Latin America in the New Global Resource Politics

About

This digital course consists of lectures and seminars during the first week of the summer session, with a take home exam the following week. In this course you will learn about Latin America’s role in creating or hindering global processes of change towards a sustainable future. Latin America holds a large share of the world’s natural resources, including rainforests, metals, minerals, hydrocarbons and an extraordinary biodiversity. Its historical role has been to be a raw material producer, but it also holds the keys to limiting climate change and conserving biodiversity on land and in the oceans, and it has been the cradle of important thinking on development and the environment.

In this course we will first learn about Latin American thinking on environment and development and on the role of Latin America in global governance. The second part delves into constraints against more sustainable practices, focusing on the interaction between economic structures and political institutions. In the final part, we will look at key policies, movement and initiatives from Latin America aimed at reducing climate change and improving natural resource management.

Target group

Applicants with a completed Bachelor’s degree or a period of study comparable with a Norwegian Bachelor's degree from a recognised institution. Applicants should have a related degree in social sciences and/or humanities.

Course aim

In this course you will learn about how global, national and local power structures interact to limit or strengthen initiatives and processes aimed at creating necessary change in practices for a more sustainable future, with a particular focus on Latin America.

It will enable the student to analyze and develop policies in different contexts characterized by distinct institutions and economic structures.