The main aim of the course is to provide conceptual frameworks for studying and evaluating the impact that social movements for sustainability can have on the public agenda and decision-making.

The course is a seminar course, although it starts with a few lectures on the history and different theoretical perspectives on social movements, introducing the students to the relevant literature. Then all students choose a real-life case of a social movement for a sustainability issue and, adopting a theoretical perspective from the literature, present the analysis of the case in a seminar for class discussion. (Depending on the number of enrolled students, seminars will be either by individuals or small groups of students.) The course ends by students writing an individual term-paper on one of the outstanding themes that emerge during class discussions in seminars.