This is an Erasmus + BIP course offered by the University of Pécs and organized together with the University of Potsdam (Germany), Rennes1 University (France), Paris Nanterre University (France) and the Jaume1 University (Spain).

Short description

As the world faces intersecting crises of climate, health, and multiple social inequities, movements for climate and food justice are playing a central role toward developing a community-centered grassroots response. Social ecology is a political theory that posits the ecological crisis as a social crisis in which the domination of nature is inextricably linked to the dominance of human beings. Dealing with the problems arising from the interaction of social and natural systems, interventions that are considered traditional and largely isolated from each other – such as social work or strategies formulated purely from an environmental perspective – are no longer sufficient.

This course examines how humans have used the various aspects of social structures to adapt to their physical environments. Using a comparative historical approach, this course investigates the relationship between socio-cultural systems and their environment and the stability and evolution of society over time. Some of the specific issues covered include causes and consequences of food production, population growth and dynamics, human carrying capacity of the earth, consumerism, sustainable development, and the impacts of risks, hazards, and disasters.

Aims

This Social Ecology summer course examines the changing paradigms of environmental problems within the framework of current socio-economic systems and their spatial specificities. The knowledge acquired during the course can be equally applied within social sectors (i.e. designing strategies and policies to reduce poverty, promote employment and social inclusion, and improve access to quality education, basic healthcare, safe drinking water, sanitation, and group-specific services). Lectures and learning activities focus on the types, possibilities, and problems of human adaptation to the environment.

Course objectives:

· Introduce students to the variety of ways groups of people have organized themselves in terms of how environmental problems and solutions are the result of human social organization;

· Acquaint students to the challenges societies face in an ever changing ecosystem and examine how the various effects of environmental issues are not equally distributed;

· Develop students’ knowledge of the different ways social scientists have attempted to understand the relationship between humans and the natural environment, as well varied responses to environmental changes;

· Define and explain relevant key terms and concepts in social and ecological systems and the various theoretical and empirical ways to understand them.

· Apply student learning for developing solutions and building resilient, sustainable societies.

Outcomes

Students will be able to

• identify the relevant questions and paradigms of ecological grassroots development;
• identify the relevant questions and paradigms of eco-creativity;
• explore the needs of a community by relying on Appreciative Inquiry principles;
• initiate a development process and contribute as volunteers;
• understand different needs, problems, and risks by adopting a multidisciplinary approach;
• creatively apply and renew frameworks and methods acquired during the course­;
• contribute to shaping policies by critically evaluating existing practices and comparing international models and best practices;
• critically analyse present-day solutions to improve social and environmental security.

The preliminary program of the course: