What are Specialisations in the MA Societal Transitions?
We offer the possibility to use your elective spaces to specialise in one of four specific transition domains and later complete the Graduation Project on a topic within the same domain.
Energy Transitions Specialisation
Designed by the Erasmus Centre for Energy Transitions (ECET), and composed of three courses, the Energy Transition specialisation invites students to explore the multifaceted aspects of transitioning to sustainable energy systems. Amidst current challenges related to climate and global politics, the need for a rapid Energy Transition has never been more obvious. At the same time, it is essential to ensure that this transition happens fairly – both on a local and global level. The specialisation offers engaging lectures, practical simulations, case-based assignments, and visits to companies and communities. This ensures an immersive, transformative, entrepreneurial, and reflective learning experience for all students.
Energy Specialisation Course Descriptions
The energy industry is undergoing a significant transformation, driven by four key pillars known as 4D: Decarbonization, Decentralization, Digitalization, and Deregulation. Human engagement and social innovation are essential to this evolution, with concepts like energy commons acting as powerful catalysts that integrate these pillars. To address these needs, this course is structured around three parts: the fundamentals of the 4D transition, social innovation, and energy commons.
Given the complexity of the future energy landscape, a successful transition will require professionals who can take a holistic view of the entire energy ecosystem and lead multidisciplinary teams of engineers, economists, IT experts, business analysts, and data scientists. This course equips students with the necessary skills through lectures by leading researchers, guest talks from industry experts, and a site visit to the Green Village, an exemplary energy community. This blend of theory and practical experience prepares students to lead in the evolving energy industry.
The course critically analyzes energy transition from the interrelated perspectives of law and political economy. It pays particular attention to the potential of energy transition to reproduce existing socio-economic inequalities and injustices as well as creating new ones.
After discussing the role of (regulation of ) technology within the energy transition and implications of energy justice and the emergence and dominance of the fossil fuel economy, we will zoom-in on a variety of legal-political institutions that, on the one hand hamper the energy transition and, on the other, have the potential to facilitate it. In this context, the students will learn how under the current system of global law and governance, fossil fuel investors are bestowed exceptional powers while (local) communities resisting extractivist practices are marginalized. The course will engage with emerging policy proposals such as ‘unburnable fuels’ and reflect on the potential of social movements to expedite the transition away from fossil fuels. We will also look into what we call ‘institutions of hope’, that bear the potential of transformative change; in this context, we will discuss the vibrant field of climate change litigation and, more generally, instances of bottom-up legal mobilization.
One of the key elements in the energy transition is the spatial and physical transformation of the energy value chains and flows. Seaports are crucial elements in these energy value chains and flows, as they are the hubs trough which energy flows are distributed, they are places where energy is produced/generated and they are places where energy intensive industries and transportation movements take place. And this all is right now heavily fossil fuel based which need to undergo a transition towards zero-emission energy and circular value chains. Seaports are thus part of the problem ànd part of the solution in the energy transition. And therefore, a good understanding of their role and underlying mechanisms in the energy transition is highly valuable. The future (zero-emission) port will likely harness renewable energy, electrify equipment and vehicles, implement smart infrastructure, integrate green shipping and green logistics, and adopt circular economy practices. Moreover, new space and infrastructure is needed while facing increasing scarcity of space and money. And this all in a multistakeholder context that a port is. To face these challenges requires a good understanding of the drivers of the energy transition and the role a port playsin that. It requires a good understanding of the economics, strategies and governance of ports, and, it requires an ability to apply the relevant analytical concepts from economics, strategy, governance and transition management to come up with grounded solutions for this energy transition.
Fashion Transitions Specialisation
Hosted by the Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication (ESHCC), the Fashion Transition specialisation offers you the unique opportunity to follow three courses that combine a cultural economics, business history and media perspectives to advance fashion transition in theory and practice: Heritage and Fashion (5 EC), Economics of Fashion and Sustainability (5 EC), Fashion Brand Activism and Social Media (5 EC). All three courses are highly interactive seminars, and they are strongly connected to the field. External stakeholders are involved for guest lectures, fieldtrips, co-designing challenges, and case studies. The fashion transition specialisation builds on a successful interdisciplinary Minor Fashion Industry at ESHCC which celebrated its 10th Anniversary in the academic year 2025-26.
