General provisions

The course is funded, and will accept also students, via the ENLIGHT programme at Uppsala University.

Entry requirements

A Bachelor's degree, equivalent to a Swedish Kandidatexamen. Proficiency in English equivalent to the Swedish upper secondary course English 6.

Learning outcomes

Upon completing the course, the student should have:

Knowledge and understanding

• of important theoretical concepts from the fields of justice, urban studies, and sustainable development, that are relevant to the analysis of societal challenges caused by the intersection of climate change, sustainable development, growing inequality, increasing migration, and urbanization;
• of the most important challenges in meeting the goals of sustainable and economic development and increasing social equality in urban areas;
• of basic social science methodology for research in urban areas and practices of co-production of knowledge with local stakeholders;

Competence and skills

• apply basic social research methods and produce knowledge together with local actors in urban areas;
• identify societal problems, conflicts and challenges related to green transition, social and nature justice, human security, and growing migration and urbanization;
• select relevant theoretical concepts to analyze societal challenges, injustices, and unsustainable practices;

Judgment and approach

• analyze complex societal issues and challenges of just sustainable cities from diverse and sometimes contradicting analytical and stakeholders' perspectives;
• compare regulations, practices and solutions from different parts of the world;
• make informed suggestions about solutions or improvements of existing practices, injustices, or challenges to just sustainable cities in postsocialist Eurasia;

Content

This course introduces students to theoretical and methodological tools from the research fields of justice, urban studies, and sustainable development, in order to teach synergetic approaches to the study of just sustainable cities. Students learn how to identify and analyze contemporary societal challenges caused by the intersection of climate change, sustainable development, growing inequality, increasing migration and urbanization. During the course students employ these tools to discuss in class and in smaller groups specific empirical examples relevant to post-socialist Eurasia. During a practical research assignment students train how to work and produce knowledge together with local stakeholders in order to design solutions to real-life challenges.

Some of the questions that students should be able to address after taking the course are: Through what processes is the sustainable city created; who benefits from it and what categories are vulnerable in the process of green transition; how may sustainable cities create secure spaces for different categories of human and non-human residents in a rapidly changing climate; what is the role of information and information technologies in city space production; who has the right to produce, and access and distribute information; how do humans, non-human subjects and ideas move in the city; how is the environment in the city conceptualized, treated, and valued.

Instruction

The course comprises of lectures, seminars, and practical assignments.

Assessment

The course is assessed by active participation in seminars, oral and written assignments.

If there are special reasons for doing so, an examiner may make an exception from the method of assessment indicated and allow a student to be assessed by another method. An example of special reasons might be a certificate regarding special pedagogical support from the University´s disability coordinator or a decision by the department's working group for study matters.

Other regulations

This course partly overlaps the course 2EU018 Perspectives on Justice in Post-Soviet Eurasia: Ethnocultural Pluralism, Gender, and Environmental Governance 15.0 credits.