Summer semester

Bachelor

Applying qualitative methods: Designing a qualitative research project | 5 ECTS | Seminar

  • Modul Number: 85777
  • Examination Number: 57771
  • Study program: International Business Studies, Sozialökonomik, Wirtschaftsmathematik
  • Description: Much of what we know about human behaviour and social relations comes from qualitative research. Qualitative research, including interviews, participant observation and participatory methods, allows for in-depth understandings of how and why certain phenomena, events and processes occur and unfold. Why, for example, is right-wing extremism gaining traction across Europe? How does climate change affect rural life in Germany? Why do consumption patterns change in times of crisis? These are just a few of the many questions that qualitative research can help answer. This is a hands-on course on how to design and carry out a qualitative research project. The course will be based on seminars, discussions, fieldwork, group work and supervision. In the course, we will discuss a range of qualitative research methods, including participant observation, interviews, participatory methods, and visual methods. We will also reflect on research ethics and positionality. During the course, you will work in groups, designing and carrying out a small qualitative research project, based on your own interests.
  • Teaching and examination language: english
  • Lecturer: Dr. Anna Frohn Pedersen

International Business Relations | 5 ECTS | Seminar

  • Modul Number: 85731
  • Examination Number: 57311
  • Study program: International Business Studies, International Economic Studies, Sozialökonomik, Wirtschaftsmathematik, Kulturgeographie, Wirtschaftswissenschaften  
  • Description: This seminar will provide an introduction into International Business Relations, with a focus on the role of multinational companies and global supply chains. We will analyze the current geopolitical context, trade relationships and their environmental and human rights impacts and different forms of sustainability governance. In the first block of the seminar, we will study the public governance of global supply chains, with a focus on international norms and supply chain regulations such as human rights and environmental due diligence (HREDD) laws. In the second block on private governance, we will mainly analyze corporate commitments to uphold environmental and human rights standards, audits, the role of investors, corporate reporting and corporate sustainability management systems and practices. In the third block on multi-stakeholder governance, we will discuss the drafting, design and implementation of multi-stakeholder initiatives, such as certification standards (e.g., FSC, MSC, RSPO, RTRS), landscape approaches and collective grievance mechanisms. We will also shed light on community-led and consumer-led initiatives for responsible production and consumption.
  • Teaching and examination language: english

International Politics (only IBS/IES, WiWi) | 5 ECTS | Lecture

  • Modul Number: 87013
  • Examination Number: 23021 | 70131 | 57101 | 47601
  • Study program: International Business Studies, International Economic Studies, Sozialökonomik, Kulturgeographie, Wirtschaftswissenschaften, Wirtschaftsinformatik, Wirtschaftsmathematik 
  • Description: This course provides students with important knowledge of our international system, encompassing international organizations, international rules and state and non-state actors. We will focus on two of the major challenges of our time, which are the need to govern our climate crisis more effectively and to protect human rights globally. Combatting climate change and protecting human rights are key concerns in international politics, as established by for example the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Paris Agreement and the international human rights system. Non-state actors such as companies and civil society organizations have increasingly become influential actors in international politics, both as rule-setters and rule-takers. In our course, we will critically reflect upon key concepts from the fields of international relations and global sustainability politics, focusing on the concepts of legitimacy, effectiveness and accountability. Thereafter, we will have one block focusing on global climate governance and energy transition, followed by one block on human rights, with a particular emphasis on business and human rights. While these topics are often discussed separately, we throughout the course identify links – be they synergies or conflicts – between them, reflecting on to what extent policy integration of climate and human rights governance is possible and desirable. This critical reflection on theories and creative solution of problems is the focus in the course’s exercise blocks, designed to engage students in application and discussion of concepts and current global sustainability topics.
  • Teaching and examination language: english
  • Lecturer: Prof. Dr. Almut Schilling-Vacaflor del Carpio & Prof. Dr. Johan Lilliestam

Political ecology: Resource extraction | 5 ECTS | Seminar

  • Modul Number: 85778
  • Examination Number: 57781
  • Study program: International Business Studies, Sozialökonomik, Wirtschaftswissenschaften, Wirtschaftsmathematik, Informatik
  • Description: We live in an age of accelerated resource extraction. Oil and coal are heavily extracted to accommodate our energy needs, iron and copper facilitate new industrial developments and minerals such as lithium, cobalt and nickel power our tablets, smartphones and electric vehicles. Resource extraction spurs economies in the Global South and facilitates employment in rural areas. Yet, it also pollutes bodies and environments, displaces people, encroaches on other land uses and exacerbates inequality. In other words, resource extraction plays a key role in shaping societies and ecologies across the world. The study of resource extraction has thus gained traction among social scientists, invigorating cross-scalar research, as resource extraction is deeply entrenched in translocal trade relations, colonial legacies and globalised discourses. In this course, we will explore how resource extraction alters livelihood opportunities, power relations, profit distribution and landscapes, and we will discuss the methodological and analytical implications of studying resource extraction. We will approach resource extraction as a livelihood, a capitalist endeavour, an embodied practice and a sociomaterial phenomenon, and we will draw on concepts such as extractivism, resource enclaves, resource potentiality, resource frontiers, non-human agency and geosociality. The course will be based on seminars, group work, presentations, and discussions.
  • Teaching and examination language: english
  • Lecturer: Dr. Anna Frohn Pedersen

