Entry requirements

40 points.

Aims

This interdisciplinary course with a global perspcetive, aims to:

- from a broad range of disciplines offer a theoretical understanding of civil society and popular movements and their role in society, particularly concerning environment and development issues

- with guidance from current literature, debate, guest lecturers and own projects/study visits give the students a good overview of the role of civil society in current and controversial issues, in Sweden as well as globally.

- offer practical experience of work at non-governmental organisations/popular movements and use those experiences for a common reflection and comparative analysis of different organisations.

- build a valuable source of knowledge and contact base at Cemus (and Uppsala University at large) from the collection of experiences and analysis by the course participants

Content

Problems of environment and development. Popular movements and the civil society: basic concepts. The civil society in a historical perspective. Civil society today: current examples. Theories from different disciplines about the role of civil society. How are popular movements and non-governmental organisations working; organisational structure, working methods, organisational culture. Study visits, guest lectures and individual analyses of NGOs.

Instruction

Lectures, seminars, group work, exercises, individual assignments and study visits. Problem based learning is partly used. The guest lecturers are invited from relevant academic subjects and from civil society.

Assessment

Grades are pass or fail. Written assignment. All exercises must be fulfiled and passed.