Register for Water, Ecology and Society course, 27 Sept - 4 Oct 2023

Why register for Water, Ecology, and Society course

Water is vital for life; it has also long been pulled into political projects. Attending to the centrality of water to colonial expansion and contemporary political economy, this course focuses specifically on the materiality of water – liquid flows around hard surfaces; flows through bodies; urban streams and oceans; urban biogeochemistries – with the aim of further developing our critical thinking skills about water, its many political, social, and economic framings, and their enactment in water-related infrastructures. It will explore different disciplinary knowledges and conceptualisations of water, and different ways of understanding both the histories and the futures of water.

 By its very design, this course encourages participants to think comparatively and connectively across disciplines and places. Taking two river-scapes as its starting point – one in Oslo, Norway, and the other in Cape Town, South Africa – the course explores water-related histories, property relations, ecological assemblages at each site. Participants will also meet online to discuss the sites’ similarities, differences and connections, while considering how such cross-site thinking can deepen our analyses of environmental issues.

Level: The course is offered at Masters level