Field Course on Just Transition – Brussels, June 2026

This field course, taught by Anke Schwarz and Paul Zschocke from MLU’s European Center of Just Transition Research during the 2026 summer term, adresses political geographies of climate adaptation and the multi-scalar logics and dynamics of energy transition that link the Belgian capital with extractive industries in southern Saxony-Anhalt. Conceptually, the course draws on current debates in both urban and political geography on planetary urbanisation, global supply chains, sacrifice zones, and green extractivism.

During an introductory seminar in the summer semester and a week-long field trip to Brussels in June 2026, 15 students from Martin-Luther-University’s MA program ‘International Area Studies – Global Change Geography’ and the BA program in Geography will visit the European Parliament, NGOs, museums, historical buildings and other relevant sites in Brussels. In line with the principles of inquiry-based learning, students will design individual excursion modules in terms of both content and methodology, organizing themselves into small working groups for this purpose. They will independently work on research questions from the fields of social, cultural, economic, and urban geography, applying them to an urban context (largely) unknown to them. Field trips are a central element of specialized geographical training — they give students the opportunity to not only learn new content, but also to test and deepen their professional skills in a practical setting. In the self-organized preparation of the individual topic blocks (accompanied by consultations) and in the jointly managed stay, participants practice teamwork and social, communicative, and organizational skills.