Social science theories in sustainable development
Course description
The aim of this course is to give the students knowledge of how social science theories can be used to understand complex societal and sustainability issues as a preparation for further studies and the independent thesis work. The course provides students with an understanding for how theories can be put to use in scientific work within sustainable development.
Entry Requirements
Course facts
- Course name
- Social science theories in sustainable development
- Swedish course name
- Samhällsvetenskapliga teorier för hållbar utveckling
- Level
- First cycle (G1F)
- Main field of study
- Sustainable Development
- Credits
- 15.0 credits
- Rate of study
- 100 %
- Study location
- Uppsala
- Form of instruction
- Campus-based instruction
- Application code
- SLU-10163
- Course code
- HU0006
- Course language
- Swedish
- Included in program
-
Politices kandidat - hållbar utveckling
- Offered as a freestanding course
- Ja
- Tuition fee
-
Tuition fees only for non-EU/EEA/Switzerland citizens
38990 SEK
HU0006, Social science theories in sustainable development, 15.0 Hp
Print syllabus
Syllabus
Finalized by: Jon Petter Gustafsson, 2022-12-12
Valid from : Autumn semester 2023 (2023-08-28)
Level
First cycle (G1F)
Main field of study
Sustainable Development
Grading Scale
The grade requirements within the course grading system are set out in specific criteria. These criteria must be available by the course start at the latest.
Course language
Swedish
Entry Requirements
Objectives
The aim of this course is to give the students knowledge of how social science theories can be used to understand complex society and sustainability issues as a preparation for further studies and the independent thesis work. The course provides students with an understanding for how theories can be put to use in scientific work within sustainable development.
After completing the course, the student should be able to:
- describe and explain different scientific theoretical perspectives
- describe the main features of social science research history
- describe, problematize and use common social science theories within sustainable development
- understand and use important theoretical concepts including structure, agency, power, gender and class
- discuss the consequences of choosing between different theoretical starting points for identifying research problems, formulating questions and interpreting empirical material in sustainable development.
Content
Thematic content
The students practice using and problematizing social science theories to explain specific situations and phenomena, as well as connecting empirical material to theoretical explanatory models. The focus is on understanding and being able to use basic theoretical concepts such as structure, agency, power, gender and class. Students also learn to interpret different scientific theoretical perspectives in order to understand the main differences in perspective between natural science and social science research with a focus on how theories are used. By describing the main features of the history of social science research, students can understand and explain the scientific context of social issues and connect these to current sustainability problems and research in sustainable development.
Implementation
The course uses different teaching methods to promote students' learning and discussions: lectures, literature studies, seminars and exercises.
The course focuses on the following general competencies: critical thinking, problem solving, oral communication, and written communication.
The course includes mandatory attendance at seminars.
Examination Formats and Requirements for Passing the Course
Approved written assignments and approved participation in mandatory seminars.
Responsible Department/Equivalent
Department of Urban and Rural Development
Supplementary information
Included in program
- Politices kandidat - hållbar utveckling
Module set
| Title | Credits | Code |
|---|---|---|
| Mandatory seminars | 3.0 | 0002 |
| Individual report | 4.0 | 0003 |
| Hall exam | 8.0 | 0004 |
Vecka 1: Introduktion till samhällsvetenskaplig teori
Aakvaag, Gunnar C., Modern sociologisk teori, Studentlitteratur, Lund, 2011, Sida 11 till och med 33.
Creswell, John W. & Creswell, J. David (2018). Research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Fifth edition. Los Angeles: SAGE, Sida 44-48
Dannefjord, P. (1999). ”Metod och Problem: en inledning till sociologisk analys”. Växjö, Institutionen för samhällsvetenskap.
Inglis, David with Christopher Thorpe (2014). An Invitation to Social Theory. Cambridge: Polity Press. Sida 1-12.
