The Master in Societal Transitions now offers the opportunity to specialise in Energy Transitions! Find out what this specialisation entails during the upcoming interactive mini-lecture on energy law and the political economy of just energy transitions, led by Laura Sanaz Kaschny from Erasmus School of Law. Sign up at the bottom of the page!
Mini-lecture
Do you want to explore what type of interesting content, cases, and insights we have for you at the Energy Transition Specialisation within the Master Societal Transitions? Join this mini-lecture to get a better understanding of a different view on energy and how a transdisciplinary perspective can enable just and sustainable energy transformations.
Laura Sanaz Kaschny
Having a background in biology and environmental management, Laura Sanaz Kaschny sees the world through the lens of a natural scientist. Standing in the laboratory and experiencing climate change and the human influence on ecosystems and society ‘firsthand’ has greatly motivated her to expand this understanding further to the regulatory and legal side of these issues.
Now, as a legal PhD candidate, Sanaz Kaschny focuses on bringing these two worlds together. Working with an interdisciplinary approach and linking scientific knowledge to real-life outcomes, Sanaz Kaschny comprehensively addresses the societal challenge of energy transitions.
About the Master Societal Transitions
Whether in energy, food, mobility, healthcare, or finance: the institutional, technological, and social systems we have historically developed are not sustainable and need to transform in ways we cannot predict nor control. In academia, we call these transformations ‘societal transitions’. A societal transition is “a process of structural, non-linear systemic change in a dominant societal regime that takes place over a period of decades (Rotmans et al, 2001, Grin et al, 2010)”.
Facilitating and managing societal transitions requires us to experiment, initiate, and transform the status quo. We need to acquire skills and knowledge that transcend disciplinary boundaries and that enable us to synthesize and draw connections between multiple perspectives.
The Master Societal Transitions equips you with the knowledge and skills necessary to understand, interpret, and work on complex societal transitions. This programme is transdisciplinary, integrating knowledge from various academic disciplines – including philosophy, ecology, and law – and practices. Herein, it focuses especially on the socio-economic and institutional dimensions of societal transitions: the role of power, agency, culture, beliefs, values, and social movements, in areas such as energy, food, care, mobility, and construction.
The master provides you with the knowledge needed to embrace complex, systemic, persistent (un)sustainability issues. Since no one can address today’s challenges alone, you will collaborate with other professionals (peers, teachers, researchers and societal stakeholders) and co-create interventions for a just and sustainable society. Hereby, you will move beyond theory and apply your learnings in a real-life context.
