Tracks
Following admission to this Master's programme you can choose one tracks based on your interests in the field. On this page you will find information about the four tracks offered within the Sustainable Development programme.
The transformation to the sustainable use of energy and materials
Scientific approach: Natural sciences and social sciences
Energy and Materials is a multidisciplinary natural and social sciences track that focuses on the analysis of energy and materials systems. Current systems are clearly unsustainable as they have a significant negative impact on the environment and are based on finite resources. In the track we study cleaner and renewable production options and a more efficient consumption of energy and materials needed for sustainable development. The focus of the track is both global and local, with examples and topics on global, European and national or provincial level. There is limited focus on specific challenges in developing countries.
Please note that some track courses build on specific foreknowledge, notably concerning energy analysis and thermodynamics (consult the Study Guide for current students for more information). Students lacking this foreknowledge are responsible for acquiring this knowledge independently before entering such courses.
Research themes
Here are some examples of themes you could focus on in this track.
- How will global energy and material demand develop in the coming decades?
- What is the role of wind, nuclear, and solar power in the future energy supply system?
- What is the role of material efficiency and product design in a sustainable society? How can circular economy contribute?
- What policies can be implemented to effectively improve energy and material efficiency?
The sustainable use of land and water
Scientific approach: Natural sciences
Environmental Change and Ecosystems is a multidisciplinary natural science track focusing on the interaction between humans and the physical and biotic environment. The track brings together the fields of physical geography, hydrology, (landscape) ecology, mathematics, physics, and chemistry. You will study changes in land use, the dispersal of substances (in water, soil, and air) and their impact on ecosystems, biodiversity and remediation options.
Please note that some track courses build on specific foreknowledge, notably concerning mathematics and systems analysis (consult the Study Guide for current students for more information). Students lacking this foreknowledge are responsible for acquiring this knowledge independently before entering such courses.
Research themes
Here are some examples of themes you could focus on in this track.
- How do the substances generated by various human activities spread through water, air, and subsoil?
- What impact does environmental pollution have on ecosystems?
- How can ecosystems and biodiversity be protected more effectively?
- What options are there for regenerating damaged ecosystems?
- How should future water management adapt to climate change?
Governing the political transformations towards a sustainable world
Scientific approach: Political science, public administration and other social sciences
Earth System Governance one of the four tracks of the MSc Sustainable Development. This track is especially designed for students who deeply care about the relationships of power, politics and the planet, and who want to learn more about policies and institutions, about the multilevel interactions of governments and civil society, about critiques of power, inequality and injustice, and about how we might be able to transform governance and institutions for moving towards global sustainability. It is a track for future agents of change in political struggles, from local to global levels, from positions in civil society, international organizations, governments, or academia. In this track, we study and discuss all levels of governance, from the local level of city politics to the United Nations Organization or the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. However, all our discussions follow a planetary perspective, because also local action needs to be embedded in an awareness of earth system interdependencies and interconnections. This is what we call ‘earth system’ governance.
We define ‘governance’ in this track as a conflictive process of collectively steering societal actors towards sustainability. Governments are an important part of governance, but other actors—environmental activists, cities, youth movements, science associations, and so forth—all play key roles as well. Our interest in earth system governance is not only to better understand current governance, but also to explore pathways to transform the current institutions and social orders towards global sustainability and justice.
The track is open for students from all backgrounds. However, our focus will be on theories, methods and approaches from political science, policy studies, sociology, human geography, planning, and law. The track is taught by leading experts from the global “Earth System Governance” research network, based at Utrecht University.
Research themes
Here are some examples of themes you could focus on in this track:
- How can we explain the success of a policy, and how can we make policies more effective and equitable?
- Given the global sustainability crisis, how can we transform local, national and global institutions to be better able to protect people, non-humans, and the planet?
- How we can politically ensure that transitions to a more sustainable world will be just, fair, and protect the interests of the poor and vulnerable?
- What governance mechanisms could be effective to rein in the power of multinational corporations and to make our societies more just and less focused on unfettered economic growth as the only priority?
- What are the consequences of unequal power relations and postcolonial structures on the design and performance of policy and governance?
- How can governance itself be transformed in response to planetary pressures such as climate change, biodiversity crisis, food insecurity, water crises, and the Anthropocene?
Exploring the political implications of ecology and the ecological basis of politics
Scientific approach: Social and natural sciences
Politics, Ecology and Society is an interdisciplinary social and natural sciences track focusing on the political, economic, cultural, material and social structures that underpin social and ecological injustices within and across global regions. This track emphasizes the co-constitution of ecological, social and political processes and addresses it by critically examining global socioecological interconnections and injustices, as well as interventions seeking to transform them. This track places emphasis on practical engagement, such as field work, and combines it with theoretically-informed analysis and empirical research, with insights from political ecology, anthropology, human geography, development studies, sociology, science and technology studies, ecology and environmental sciences.
Research themes
Here are some examples of themes you could focus on in this track.
- How are politics of sustainable development shaped today? How do they affect our knowledge of ecological and social processes?
- How are spatially distant world regions interconnected and interdependent through flows of energy, natural resources, ideas, people, and what social, economic, political structures and knowledge determine such interconnections?
- What do socially and ecologically just transformations look like in different socio-cultural-political contexts?
- How are deeply seated understandings of wellbeing, progress, justice, development, and nature discursively used to prevent or promote different approaches to transforming society?
- How does sustainable development intersect with processes of ecological decline, colonization, modernization and political transitions?