Aims

This course will aim at an inter-disciplinary and integrated approach to questions being asked at the intersection of environment, development and population issues. It will put into synthesised perspective the contribution of the main disciplines in social and human sciences with a view to situating the global frameworks and the constraints of population-development-environment interactions.

Main themes

After an introduction to basic elements such as vocabulary and concepts, the course will address certain major themes including:
* culture, ways of knowing, and the environment;
* demography and the environment;
* the principles of ecology and sustainable development;
* placing sustainable development, societies, and the environment in a historical perspective;
* sustainable development, energy and climatic change;
* technical progress and sustainable development;
* notions of complexity and interdependence between economic, social, natural and technological processes.

Content and teaching methods

The "course" part will use a basic reading portfolio, and will take the form of professorial lectures and talks on a number of substantive development and the environment issues chosen for their pedagogical value and the possibility of applying an integrated approach to them.
The "seminar" part will involve the completion of work in small groups made up of students following different courses (INIS, DEMO and SPED), with help from two teachers (one from human sciences, the other from natural sciences).

Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

The course will be run jointly by the SPED Department at the INIS.
Assessment will focus on seminar work and individual work.
Students will be strongly encouraged to attend the communications workshop (Course INIS 3004 (10 hours)).

Other credits in programs