After successful completion of the course, students are able to...

After successful completion of the course, students are familiar with a selection of ethical approaches to the use of land. Aldo Leopold, in his 1949 book “A Sand County Almanac”, inaugurated “land ethic” as a field of applied ethics. Students will learn about a variety of applications to land policy, property, and planning.

The seminar »Land Use Ethics« examines a selection of ethical approaches to the use of land. Topics include

• Basic concepts of land use ethics: From Aldo Leopold to COVID-19
• Ethics and the cartographic representation of land
• Ethics and the social coordination of land uses
• Planning for human dignity
• Essential injustice and land use planning
• Ethics and the ownership of land
• Spatial commons and land use ethics
• Ethics and the social function of property in land
• Ethics and the use of land for housing
• Ethics and the use of land for food production
• Ethics, post-growth planning and the notion of more-than-human
• Ethics and the call for environmental justice
• Planning for animal dignity

Discourse analysis; literature review; student presentations; break-out groups; active participation in discussions

Presentation (30%), active participation (30%), 5-page seminar paper (40%).