Överblick över samhällsvetenskaplig teori I
Överblick över samhällsvetenskaplig teori II
Vecka 2: Natur, Miljö & Människan
Kapitel 2 ("Being Constructive about Nature") i boken Castree, Noel & Braun, Bruce (red.) (2001). Social nature: theory, practice, and politics. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers.
Kapitel 1 ("Political versus Apolitical Ecologies") i boken Robbins, Paul (2012). Political ecology: a critical introduction. 2. ed. Chichester, West Sussex: J. Wiley & Sons.
Människan och naturen
Miljö, makt och sociala relationer
Politisk ekologi
Vecka 3: Utveckling och ojämlikhet
Utvecklingsteori
Kapitel 1 (sida 1-23) i: Peet, Richard & Hartwick, Elaine R. (2015). Theories of development: contentions, arguments, alternatives. Third edition. New York: Guilford Press
Läs också gärna:
Läs gärna vidare i Peet och Hartwick om du är intresserad av utvecklingsteori.
Diskurs, kunskap & social differentiering
Kapitel 11 (sida 321-355) i: Aakvaag, Gunnar C., Modern sociologisk teori, Studentlitteratur, Lund, 2011
Kapitel 1 (sida 1-37) i: Dean, Mitchell (2010). Governmentality: power and rule in modern society. 2. ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications
Läs också gärna:
Kapitel 11 i: Inglis, David with Christopher Thorpe 2014: An Invitation to Social Theory. Cambridge: Polity Press
Postkolonial teori
Kapitel 1 (sida 3-21) i: Escobar, Arturo (2012). Encountering development: the making and unmaking of the third world. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
Läs också gärna:
Om du är intresserad av postkolonial teori läs också gärna klassikern Orientalism av Edward Said.
Vecka 4: Intersektionalitet och genus
Intersektionalitet och genus I
Intersektionalitet
Combahee River Collective. (1978). A Black Feminist Statement. Capitalist Patriarchy and the Case for Socialist Feminism. Ed. Zillah Eisenstein. New York: Monthly Review Press. https://daily.jstor.org/annotations-the-combahee-river-collective-statement/
Méndez, M. J. (2018). “The river told me”: Rethinking intersectionality from the world of Berta Cáceres. Capitalism Nature Socialism, 29(1), 7-24. https://doi.org/10.1080/10455752.2017.1421981
Collins, P. H. (2015). Intersectionality's definitional dilemmas. Annual Review of Sociology, 41(1), 1-20. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-soc-073014-112142
Läs också gärna:
Crenshaw, K. (2015, September 25). Opinion | Why intersectionality can’t wait. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/in-theory/wp/2015/09/24/why-intersectionality-cant-wait/
Intersektionalitet och genus II
Nightingale, A. (2006). The Nature of Gender: Work, Gender, and Environment. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 24(2), 165–185.
Elmhirst, R. (2015). Feminist Political Ecology. In The Routledge Handbook of Political Ecology. Routledge.
Ecological masculinities
Daggett, C. (2018). Petro-masculinity: Fossil Fuels and Authoritarian Desire. Millennium, 47(1), 25–44. https://doi.org/10.1177/0305829818775817
Aavik, K., Hearn, J., Hultman, M., & Shefer, T. (2025). Men, masculinities, and the planet at the end of (M)Anthropocene: Ecological/social/economic/political relations, processes and consequences. NORMA, 20(4), 254–268. https://doi.org/10.1080/18902138.2025.2576458
Vecka 5: Marx
Marx, K. (1992). Kapitel 4, "The Fetishism Of The Commodity And Its Secret". Marx 1992 - Commodity
Marx, K. (1992). Kapitel 3, "The Method of Political Economy". Marx 1993 - Method of Political Economy.
Hartsock, N. (1983). "The Feminist Standpoint: Toward A Specifically Feminist Historical Materialism", Hartsock 1983
Läs också gärna:
Det kan också vara bra att läsa 'Feministiska perspektiv på klass och arbete' i Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/feminism-class/Links to an external site.
