Universität Wien
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210102 SE M4: The Politics of Knowledge in Global Environmental Negotiations (2025S)

9.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 21 - Politikwissenschaft
Continuous assessment of course work

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Registration/Deregistration

Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).

Details

max. 50 participants
Language: English

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

  • Tuesday 11.03. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 1 (H1), NIG 2.Stock
  • Tuesday 18.03. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 1 (H1), NIG 2.Stock
  • Tuesday 25.03. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 1 (H1), NIG 2.Stock
  • Tuesday 01.04. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 1 (H1), NIG 2.Stock
  • Tuesday 08.04. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 1 (H1), NIG 2.Stock
  • Tuesday 29.04. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 1 (H1), NIG 2.Stock
  • Tuesday 06.05. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 1 (H1), NIG 2.Stock
  • Tuesday 13.05. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 1 (H1), NIG 2.Stock
  • Tuesday 20.05. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 1 (H1), NIG 2.Stock
  • Tuesday 27.05. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 1 (H1), NIG 2.Stock
  • Tuesday 03.06. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 1 (H1), NIG 2.Stock
  • Tuesday 10.06. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 1 (H1), NIG 2.Stock
  • Tuesday 17.06. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 1 (H1), NIG 2.Stock
  • Tuesday 24.06. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 1 (H1), NIG 2.Stock

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

This seminar introduces Master students to the basic features of the politics of knowledge in global environmental negotiations and the empirical study thereof. Starting from the premise that we need to broaden the conceptualisation of the actors, sites and processes constitutive of international environmental agreements and law, the course will provide 1) knowledge about the theoretical foundations of global environmental negotiations, 2) empirical examples and cases related to the politics of knowledge within global environmental negotiations from the areas of climate change, biodiversity, and ocean protection, and 3) a methodological toolbox allowing researchers to empirically study environmental negotiations and the role of science and knowledge within those political spaces.

In the first part of the course, students will be familiarised with the set of actors, sites and processes constituting “global environmental agreement-making” (Hughes, Vadrot et al., 2021, Hughes and Vadrot, 2023) and the politics of knowledge in global environmental negotiations (Haas 1992, Vadrot 2014, Borie and Hulme 2015, Hughes and Vadrot 2019, Kohler 2019, De Pryck and Hulme 2022, Tessnow-von Wysocki and Vadrot 2024, Langlet and Vadrot 2024).

The second part of the course will introduce different cases within the following areas: climate change, biodiversity, ocean protection and allow students to familiarize themselves with what global environmental agreement-making and the politics of knowledge means in practice. A range of key conceptual approaches (epistemic communities, boundary organizations, science-policy interfaces, weighted concept, epistemic selectivity) and cases (global assessment bodies such as IPBES and IPCC, scientific and technical bodies such as CBD SBSTTA, struggle over knowledge and pathways of scientific input in negotiations) will be introduced and applied to different cases of contemporary global environmental agreement-making.

In the third part of the course, students will be familiarised with key methods and tools to study the politics of knowledge in global environmental agreement-making, including participant observation, ethnography, field note taking, interviews, text analysis and social-network analysis. On this basis students will develop their own research approach and learn how to apply different sets of methods to the empirical study of global environmental negotiations.

The course targets Master students interested in the various themes of global environmental politics and the empirical study thereof. While it may be advantageous if you have some knowledge of global environmental negotiations and agreement-making, the course is still conceptualized in a way that permits all students to participate.

Assessment and permitted materials

• On-site participation (you are allowed to miss max. two sessions)
• Reading background literature before each session
• Participation in group work during the session
• Active participation in group discussions
• 2 written exams & 1 term paper

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

2 written exams in class & 1 term paper

Exam 1: 01.04.2025: 10 multiple choice questions, 2 open questions (25%)
Exam 2: 06.05.2025: 10 multiple choice questions, 2 open questions (25%)
Term paper: developing your own research approach (50%)

89-100 Points: Very good (1)
76-88 Points: Good (2)
63-75 Points: Satisfactory (3)
50-62 Points: Sufficient (4)
0-49: Poor (5)

Examination topics

• Knowledge about the content of all sessions
• Familiarity with key principles, concepts and terminology
• Knowledge about the content of the background literature

Reading list

FINAL LIST OF LITERATUR WILL BE CIRCULATED IN FIRST SESSION

Allan, J. I., & Chasek, P. (2023). Texts: Collecting and analyzing event documents. In H. Hughes & A. B. M. Vadrot (Eds.), Conducting research on global environmental agreement-making (pp. 143-167). Cambridge University Press.
Bach, T., & Martin, B. (2023). Negotiations: Navigating global environmental conferences. In H. Hughes & A. B. M. Vadrot (Eds.), Conducting research on global environmental agreement-making (pp. 93-120). Cambridge University Press.
Bansard, J. (2023). Beyond negotiations: Studying side events, exhibition booths, and other neglected conference spaces. In H. Hughes & A. B. M. Vadrot (Eds.), Conducting research on global environmental agreement-making (pp. 121-140). Cambridge University Press.
Betsill, M., & Nasiritousi, N. (2023). Frameworks: Developing and working with analytical frameworks. In H. Hughes & A. B. M. Vadrot (Eds.), Conducting research on global environmental agreement-making (pp. 43-57). Cambridge University Press.
Brunnée, J. (2002). COPing with consent: Law-making under multilateral environmental agreements. Leiden Journal of International Law, 15(1), 1–52.
Burnham, P., Gilland Lutz, K., Grant, W., & Layton-Henry, Z. (Eds.). (2008). Elite interviewing. In Research methods in politics (pp. 231–246). Red Globe Press.
Chasek, P. S. (2001). Earth negotiations: Analyzing thirty years of environmental diplomacy. United Nations University Press.
Grimmer, J., & Stewart, B. M. (2013). Text as data: The promise and pitfalls of automatic content analysis methods for political texts. Political Analysis, 21(3), 267–297.
Hughes, H., & Vadrot, A. B. M. (2023). Introduction: A Broadened Understanding of Global Environmental Negotiations. In Conducting Research on Global Environmental Agreement-Making. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.
Hughes, H., & Vadrot, A. B. M. (2023). Concepts: Selecting, applying, and innovating concepts. In Conducting research on global environmental agreement-making (pp. 58-73). Cambridge University Press.
Hjerpe, M., & Linnér, B.-O. (2010). Functions of COP side-events in climate-change governance. Climate Policy, 10(2), 167–180.
Johnstone, B. (2017). Discourse analysis. John Wiley & Sons.
Klein, R., Harris, K., Bakhtaoui, I., et al. (2021). Building climate diplomacy back better: Imagining the UNFCCC meetings of tomorrow. Stockholm Environment Institute. Retrieved from http://www.sei.org/publications/building-climate-diplomacy-back-better.
Korkea-Aho, E., & Leino, P. (2019). Interviewing lawyers: A critical self-reflection on expert interviews as a method of EU legal research. European Journal of Legal Studies, 12, 17–47.
Kuckartz, U. (2014). Qualitative text analysis: A guide to methods, practice, and using software. Sage.
Marion Suiseeya, K. R., & Zanotti, L. (2023). Ethnography: From method to methodology at plural sites of agreement-making. In H. Hughes & A. B.
Mitchell, R. B., Andonova, L. B., Axelrod, M., et al. (2020). What we know (and could know) about international environmental agreements. Global Environmental Politics, 20, 103–121.

Association in the course directory

Last modified: Mo 10.03.2025 14:06