Ecological Economics and Transition

Duration

30h Th

Number of credits

Lecturer

Fanny Dethier, Kevin Maréchal

Language(s) of instruction

English language

Organisation and examination

Teaching in the second semester

Schedule

Schedule online

Units courses prerequisite and corequisite

Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program

Learning unit contents

The course examines how societies can meet human needs within ecological limits, and how they can transition towards economic and institutional arrangements capable of doing so. The course approaches the economy as a subsystem embedded within society and the biosphere. It introduces students to the main concepts and debates of ecological economics and connects them with transition studies, social justice, political economy and alternative forms of economic organisation.

The course is structured around the following overarching question: "How can societies provision for human needs within ecological limits, and how can they transition towards such systems?"

The course is structured around five recurring analytical questions:

• Ecological scale: How much can societies sustainably produce and consume?
• Distribution: Who has access to resources and well-being, and who bears environmental and social costs?
• Allocation: Through which institutions, organisations and practices are human needs satisfied?
• Power: Who shapes economic decisions and the direction of change?
• Transition: How and under which conditions can existing systems be transformed?

• The economy, society and the biosphere
• Economic growth and ecological sustainability
• Growth, prosperity and social justice
• Foundations of ecological economics
• Beyond GDP, human needs and sufficiency
• Alternative visions of a sustainable economy
• Organisations and work in an ecological economy
• Provisioning systems and institutional diversity
• Understanding sustainability transitions
• Politics and governance of transition

Learning outcomes of the learning unit

By the end of the course, students should be able to:

Knowledge and understanding

• Explain the main principles of ecological economics and distinguish them from conventional environmental and economic approaches.
• Explain how economic activity depends on biophysical processes and social institutions.
• Describe and interpret key concepts such as ecological limits, social metabolism, decoupling, rebound effects, strong sustainability, sufficiency, provisioning systems, lock-in and socio-technical transition.
• Explain the limitations of GDP and economic growth as measures of social progress and distinguish alternative approaches centred on human needs, well-being and sustainability.
• Identify and compare major contemporary visions of a sustainable economy, including green growth, Doughnut Economics, wellbeing-oriented approaches, post-growth and degrowth.
• Recognise the roles played by firms, public institutions, households, communities, commons and financial institutions in the provisioning of human needs.

• Analyse an economic or provisioning system as embedded within broader ecological and social systems.
• Assess the ecological, social and distributional implications of different economic activities and transition strategies.
• Distinguish between relative and absolute decoupling and critically evaluate claims concerning green growth and technological efficiency.
• Analyse sustainability issues through the interconnected lenses of ecological scale, distribution, allocation and power.
• Identify institutional, technological, political and cultural mechanisms that contribute to system lock-in or enable transformation.
• Compare critically alternative visions and policy proposals for organising economic activity within ecological limits.

• Mobilise concepts from different disciplinary perspectives to analyse complex sustainability challenges.
• Evaluate critically economic and policy proposals by considering ecological effectiveness, social justice and political feasibility simultaneously.
• Construct and defend a reasoned argument on contested questions related to growth, sustainability and economic transformation.
• Develop a systemic transition analysis for a specific provisioning system and formulate coherent directions for its transformation.
• Recognise uncertainty, normative assumptions and trade-offs involved in sustainability transitions.

Prerequisite knowledge and skills

No prior training in economics is required. The course is designed for an interdisciplinary cohort and therefore assumes no previous knowledge of economic theory. Economic concepts required for the course are introduced progressively when they become relevant to the analysis. These may include:

• GDP and economic growth;
• productivity;
• inflation;
• investment;
• debt;
• externalities;
• money and credit creation;
• economic inequality;

• read and understand academic texts in English;
• identify and summarise the main argument of a scientific or conceptual text;
• participate constructively in group discussions;
• formulate and communicate a reasoned argument;
• engage with interdisciplinary perspectives.

