure: C It is possible for the students to extend from 7,5 to 10 ECTS on a voluntary basis, e.g. internship or literature study/report as Dept. of Political Science and Faculty of Law operate with 10 ECT. | ||||||||||||||||
Teaching Language | English | ||||||||||||||||
Restrictions | None | ||||||||||||||||
Course Contents | |||||||||||||||||
GEG is an interdisciplinary, project oriented course organised in close cooperation between the involved departments around an environmental theme, which may change from year to year. The course concludes with an oral examination. The course consists of three main components: (1) An introduction to the general field of "global environmental governance" (2) An examination of a common environmental theme (3) Writing of a project assignment relating to the common theme. Re 1. General introduction The course will introduce the students to key concepts and issues of relevance for global environmental governance as seen from various professional perspectives (political science, geography, law and life science). Moreover, the course will introduce the most important of those governmental and non-governmental international institutions that regulate the interaction between society and environment. The students will obtain a basic understanding of how these international institutions interact with institutions at regional and national levels. It is intended to provide insights in the global and international character of environmental problems, and in those mechanisms of governance and regulation that have special significance for the solution of environmental problems. The aim of the introduction is to create a common framework for the subsequent work with a common theme. Re. 2. Examination of a common environmental theme The second part of the course will contain an examination of a common environmental theme in the light of global environmental governance, again drawing on the various professional approaches, research traditions, analytical frameworks, etc. In 2010-2011, the chosen theme is the new requirements imposed by the climate changes on international regulation of the environment, and global issues arising from the CDM debate, Rio/Kyoto, and the climate conference in Copenhagen. The chosen themes may be consistent from year to year, but may also change depending on relevance, available teaching staff and course funds. Examples of other possible environmental themes are: biodiversity, water, and forest. Focus is on the global and international levels of governance, but with a view to how these levels interact with the regional and local levels. Re 3. Project reports During the third part of the course, groups of students with various professional backgrounds will define a problem of relevance for the common theme. Based on this, they will prepare a written assignment. They will be encouraged to continue working in interdisciplinary teams in preparing the assignment. The course will include one or more excursions. This could be, for instance, a visit to the office of a relevant international organisation with an office in Denmark or another European country. The excursions will depend, among other things, on the extent to which it will be possible to raise funds. | |||||||||||||||||
Teaching And Learning Methods | |||||||||||||||||
Lectures will be based on dialogue between teachers and students. To the extent possible, the lectures and excursions will be organised in cooperation between two or more teachers from different faculties. The course will include project guidance, theoretical exercises and excursions. | |||||||||||||||||
Learning Outcome | |||||||||||||||||
Background: The proposed course is part of the cross-faculty Global Environmental Governance education programme, which is planned to take off in 2009. The programme is being developed in collaboration between five departments from four different faculties with financial support from "Temaklynge 1". The five departments are: Forest & Landscape Denmark (LIFE), Institute of Food and Resource Economics (LIFE), Department of Political Science (Faculty of Social Science), Faculty of Law, Department of Geography and Geology (Faculty of Science). The programme and the course has been discussed at a Science Study Board meeting October 24 2008. A concept note describing the programme is available upon request. Due to the cross-faculty nature of the course, which implies some logistic complications, the present course description is still tentative. For instance, with regard to "Fordeling" it is not possible to include Departments from other faculties in this format, "kursusomfang" and the form of exam is still subject to change, as it has to become "streamlined," etc. Objective: The objective of the course is to equip the students with interdisciplinary skills, which will assist them in dealing with global environmental governance in an international and/or national context. They will be enabled, moreover, to obtain knowledge about scientific issues of relevance to global environmental problems, and gain understanding of some of the international processes, which bring this knowledge into play. Knowledge -Has knowledge about the most relevant international organisations, how they work, and how they interact in relation to the task of governing the society-nature relationship. -Has a basic understanding of political and institutional issues in the relationship between global, national and local levels of environmental governance -Has a basic understanding of natural science aspects of the global environmental problems and their eventual solutions, main focus is on the green environment. Skills -Is able to understand and link knowledge and insights from own professional background with corresponding knowledge and insights from other professions including political science, law, life science, and natural sciences -Is able to critically evaluate information related to social and physical aspects of global environmental problems and their eventual solutions. -Is able to work in multidisciplinary manner teams when addressing global environmental problems Competences -Can take technical, natural science and social science aspects into consideration when working with global environmental issues and problems, consequences and solutions. -Can bring natural science based knowledge about environmental problems into play in an international political, legal and administrative context. | |||||||||||||||||
Course Coordinator | |||||||||||||||||
Iben Nathan, in@life.ku.dk, Forest & Landscape Denmark/Unit of Forestry, Phone: 35331736 Helle Tegner Anker, hta@life.ku.dk, Institute of Food and Resource Economics/Consumption, Health and Ethics Division, Phone: 35332321 | |||||||||||||||||
Study Board | |||||||||||||||||
Study Committee NSN | |||||||||||||||||
Course Scope | |||||||||||||||||
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