Sustainable societies: Current frontiers in politics

Today, rapid technical advancements, spiraling global inequalities, heightened geopolitical tensions and resurging armed conflict coincide with a warming climate, a crisis-prone globalized economy and unprecedented movements of goods, people and ideas across borders. As a result, political practices, norms and institutions transform at a fast pace. This course takes stock of contemporary societal challenges and asks how an inclusive sustainable future can be (re)imagined in the context of multiple crises. It provides students with an overview of cutting-edge frontiers in both academic research and political practice. What novel concepts and theoretical resources can help us make sense of our times? How can contemporary challenges be studied empirically, and how can they be tackled in practice amidst global normative aspirations towards an inclusive sustainable transition? The course literature charts recent debates in political science and neighboring social science disciplines on pressing political issues of the day, such as the politics of AI, the climate crisis and technologies of earth governance, health in a post-pandemic world, populist and misogynist political movements, material inequality and social cohesion, and the future of liberal democracies and international institutions. At the end of the course, students will be well acquainted with key contributions at the forefront of contemporary academic debates, and well-equipped to formulate relevant research questions that push the borders of current conversations, in both research and practice.