Compulsory modules

This module in the first winter semester will address the questions: What are food systems, how to analyze them, how are food systems governed and what are the institutions constituting them? What are trends in food system development in Europe and worldwide?
To answer these questions the module addresses food systems, institutions and governance and their analysis. Institutions are shaped by policies, economic rationales and social norms. They allow actors to collaborate in resource management and agricultural production. Further the module introduces how institutions shape different food systems and types of production systems through collective action, contracts, cooperatives, value chains, policies, property rights. It connects institutional analysis to the analysis of ecosystem services. Food system transformation, approaches to consider transformation are discussed and practiced. That way, the module addresses core dimensions of what connects Agriculture, Ecology and Society.

Through a series of seminars, fieldwork activities and practical sessions, this module takes place in the first summer semester and introduces students into the concepts of ecosystem services, with a particular focus on their relevance for land use management. The course aims to foster the ability of students to assume an interdisciplinary research perspective by considering agro-ecosystems as social-ecological systems. The students will apply integrative approaches that combine multiple spatial scales (farm-scale, landscape-scale and regional-scale) and make use of biophysical, socio-cultural and economic valuation approaches. The module is structured in an introductory and a practical block.