at Uni St. Gallen

Moralizing the Environment

This course explores how and when the environment became a moral topic. It delves into the various ethical perspectives of different actors, analysing the basis of their attitudes and beliefs. The course explores how the hybrid nature of agency and morality, and their dynamic interplay, shape the interpretation of the environment and the relationship with it. The course also explores various historical cases of the moralisation of the environment and its impact on society, politics, and ideology.

How to Understand Greenwashing?

This course dives into the phenomenon of greenwashing and analyzes what is beneath the surface that motivates its perpetuation. Greenwashing cannot be understood without considering the wider societal, economic, political, and cultural climate that boosts green rhetoric on the one hand and causes profound diversification of the meaning of environmental behavior and practices on the other. The course analyzes whether virtue signaling engraved in sustainability narratives and high environmental expectations – including the pressure to have problems solved without realizing their main cause – in fact motivate vice instead of virtue, such as in the case of greenwashing.

Ethics of Soil, Farming, and Consumption

This course explores the various ethical perspectives and unveils the intricate and frequently conflicting ethical landscapes of farmers, consumers, legislators, and policymakers. It contrasts micro and macro ethical perspectives on soil, production and consumption, and analyses why a unified view of the issues surrounding food production and consumption is unattainable. The course provides students with a framework for considering sustainable solutions to current agricultural crises, which can only be developed through dialogue about different ethical perspectives on food, production, and consumption.