F2022

Global Studies * / International Development Studies * / International Public Administration and Politics * / Politics and Administration * / Public Administration *

master course

English

Registration through stads self-service within the announced registration period, as you can see on the Studyadministration homepage. When registering for courses, please be aware of the potential conflicts between courses or exam dates on courses. The planning of course activities at Roskilde University is based on the recommended study programs, which do not overlap. However, if you choose optional courses and/or study plans that goes beyond the recommended study programs, an overlap of lectures or exam da

Natural resource extraction and geopolitics: resources, extraction and conflict

Academic focus. The demand for and competition over natural resources have emerged as key topics both in resource-rich developing countries, and resource-consuming developed countries. Developments around land-grabbing, natural resource investments, renewable energy, sustainability, and climate change have become deeply entangled with the appetite for resources. They have meant that traditional geopolitical issues re-emerge in the form of struggles to protect and control resources and the environment as leading nation states and transnational companies intensify searches for and claims over potentially resource-rich areas. At the same time however, a new parallel institutional geopolitical architecture has also emerged that slowly but steadily manifests itself by trying to tame, control, govern and set standards for the regulation, extraction, and use of funds from scarce resources, and which impacts on the governance of land, investments and climate, often in the name of sustainability.

This advanced study seminar takes stock of current debates within political economy and political ecology around natural resource extraction and governance. It traces the historical roots of academic debates, arguments, explanations, and ontologies underpinning natural resource governance. We examine emerging trends around climate change, renewables, natural resource investments, resource conflicts, corporate social responsibility, the role of new institutional geopolitical actors for regulation and standard setting, and provides examples of localised resource governance

The course is organised around three dimensions: Gold and regulation; Renewables and green transitions; Investments, land, and rights.

Expected Course Structure:

1. Introduction I: Why is natural resource extraction so contested?

2. Introduction II: New ways of understanding geopolitics: governance of natural resources beyond the state centric model

3. Theme 1a: Gold and regulation in SSA: an overview

4. Theme 1b: Illegal extraction of gold (Ghana)

5. Theme 1c: Governing the use of revenues from extractive resources: challenges and opportunities (Ghana)

6. Theme 2a: Investments, land, and rights: a theoretical approach

7. Theme 2b: Mining investments and how they fail (Peru)

8. Theme 2c: Oil and Gas investments: Debt and violence (Mozambique)

9. Theme 3a: Renewables and green transitions

10. Theme 3b: Renewable resources: what are they and how are they related to extraction?

11. Theme 3c: Socio-economic risks: Wind energy and conflict Lake Tukana windmill investment and Sweden and Samish land

12. Discussion café with selected NGOs or visit to key institutions

13. Summary and exam preparation

10 ECTS x 27 hours = 270 Estimated: 13 lectures x 2 =26 hours; Group work = 40; Newspaper assignment + exam 1= 78; Preparation 13 x 6 = 78; Exam 2 = 48; Total = 270 hours

As background/core literature: Stuart Kirsch. 2014. Mining Capitalism: the relationship between Corporations and their critics. University of California Press (several chapters from the book will be part of the curriculum) Peter Dicken (7 ediiton). 2015. Chapter 12: 'Making Holes in the Ground': The Extractive Industries. Pp. 395-422. In Peter Dicken, Global Shift: Mapping the Changing Contours of the World Economy. Sage. (background)

A full reading list will be provided consisting of a mixture of articles, reports, book chapters and other types of material that will be uploaded or stated on Moodle in good time before course start.

An additional reading list will also be uploaded on Moodle.

The pensum will be roughly 60 academic pages per lecture.

There will be a mid-term evaluation of the course.

There will be feedback on group presentation.

There will be office hours for questions, as well as feedback on assignments after exams. Grades will be provided through eksamen.ruc.dk

For further details, see the study regulations and the course outline.

ISE Studyadministration (ise-studyadministration@ruc.dk)

Lars Buur (lbuur@ruc.dk)

10

• Specialised knowledge and understanding of a particular topic within one of the three pillars in Global Studies

• Advanced knowledge of academic and methodological debates related to the subject

• Skills in selecting and critically applying relevant theories and methods

• Skills in choosing relevant theories in order to investigate a problem area

• Skills in communicating and discussing theories and empirical results

• Competences in assuming responsibility for and reflecting on own learning and that of fellow students by actively participating in group work, presentations and discussions

• Competences in critically, independently and creatively selecting and utilising academic literature relevant to a specific research question

The objective of the advanced study course is to provide the students with advanced knowledge and understanding within a specific research area covered by one of the three pillars in Global Studies: Global Politics, Global Sociology and Global Political Economy. At least two advanced study courses will be offered per semester. The courses offered will change every semester within the following subjects:

Global Politics:

• International public sector organisations and global governance
• Regionalisation and regional integration in international politics
• International security
• International law and human rights

Global Sociology:

• International Mobility and information flow
• International political movements and social change
• International civil society, law and defence
• Contentious identities and new global actors

Global Political Economy:

• Work and globalization
• Natural resources and geopolitics
• Trade, investment and global production networks
• International Financial Economics

The courses are based on lectures, but will also include other teaching and working methods such as group work, exercises, student presentations, peer feedback and field trips or guest lectures as well as other practical activities.

Elective course

Individual written portfolio.

The portfolio consists of 2 written products, that wholly or partially are developed during the course. For example, products can be exercise responses, speech papers for presentations, written feedback, reflection, written assignments. The preparation of the products may be subject to time limits.

The character limit: maximum  28,800 characters, including spaces.
The character limits include the cover, table of contents, bibliography, figures and other illustrations, but exclude any appendices.

The portfolio's specific products and the (if relevant) recommended size (character limit) for the individual products are made public on study.ruc.dk before the course begins.

The entire portfolio must be handed in at the same time.
The submission deadline will be public on study.ruc.dk before the course begins.

The assessment is individual and based on the entire portfolio.

Assessment: 7-point grading scale.

Samme som ordinær eksamen / same form as ordinary exam