For more information you can contact: Assoc.Prof.dr. Mariangela Lavanga, co-founder and academic coordinator of the master specialization Fashion Transition.
Fashion Transitions Specialisations Course Descriptions
The fashion industry is a paradigmatic sector of post-industrial economies, whose products increasingly rely on symbolic and aesthetic considerations as well as on local heritage and specificities. The fashion industry revolves around a myriad of key locations around the world, yet this has been the case for an extended period of time. A polycentric geography of fashion emerged, integrating traditional supply chains with digital technologies. Some luxury brands, such as Louis Vuitton, are even engaging with blockchain to prove the authenticity of their products. Topics covered in the course, among others: place, space and heritage in the fashion industry, storytelling, craftsmanship, temporary fashion clusters, and policies for fashion. In particular, storytelling appears to be an important tool for the fashion industry due to the necessity to differentiate the various products or brands and to add emotional value to them. Heritage and tradition are at the core of storytelling. Even new fashion products and brands are imbued with a historical flavor and sense of legendary quality, with the help of storytelling and revived craftsmanship. Given the rise of sustainability concerns, storytelling and craftsmanship, and in general heritage, are gaining momentum for the fashion industry and other creative industries too.
In academia, business environment and policy-making circles, the past decade has given rise to a growing acknowledgment of the design industries as paradigmatic sectors of post-industrial economies, “cognitive-cultural” capitalism, or even better “neo-industrial” economies, in which production and consumption increasingly relies on symbolic and aesthetic considerations as well as on local specificities. They are also examples of the need to pursue alternative economies where not only financial, but also environmental, social and cultural aspects of sustainability are acknowledged and valued. In this seminar we zoom in on the fashion and textile industry, we analyze its current structure and practices, issues and challenges, and envision the transition to a more sustainable fashion future. Topics covered in the course, among others: cultural economic characteristics of fashion products; demand for fashion products; economic and spatial organization of fashion industries; labour market for designers; sustainability, circular economy, wellbeing economy and sustainability transition; intermediaries, temporary clusters and global pipelines. The seminar provides a forum for discussion of the week’s topic, reading material and case studies. Students are expected to read and discuss the literature, summarize it for discussion in class and apply it to specific cases. A critical approach is encouraged. Students will carry out a research-based analysis resulting in an individual essay and in a group poster presentation (often in collaboration with stakeholders in the fashion industry). We will discuss relevant literature and specific cases through student presentation, class discussion, fieldtrips, and through an envisioning and futuring workshop.
Planetary Health Specialisation
Hosted by the Erasmus School of Health Policy Management (ESHPM), the Planetary Health specialisation is composed of three courses. Governance and Strategy (5 EC) examines contemporary challenges in healthcare governance, ranging from the social to the ecological. Sustainable Healthcare Organisations (5 EC) investigates the environmental impact of healthcare organisations and manners of mitigating this. Sustainable Care Systems (5 EC) considers how the climate crisis affects global health and what the opportunities and limitations for response may be.
Planetary Health Specialisation Course Descriptions
Healthcare managers increasingly are confronted with changes in the policy environment affecting the ways they organizeand manage daily care processes. For example, legal requirements for patient participation force healthcare managers toinstall patient representatives in their advisory boards, and safety regulations ask for structured ways of organizing andaccounting for the quality of care within healthcare organizations. Policy measures also influence the strategic choices ofmanagers; if patient safety is displayed as an important problem in healthcare, rendering patient safety a top priority of thehealthcare institution can be a valuable way of presenting the institution to third-party payers and patients.
Yet, incorporating national policy aims and measures in the organization’s policies also transforms the role of thehealthcare organization. A healthcare organization is not a neutral adaptor of national policy requirements, but activelygives shape to these policies. For instance, what patient participation means and how the actual role of patients in thehealthcare organization’s decision making process is fleshed out in practice, gets shape in the day-to-day interactionsbetween health care managers, healthcare practitioners and quality staff.
