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76420-01 - Seminar: Urban Climate Justice (3 CP)
| Semester | fall semester 2026 |
| Course frequency | Irregular |
| Lecturers | Johannes Schubert (jon.schubert@unibas.ch, Assessor) |
| Content | The climate crisis here, and it is impossible to think about urban adaptation and other ways to mitigate or curb it without fundamentally centering questions of power and justice. The notion of climate justice has been advanced to push back against reductionist ideas of climate urbanism that ultimately serve to entrench capitalist accumulation over equity or planetary well-being. Climate change literature often focuses on ‘global cities’— a generic urbanistic norm based on cities in the Global North from which capital-intensive, technology-centred climate risk mitigation strategies are devised. This not only obscures context-specific variation and different modes of making the city; it also presumes that Euro-American cities are the most desirable outcome of urban processes — an assumption that especially in view of the negative climate impacts of cement cities is questionable to say the least. Accordingly, much of the mainstream discussion (and policy proposals) on cities and climate change is still dominated by reductionist, apolitical, and reified conceptions of vulnerability and resilience, while voices from the Global South remain subordinated in the debates. The question of justice goes beyond that of course, as it is obvious that the cities and people bearing for now the heaviest burden of the climate crisis are not the countries and people that in the past 500 years have contributed most — and benefited most — from racial capitalism and the anthropogenic climate change it engendered. This course introduces students to current debates on urban adaptation and climate justice. We investigate the various ways in which exposure to the climate crisis is produced, and manifests unequally in the lived realities of urban dwellers across a broad variety of socio-political contexts. We also examine the ways in which different disciplines have sought to apprehend social, political, and infrastructural responses to climate change to develop critical perspectives on dominant, oftentimes reductionist discourses of climate urbanism. This means attuning ourselves, in research and teaching, to the historically sedimented inequalities of colonialism and racial capitalism that affect people’s capacity to cope with, and prepare for, climate crisis. Climate justice approaches then range from calls for reparations, to looking at how multiple urban actors experiment with social life, technology, and activism to reconfigure the boundaries of climate action. It also means paying attention to the potentialities of infrastructural patching, mending, repair, and reuse. Course overview Drawing from readings in and urban studies, political geography, anthropology, political ecology, and history, this course explores different empirical contexts to introduce students to key ideas on urban climate justice, and explore the different factors driving urban experiences of, and adaptation to, the climate crisis. Students will learn to identify, understand, compare and contrast various conceptual approaches, and apply these to different case studies. Students should come out with a firm knowledge of the interrelations between urban and global development, capitalism, infrastructure, and climate justice. |
| Learning objectives | Drawing from readings in and urban studies, political geography, anthropology, political ecology, and history, this course explores different empirical contexts to introduce students to key ideas on urban climate justice, and explore the different factors driving urban experiences of, and adaptation to, the climate crisis. Students will learn to identify, understand, compare and contrast various conceptual approaches, and apply these to different case studies. Students should come out with a firm knowledge of the interrelations between urban and global development, capitalism, infrastructure, and climate justice. |
| Comments | The course is open to Master students from other programs with a priority for MA Students in Critical Urbanisms and in Changing Societies on timely registration at a cap of 35. |
| Admission requirements | Anmelden: Belegen ; Abmelden: nicht erforderlich |
| Language of instruction | English |
| Use of digital media | No specific media used |
| Interval | Weekday | Time | Room |
|---|---|---|---|
| wöchentlich | Monday | 14.15-16.00 | Rosshofgasse (Schnitz), Seminarraum S 02 |
Dates
| Date | Time | Room |
|---|---|---|
| Monday 21.09.2026 | 14.15-16.00 | Rosshofgasse (Schnitz), Seminarraum S 02 |
| Monday 28.09.2026 | 14.15-16.00 | Rosshofgasse (Schnitz), Seminarraum S 02 |
| Monday 05.10.2026 | 14.15-16.00 | Rosshofgasse (Schnitz), Seminarraum S 02 |
| Monday 12.10.2026 | 14.15-16.00 | Rosshofgasse (Schnitz), Seminarraum S 02 |
| Monday 19.10.2026 | 14.15-16.00 | Rosshofgasse (Schnitz), Seminarraum S 02 |
| Monday 26.10.2026 | 14.15-16.00 | Rosshofgasse (Schnitz), Seminarraum S 02 |
| Monday 02.11.2026 | 14.15-16.00 | Rosshofgasse (Schnitz), Seminarraum S 02 |
| Monday 09.11.2026 | 14.15-16.00 | Rosshofgasse (Schnitz), Seminarraum S 02 |
| Monday 16.11.2026 | 14.15-16.00 | Rosshofgasse (Schnitz), Seminarraum S 02 |
| Monday 23.11.2026 | 14.15-16.00 | Rosshofgasse (Schnitz), Seminarraum S 02 |
| Monday 30.11.2026 | 14.15-16.00 | Rosshofgasse (Schnitz), Seminarraum S 02 |
| Monday 07.12.2026 | 14.15-16.00 | Rosshofgasse (Schnitz), Seminarraum S 02 |
| Monday 14.12.2026 | 14.15-16.00 | Rosshofgasse (Schnitz), Seminarraum S 02 |
| Modules |
Module: Core Competences in Social Sciences (Master's Studies: Sustainable Development (Start of studies before 01.08.2026)) Module: Fields: Environment and Development (Master's degree program: African Studies) Module: Fields: Governance and Politics (Master's degree program: African Studies) Module: Resources and Sustainability (Master's degree program: Changing Societies: Migration – Conflicts – Resources (Start of studies before 01.08.2026)) Module: The Urban across Disciplines (Master's degree program: Critical Urbanisms) Module: Topics and Methods in Sustainable Development: Social Sciences (Master's Studies: Sustainable Development) Specialization Module Global Europe: Environment and Sustainability (Master's Studies: European Global Studies) |
| Assessment format | continuous assessment |
| Assessment details | Pass/Fail |
| Assessment registration/deregistration | Reg.: course registration; dereg.: not required |
| Repeat examination | no repeat examination |
| Scale | Pass / Fail |
| Repeated registration | as often as necessary |
| Responsible faculty | Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, studadmin-philhist@unibas.ch |
| Offered by | Fachbereich Urban Studies |