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85271 Environment and Society
Danish title: Miljø og samfund
Language: Danish Credit points: 5
Type: Open University
Language: Danish

Previous course: C8535
No credit points with: C8535
Prerequisite: AMS-kursus i fagpakke
Recommended semester: 4th -7th semester
Scope and form: 3 weeks (8 hours daily).
Examination: Evaluation of report (13-scale)
Participant limitation: max. 60

Contact person: Inge Røpke, Building 303, Tel. +45 4525 6009, email ir@its.dtu.dk, http://www.its.dtu.dk/ansat/ir/ir_e.htm
Lauge Baungaard Rasmussen, Building 303, Tel. +45 4525 6025, email lbr@its.dtu.dk, http://www.its.dtu.dk/ansat/lbr/lbr_e.htm

URL: http://www.its.dtu.dk/under/beskr/85271_d.htm
Department: Department of Technology and Social Sciences
Aim: To improve the ability of the students to analyse environmental problems in a social context and to discuss different technological solutions from the perspective of political and economic considerations. Furthermore, to motivate the students to consider fundamental questions concerning the view of nature and the relationship between this view and the technological practice of society.
Contents: The starting point of the course is the Danish environmental regulation. Some factual information on the history as well as the present features of environmental regulation is provided, however, the main emphasis of the course is to strengthen the understanding of the social and cultural background of environmental problems, thus providing a qualified basis for discussing possible policy measures. Environmental questions are elucidated from several different perspectives, based on social sciences and the humanities:
- Political science: how are environmental policies shaped, and which problems of implementation do they encounter?
- Economics: how is the background of environmental problems conceived in mainstream economic theory, and which policy measures are suggested? Which critical perspectives can be applied in relation to mainstream economics?
- Social psychology: how has the consciousness relating to environmental problems changed, and what are the possibilities of action as well as the barriers on the subjective level?
- Philosophical: how has the view of nature changed historically, what are the possibilities of changing the presently dominating view of nature, and what are the relations between this view and technological change?
The presentation of different scientific perspectives opens up the possibility of mutual critical assessment, and it is stressed that simple solutions are not available. The more specific topics of the course are varied from time to time.