While subsequent academic and political thinking has come a long way, the standard line of thought is still that there needs to be a balance between economy, society, and ecology with economic growth coming before the others. This course takes another approach and looks towards different perspective on what a sustainable society is or how to get there.

We will look at several theories that provide a strong analysis of the fundamental flaws of our current system and that offer a radical different approach to create more sustainable societies. This ranges from new perspectives on the economy to the position of non-human actors in politics and law. The course will follow a lecture/seminar format. As the last 50 years have not taken us closer to the ambition of the Brundlandt report, but ever deeper towards a climate crisis, it is time to rethink our approach and consider systemic changes

Coordinator

Dr. Mendel Giezen

Timetable

You can find the timetable on Datanose.

Entry requirements

Open to second-year and third-year UvA Bachelor's students and other interested parties, such as contract students or students from other Dutch higher education institutions. Master's students can only participate if there are still spots available.

Registration

UvA Bachelor's students can register from 10 to 16 June 2025 in the GLASS registration rounds. Master’s students can send a short motivation to keuzeonderwijs-iis@uva.nl.

‘Bijvak’ students and contract students can register from 10 June 2025 until two weeks prior to the start of the course, by completing the online registration form.

If you have any trouble while registering, please contact us at keuzeonderwijs-iis@uva.nl.

Please note: as a contract student you can choose to participate either including or excluding assessment. If you choose the latter, you only have access to the seven lectures of the course. If you also wish to attend the seminars, please choose 'including assessment'.

Costs

Prices can be found on the IIS website.

SDGs in education

The IIS strives to reflect current societal issues and challenges in our elective courses, honours modules and degree programmes, and attempts to integrate the following Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in this course. For more information about these goals, please visit the SDGs website