Internationale Studien I | 5 ECTS |

Courses or seminars at foreign universities on the topic of International Studies (can only be taken abroad)

  • Modul Number: 83691
  • Examination Number: 36901
  • Study programm: International Business Studies, International Economic Studies, Sozialökonomik
  • Description: The module covers various topics, questions, and issues in International Studies, with the specific content varying considerably depending on the foreign university where the student is enrolled. Possible areas of focus include the development and structure of the international system; problems and processes of regional and global cooperation and integration; theoretical and research approaches to international and transnational relations; fundamental questions of intercultural perceptions and perspectives; and the development of society, economy, politics, and culture in other countries, especially in regions represented by the university’s area studies departments. Comparative approaches may also be included.

Internationale Studien II | 5 ECTS |

Courses or seminars at foreign universities on the topic of International Studies (can only be taken abroad)

  • Modul Number: 83692
  • Examination Number: 36903
  • Study programm: International Business Studies, International Economic Studies, Sozialökonomik
  • Description: The module addresses various topics, questions, and issues in International Studies. The specific selection varies considerably depending on the foreign university where the student is enrolled. Possible areas of focus include the development and structure of the international system, as well as the problems and processes of regional and global cooperation and integration.

Master

Sustainability challenges in the agricultural sector in the Global South | 5 ECTS | Seminar

  • Modul Number: 57476
  • Examination Number: 74761
  • Study program: International Business Studies (Latin America Area), Sozialökonomik, Development Economics and International Studies, Wirtschaftsmathematik
  • Description: The agricultural sector has historically been of great importance for the geographical, social, political, and economic configuration of the countries of the Global South. This sector accounts for a considerable part of GDP, generates jobs, and is important for exports and food security. Increasingly, many areas of these countries’ territories have been converted to meet the growing demand for agricultural products, such as soy, cattle and palm oil in the world market. This trend is linked to the concentration of the land and the production networks in the hands of large landowners and multinational companies, the displacement of traditional populations, deforestation, the degradation of natural resources, the pollution of soil and water and the loss of biodiversity, among other effects. As various estimates predict that in 2050 the world will reach the mark of 9 billion inhabitants, with much of the growth occurring in developing countries, a further increase in production will be required in order to meet the nutritional needs of the world population. As such, reconciling agricultural production with environmental preservation and socio-economic development is one of the central challenges of the 21st century. This course seeks to present and discuss the structural tensions between agricultural production and the environment and the search for “sustainable development” in rural areas from the Global South, with a particular focus on Latin America and Africa, broadening the students’ understanding of the relationship between agriculture, sustainability, and rural development. At the end of the course, students will be able to understand the dynamics of the agricultural sector in the Global South, the changes taking place in rural areas, and their implications for sustainability. Moreover, the students will have the opportunity to analyze and discuss strategies.
  • Teaching and examination language: english
  • Lecturer: Júlia de Sousa e Berruezo, M.A.

Power, order and institutions in world politics | 5 ECTS | Seminar

  • Modul Number: 52700
  • Examination Number: 27001
  • Study program: International Business Studies, Wirtschaftsmathematik
  • Description: The seminar will cover the following main topics. (I) International system, international organizations (e.g., UN), cooperation and global governance: theoretical perspectives and historical evolution. (II) The contested notions of power, order and institutions: theoretical perspectives and empirical examples, bridging the gap between academia and the practice of international affairs. (III) The changing nature of international power and its distribution: rising powers, transnational corporations, state and non-state actors. (IV) Topical and new issues in international organization/global governance: peace and security, economic and social development, geopolitics, human rights, the environment.
  • Teaching and examination language: english
  • Lecturer: Prof. Dr. Almut Schilling-Vacaflor del Carpio

Globalized Economies, Socio-Environmental Conflicts and Environmental Justice In Latin America | 5 ECTS | Seminar

  • Modul Number: 54329
  • Examination Number: 43291
  • Study program: International Business Studies (Latin America Area), Sozialökonomik
  • Description: tba
  • Teaching and examination language: english
  • Lecturer: Ana Paula López Minchán, M.Sc