European International Relations Summer School: World Society & Energy Transition

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label Diverse autorenew 2025-09-29, 17:00
Energy transition is a topic that cannot be discussed in isolation. The 2012 European International Relations Summer School: World Society & Energy Transition will therefore provide an interdisciplinary approach to questions on energy transition from the perspective of Natural Sciences, Economics and International Relations.

During the Summer School the discussion will focus on questions like:
  • How do insights from various disciplines merge in discourses about sustainability, security and energy transition?
  • What can natural sciences gain from economic, political, societal and legal perspectives? And vice versa: how are arguments and findings in physics used and (mis)used in international negotiations and in other disciplines?
  • What are the latest technological developments in the energy sector and how can these be implemented most effectively?
  • How will current geopolitical tensions be affected by energy transition policies?
  • Which stakeholders will gain or lose during and after an energy transition?
Early morning sessions will be devoted to the presentation of PhD-projects - in a rather unique form: each student has to send in an outline of her/his project (about 10-15 pages), which will be presented and discussed by one of the other students, preferably from a different disciplinary background. One of the goals is to experience the complexities of true interdisciplinarity.The late morning and afternoon sessions consist of lectures and discussions from different disciplinary angles: IR-theory, International Law, Economics, Geology, Natural Physics, Chemistry etcetera.

Various issues will be discussed in this setting, including international decision-making, public-private sector intertwinement, cooperation and conflict, technological innovation, etcetera. Excursions to Dutch energy companies and infrastructure projects will provide practical real-world experience with the dilemma's and challenges of energy transition.

Period
09-07-2012 - 20-07-2012 (2 weeks)

Target group
The 2012 EIRSS can host up to 30 PhD-candidates working on Energy Transition from backgrounds as diverse as International Relations, Economics, Natural Sciences, Law, History, etc.A registration form can be found at the EIRSS2012.eu website



Course aim
By bringing together and contrasting a broad range of disciplines this summer school intends to increase insights, find new inroads and create synergy in the complexity behind the many transitions that are taking place in energy.

Credits
5.0 ECTS credits certificate of attendance

Course fee
EUR 200: Participation fee excluding travel & accommodation costs

Course leader
Together with the active support of a number of energy related organizations, the department for International Relations and International Organizations of the University of Groningen is organizing the 2012 summer school of the ECPR European Standing Grou

Scholarships
There will be a travel & accommodation grant (max 500 per person) for students from non-OECD countries.

University of Groningen
Address: PO Box 716, Oude Kijk in %5C't Jatstraat 26
Postal code: 9712 EK
City: Groningen
Country: Netherlands
Website: http://www.eirss2012.eu
E-mail: eirss2012@hotmail.com
Phone: +31 50 363 2391