290022 SE Bachelorseminar in Human Geography: Green and Just Territorial Transformations (2024S)

The climate crisis urges regions across the world to initiate and accelerate socio-economic, socio-ecological, and socio-technical transformation processes towards sustainability. "Disadvantaged" regions, characterised by historically evolved economic structures with high energy and emission intensity, are given special attention in scientific and policy debates due to their unique transformation needs. The central questions dealt with in the course include: what innovation and exnovation dynamics can be observed in such regions, and who are the key agents of change? How can the necessary transition to climate-neutral economic structures be made socially just? What role do different actors (companies, policy actors, universities, civil society, etc.) play in the development and implementation of new territorial transformation strategies, and which governance approaches appear particularly suitable in view of the urgency and scope of transformation processes?

The seminar's learning objectives are to elaborate on key scientific and political concepts related to territorial transformations towards climate neutrality in a small group and to apply them to a specific regional case study. Students will be guided to independently work on theoretical and conceptual foundations, analyse empirical cases, and formulate recommendations for action.

The central task of the first seminar phase is to develop and present, in small groups, a presentation on key concepts of economic geography/transformation research after an introduction and discussion of the basic literature. In the second phase, the concepts will be applied to an empirical case study, documented in small group-written seminar papers.