Climate, risk and Sustainable Development (BYS310)

The aim of the course is to shed light on the links between safety in society and sustainable development with a specific emphasis on climate change.

Through planning, prevention, mitigation, transformation, climate adaptation, and disaster reduction, essential terms and concepts connected to how society might manage the rising climate risk in a sustainable manner are introduced.

The topic explains what societal safety and sustainable development include, as well as how work with safety in society and work with sustainable development might impact each other.


Course description for study year 2024-2025

Facts

Course code

BYS310

Version

1

Credits (ECTS)

10

Semester tution start

Spring

Number of semesters

1

Exam semester

Spring

Language of instruction

English, Norwegian

Offered by
Time table

View course schedule

Content

Central concepts:

Risk, societal safety, hazards, Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), sustainable development, UN's sustainability goals, scenarios, planetary boundaries, nature crisis, climate refugees, climate change, climate risk, climate adaptation, extreme weather, the Paris Agreement, mitigation, and green transition.

Topics covered:

  • Societal safety and climate change
  • Sustainable development and the UN's sustainability goals
  • Global and national climate change, as well as the impacts
  • International cooperation for climate change and sustainable development.
  • Social planning: DRR, climate risk, climate adaptation, mitigation, the UN's sustainability goals, organizational challenges (collaborative management) and preventive societal safety
  • Disasters of the future; extreme weather, nature crisis, refugee flows and climate refugees
  • Dilemmas and possible contradictions between societal safety and sustainable development

Emphasis will be placed on a basic understanding of concepts and an overall understanding of risk, safety, sustainable development and climate change, as well as the ability to evaluate development trends critically.

Learning outcome

Knowledge

Students must know the following after completing the course:

  • key concepts in societal safety
  • key elements in sustainable development and climate change
  • how work with safety in society and sustainable development might impact each other
  • climate-related threats that affect societal safety and sustainable development
  • how dilemmas, uncertainty and challenges in societal safety, sustainable development and climate change affect work with societal safety and sustainable development

Skills

Students must be able to do the following after completing the course:

  • discuss current issues in societal safety, sustainable development and climate change individually and in context.
  • apply knowledge structures that characterize societal safety and sustainable development and methods, as well as methodologies employed in the two area of work.
  • Reflect critically about societal safety and sustainable development, as well as the relationship between the two.

General competence

Students must have the following skills after completing the course:

  • obtained a basic understanding of the role and significance of the social sciences in the relevant subject areas.
  • developed an improved understanding of the systematic application of social scientific insight to the analysis of the relationship between societal safety and sustainable development.

Required prerequisite knowledge

None

Exam

Form of assessment Weight Duration Marks Aid
Written exam 1/1 5 Hours Letter grades None permitted

The exam is digital (INSPERA). Bring your own PC to the exam.

Coursework requirements

Obligatorisk innlevering
Submission of a group-based project assignment (case presentation). The assignment is given in the first lecture and lasts three months (pass/fail).

Course teacher(s)

Course coordinator:

Marianne Nitter

Head of Department:

Tore Markeset

Method of work

Lectures and seminars, group work, student presentations and discussions, obligatory assignment (case presentation).

Overlapping courses

Course Reduction (SP)
Risk, security and sustainable development (BSA260_1) 10
Climate Challenges and Societal Safety (E-BKB100_1) 10
Risk, security and sustainable development, Climate Challenges and Societal Safety ( BSA260_1 E-BKB100_1 ) 20

Open for

Bachelor's degrees in sociology, political science, economics, media, art, and cultural studies, as well as students admitted to safety-related bachelor's programmes at UiS's Faculty of Science and Technology.

Literature

Search for literature in Leganto