WELFARE AND ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY

The course will explore the interactions between welfare and environmental sustainability through the related debates, literature and policies in local, national, European and international contexts.
After an introduction to the concept of (environmental) sustainability, three main questions will be discussed, both in theory and practice. Throughout the last lessons the territorial dimension of the relationships between welfare and environmental sustainability will be emphasized through thematic focuses on cities, housing and rural areas.

Students will be further acquainted with the context, meanings and implications of environmental sustainability with respect to welfare theory and practice. They will be prompted to identify and assess issues and challenges, effective and potential resources, as well as key actors and capacities at stake.

No specific competences are required.

The course's contents will thus include, indicatively:

Introduction: The invention of sustainability
The Club of Rome's The limit to growth report; UNEP; The Bruntland Report; UNCED, WSSD and COP; The three dimensions of sustainability; Agenda 2030; What happened in Sharm el-Sheikh?

How does climate change matter?
IPCC and Assessment Reports; Mitigation, adaptation, resilience; AIEA World Energy Outlook 2022: fossil fuel is not energy transition; Who takes care?; Health and death under global warming; Who takes care? Loss and damage and the case of SSIDS

Can welfare states afford environmental sustainability?
'Decarbonizing the welfare state'?; What's an 'eco-state' about?; A glance at NextGenerationEU; Measuring well-being: ISTAT's Benessere equo e solidale

Is environmental sustainability a question of welfare?
Cities between competition, regeneration, gentrification and resilience; Adapting (public, social and private) housing; What of rural areas?

References used throughout the course will include the following (a more comprehensive bibliography will be uploaded on Moodle later):

Gough, I. (2021), 'From Welfare States to Planetary Well-Being', in Daniel Béland and others (eds), The Oxford Handbook of the Welfare State, 2nd edn, (online edn, Oxford Academic, 8 Dec. 2021), DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198828389.013.51

Gough, I. (2016), Welfare states and environmental states: a comparative analysis, Environmental Politics, 25:1, 24-47, DOI: 10.1080/09644016.2015.1074382

Gough, I.; Meadowcroft, J.; Dryzek, J; Gerhards, J; Lengfeld, H.; Markandya, A. & Ortiz, R. (2008), JESP symposium: Climate change and social policy, Journal of European Social Policy 18:4, 325-344, DOI: 10.1177/0958928708094890

Gough, I. and Meadowcroft, J. (2011), ‘Decarbonizing the Welfare State’, in J. Dryzek, R.B. Norgaard and D. Schlosberg (eds), Oxford Handbook of Climate Change and Society (Oxford: Oxford University Press), pp. 490–503.

Nordensvärd, J. (2013), ‘Social Policy and Low Carbon Development’, in F. Urban and J. Nordensvärd (eds), Low Carbon Development: Key Issues (London: Routledge), pp. 66–77.

Students are encouraged to participate actively to the course's unfolding. Their evaluation will be based on the following:
- an oral presentation in class of a text or document proposed by the student. Such presentation should contextualize the document (also through related further readings), analyze and discuss its main topics and arguments (20% of final evaluation);
- a group workshop simulating a decision-making process for the development and/or implementation of a welfare policy or project with strong environmental implications (10% of final evaluation);
- a case-study presenting, analyzing and discussing a project or policy tackling welfare and environmental sustainability issues (50% of final evaluation);
- a discussion of the same case-study and of the courses' contents during the exam session (20% of final evaluation).

Issues and challenges, effective and possible solutions and policies pertaining to the course's theme will be discussed through the presentation and discussion of academic and grey literature as well as media coverage of related topics and events. Group discussion as well as students' experience and curiosity will be mobilized throughout the course.

English

written and oral

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Cities, infrastructure and social capital" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development