This course aims to provide HCM students with theoretical lenses as well as practical knowledge to the understanding anddealing with governance and strategy issues in healthcare organizations.
Healthcare organizations can have various impacts on the environment and on biodiversity due to their operational activities and the delivery of health services. These impacts include energy consumption, water usage, waste generation, chemical and pharmaceutical pollution, consumption of abiotic resources, infrastructure and land use, and transportation. To address these environmental impacts, healthcare organizations need to adopt sustainable practices and policies, promote energy efficiency, implement waste management strategies, adopt green building designs, engage in responsible procurement, and consider the lifecycle environmental impacts of their operations.
This course offers a comprehensive exploration of sustainability in healthcare organizations, focusing on the assessment and reduction of environmental impact. Students will learn methods and strategies for measuring and reducing the environmental impact of healthcare services. The course also examines the perspectives of different key actors and the role of engaging them in driving sustainable change within healthcare organizations. Additionally, students will explore the relationship between sustainability and other aspects of care, such as quality, accessibility, and costs, and learn to critically reflect on the potential trade-offs and synergies between sustainability and these other aspects.
Through an interdisciplinary approach, students will develop the necessary knowledge, skills, and critical thinking abilities to understand and address the complex challenges associated with sustainability in the healthcare sector. By the end of the course, students will be equipped with innovative approaches and a critical mindset to drive positive change and promote sustainable practices in healthcare.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared climate change as “the single biggest health threat facing humanity”, caused by increased mean temperature of the atmosphere and the oceans, rising sea level, ocean acidification, and more frequent and more devastating extreme weather events (e.g., floods, storms, wildfires, drought). These aspects of climate change have profound impacts on our health. The severity of impact however depends on the intersection of physical threads, the exposure to these threads, the vulnerability of individuals and communities and the capacity to prepare for, manage, and recover from extreme events. The relative impact of climate change is thus contingent on the extent to which societies are prepared to respond to and manage the implications of climate change. This presents a crucial task and opportunity for healthcare systems and organizations, which are both contributors to and susceptible to climate change.
This interdependence between human actions and climate change and its impact on health lead to a new perspective on health called planetary health. The Rockefeller Foundation–Lancet Commission defines Planetary Health as “the achievement of the highest attainable standard of health, wellbeing, and equity worldwide through judicious attention to the human systems—political, economic, and social—that shape the future of humanity and the Earth's natural systems that define the safe environmental limits within which humanity can flourish.” In other words, planetary health encompasses the health of human civilisation and the state of the natural systems on which it depends. Planetary health is a practice-oriented approach that provides a framework for healthcare organizations to adjust to and respond adequately to the challenges posed by climate change by building resilience. According to the WHO, Climate resilient healthcare systems are those that are “capable to anticipate, respond to, cope with, recover from and adapt to climate-related shocks and stress, so as to bring sustained improvements in population health, despite an unstable climate”. Planetary health emphasizes the importance of a coordinated, transdisciplinary approach across many organizations of health systems.
This course provides a comprehensive exploration on what is needed to build climate resilient, sustainable health systems. Students will learn about planetary health and its implications and opportunities for healthcare systems to respond to climate change. Specifically, students will explore the antecedents of planetary health, the opportunities for achieving gains in health, the threats and opportunities for healthcare systems to respond adequately to climate changes, and the requirements for health system reforms to reduce threats and translate opportunities including system thinking and transdisciplinary approaches for improving planetary health and health system resilience.
Urban Environment, Sustainability and Climate Change Specialisation
Hosted by the Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS), the Urban Environment, Sustainability and Climate Change specialisation offers students the possibility to take a deep dive into how cities can adapt to climate change and enhance environmental resilience. This one course is divided into seven modules starting with an introduction and the problem statement, covering the layers land, water, and atmosphere, and ending with sustainable transitions, synthesis, and an advisory assignment in collaboration with the Gemeente Rotterdam. More information on this programme can be found here.
