737113 Environmental History and Sustainable Development

Type
Lecture and seminar
Semester hours
2
Lecturer (assistant)
Schmid, Martin
Organisation
Offered in
Sommersemester 2025
Languages of instruction
Deutsch
Content

The course provides an overview of the analyses and approaches that environmental history as an interdisciplinary field has to offer in terms of challenges and opportunities for sustainable development. Particular importance is given to basic knowledge about the connections between nature and society. Environmental History contributes a humanists' perspective to the sustainability sciences, it makes long-term developments visible and understandable, but also explores how deeply human perception of nature has changed over time. Environmental history allows to critically question some (too) simple assumptions about society, nature, and their changing relationship, which indeed shape the current debate. Environmental History allows to address important sustainability issues with the necessary complexity.
Prerequisites for this are the self-study of the content of the lectures and the reading of the compulsory literature. Short presentations by the students on their readings allow the students to reflect on and demonstrate their own progress in understanding.
Previous knowledge expected

None. You must be a student of BOKU or in a Bachelor’s curriculum at another University.
Objective (expected results of study and acquired competences)

-Knowledge of important sustainability problem constellations in human history.
-Develop an appropriate understanding of sustainability problems at local, regional and global scales.
-Identify and analyse types of interactions between nature and society in a long-term perspective.
-Correct temporal assignment of interactions between society and nature.
Understanding of interconnections beyond the individual lecture units.
You can find more details like the schedule or information about exams on the course-page in BOKUonline.