Planned learning activities and teaching methods

The course combines theoretical input with active and collaborative learning. Teaching is designed to accommodate students from different disciplinary backgrounds and to encourage the progressive construction of a shared analytical framework.

Teaching and learning activities include:

• Interactive lectures: Lectures introduce the main concepts, theoretical perspectives and empirical debates. Economic concepts are explained from first principles when required. Lectures regularly incorporate questions, short exercises, visual representations and discussion in order to connect abstract concepts to concrete sustainability challenges.
• Guided academic readings: Selected readings are provided in advance for specific sessions. Students are expected to identify key arguments, assumptions and points of disagreement between authors or approaches.
• Structured debates and controversies: Several topics are approached as open scientific and political debates rather than as settled questions, including: green growth versus post-growth;technological efficiency and rebound effects;monetary versus non-monetary valuation;markets versus alternative forms of provisioning;the role of technological innovation in sustainability transitions.

• Collaborative comparative exercises: Students work in small groups to analyse and compare theoretical approaches.
• Case-based and problem-based exercises: Students apply theoretical concepts to concrete sectors, policies, organisations or transition challenges.
• Continuous provisioning-system application. At the beginning of the course, each student selects one of five provisioning systems: Food - Housing - Mobility - Energy - Care. The selected system serves as a common application throughout the course. This continuous application is intended to connect theoretical learning with systemic analysis and transition design.

Mode of delivery (face to face, distance learning, hybrid learning)

Face-to-face course

Course materials and recommended or required readings

Platform(s) used for course materials:
- eCampus
- LOL@


Further information:

• Brand-Correa, L., Brook, A., Büchs, M., Meier, P., Naik, Y., & O'Neill, D. W. (2022). Economics for people and planet-Moving beyond the neoclassical paradigm. The Lancet Planetary Health, 6(4), e371-e379. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(22)00063-8
• Daly, H. E., & Farley, J. C. (2010). Ecological economics: Principles and applications (2nd ed). Island Press.
• Røpke, I. (2004). The early history of modern ecological economics. Ecological Economics, 50(3), 293-314. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2004.02.012
• Røpke, I. (2005). Trends in the development of ecological economics from the late 1980s to the early 2000s. Ecological Economics, 55(2), 262-290. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2004.10.010
• Vatn, A. (2026). Rethinking Ecological Economics (SSRN Scholarly Paper No. 6772027). Social Science Research Network. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.6772027
• Villamayor-Tomas, S., & Muradian, R. (Eds). (2023). The Barcelona School of Ecological Economics and Political Ecology: A Companion in Honour of Joan Martinez-Alier (Vol. 8). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-22566-6

Exam(s) in session

Any session

- In-person

oral exam

Written work / report


Further information:

Assessment consists of two complementary components.

1. Individual essay (25%)

Students submit an individual essay related to the provisioning system selected at the beginning of the course. The assignment requires students to mobilise several concepts and analytical perspectives developed during the course in order to examine a sustainability problem or transition challenge associated with that system.

Assessment criteria include:

• accuracy and understanding of course concepts;
• quality of the systemic analysis;
• ability to connect ecological, social, economic and institutional dimensions;
• integration of relevant academic literature;
• critical reasoning and recognition of tensions or trade-offs;
• coherence and strength of the argument;
• quality and clarity of written communication

• explain and relate key concepts;
• compare theoretical perspectives;
• interpret a case or problem using ecological economics concepts;
• critically evaluate a policy or transition proposition;
• identify assumptions, trade-offs and limitations;
• construct a reasoned argument using concepts from different parts of the course.

• conceptual accuracy;
• depth of understanding;
• ability to establish connections between concepts;
• analytical and critical reasoning;
• appropriate use of course frameworks;
• clarity, structure and relevance of the argument.

Work placement(s)

Organisational remarks and main changes to the course

Contacts

fanny.dethier@uliege.be

Association of one or more MOOCs