Överblick över Marxistisk teori (den politiska ekonomin)
Värde, arbete och andra Marxistiska nyckelbegrepp
Teoretisk orientering: Var är vi nu på kursen
Ingen ny litteratur.
Vecka 6: Hållbar utveckling
Hållbar utveckling och socioekologiska system I
Hållbar utveckling och socioekologiska system II
Calderón-Contreras, R., & White, C. S. (2020). Access as the Means for Understanding Social-Ecological Resilience: Bridging Analytical Frameworks. Society & Natural Resources, 33(2), 205–223. https://doi.org/10.1080/08941920.2019.1597233
Currie, T. E., Borgerhoff Mulder, M., Fogarty, L., Schlüter, M., Folke, C., Haider, L. J., Caniglia, G., Tavoni, A., Jansen, R. E. V., Jørgensen, P. S., & Waring, T. M. (2024). Integrating evolutionary theory and social–ecological systems research to address the sustainability challenges of the Anthropocene. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 379(1893), 20220262. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2022.0262
Milkoreit, M., Hodbod, J., Baggio, J., Benessaiah, K., Calderón-Contreras, R., Donges, J. F., Mathias, J.-D., Rocha, J. C., Schoon, M., & Werners, S. E. (2018). Defining tipping points for social-ecological systems scholarship—An interdisciplinary literature review. Environmental Research Letters, 13(3), 033005. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aaaa75
Ostrom, E. (2009). A General Framework for Analyzing Sustainability of Social-Ecological Systems. Science, 325(5939), 419–422. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1172133
Hållbar utveckling, makt och kunskap
Kapitel 1, 3 & 6 i: Nightingale, Andrea J. (red.) (2019). Environment and sustainability in a globalizing world. New York, NY: Routledge
Kapitel 1 i: Waldenström, Cecilia, Sandström, Emil & Arora-Jonsson, Seema (2024). Hållbarhetens dimensioner. [Stockholm]: Verbal
Fuchs, Christian (2017) Critical Social Theory and Sustainable Development: The Role of Class, Capitalism and Domination in a Dialectical Analysis of Un/Sustainability. Sustainable Development, doi:10.1002/sd.1673. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/sd.1673
McGregor, D., Whitaker, S., & Sritharan, M. (2020). Indigenous environmental justice and sustainability. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 43, 35-40. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877343520300075
Tillväxt och hållbar utveckling
Se föreläsning 17.
Vecka 6: Att använda teori
Kapitel 1 (läs också gärna kapitel 5 & 8) i: Swedberg, Richard (red.) (2014). Theorizing in social science: the context of discovery. Stanford University PressDownload Swedberg, Richard (red.) (2014). Theorizing in social science: the context of discovery. Stanford University Press
Kapitel 11 i: Harboe, Thomas (2013). Grundläggande metod: den samhällsvetenskapliga uppsatsen. 1. uppl. Malmö: GleerupDownload Harboe, Thomas (2013). Grundläggande metod: den samhällsvetenskapliga uppsatsen. 1. uppl. Malmö: Gleerup
Sida 106-111 i: Creswell, John W., and J. David Creswell. (2018). 5th edition. Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Sage publications.
Att använda teori I
Ingen ny litteratur.
Att använda teori II
Ingen ny litteratur.
Att generalisera till teori
Ingen ny litteratur.
Att möta text teoretiskt
Ingen ny litteratur.
Workshop i teoretisering (helklass)
Ingen ny litteratur.
academic year 2025/2026
Social science theories in sustainable development (HU0006-10183)
2025-10-26 - 2025-11-16
academic year 2024/2025
Social science theories in sustainable development (HU0006-10164)
2024-10-24 - 2024-11-14
academic year 2023/2024
Social science theories in sustainable development (HU0006-10390)
2023-10-23 - 2023-11-13
Contact
- Course coordinator
- Patrik Oskarsson
- Examiner
- Patrik Oskarsson