Philosophy, Politics and Economics Winter School 2026
Philosophy, Politics and Economics Winter School 2026: “Climate Change and Sustainability”
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Date: March 5-6, 2026
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Location: online
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More information: https://www.rug.nl/filosofie/organization/ppe/
Background
After several successful installments, the Centre for PPE and the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Groningen will again host their annual Winter School, aimed primarily at advanced undergraduate students and early-stage graduate students. The theme of the Winter School is “Climate Change and Sustainability”. It consists of 4 lecture tutorials discussing related issues from different disciplinary perspectives under the Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) umbrella. To facilitate attendance by people from outside the Netherlands and Europe, the winter school will be held online.
Theme
Climate change and sustainability are among today’s biggest challenges. How should individuals, societies, and humanity at-large respond? Far from being a question for engineers or climate scientists only, any good answer requires a multi-disciplinary, integrated perspective, combining, for example, philosophy, politics, and economics (PPE). In this winter school, different researchers from the University of Groningen take a PPE perspective in exploring climate change and sustainability and our ethical and political obligations towards future people. The winter school asks fundamental normative questions, such as: What are our moral obligations to future people? Do they extend to all future people and, if so, does this imply that our longtermist moral duties trump any short-term concerns? A social-psychological perspective asks: What explains people’s attitudes and actions towards the environment and future generations and how can those be improved? From the field of operations management, a PPE-inspired point of view reflects on sustainability problems in global agriculture. And finally, is the energy transition simply a relatively shallow matter of finding technological solutions to “unplug” fossil fuels and “plug in” low-carbon alternatives, or is it much deeper, requiring radical changes to all the cultural and economic building blocks of society?
Speakers
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Prof. Dr. Leah Henderson
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Prof. Dr. Marijke Leliveld
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Prof. Dr. Eugenia Rosca
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Prof. Dr. Andreas Schmidt
Program
Thursday, March 5
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13:00 – 13:30 |
Introduction (Michael Schwan) |
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13:30 – 15:00 |
“Reflections on sustainability and climate change impacts on the global agri-food sector” (Eugenia Rosca) |
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15:00 – 15:30 |
Coffee Break |
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15:30 – 17:00 |
“Climate Change and the ethics of the very long term” (Andreas Schmidt) |
Friday, March 6
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13:00 – 13:30 |
The Groningen MSc PPE program (Michael Schwan) |
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13:30 – 15:00 |
“What is the energy transition?” (Leah Henderson) |
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15:00 – 15:30 |
Coffee Break |
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15:30 – 17:00 |
“Sustainability and other moral behaviour: a psychological perspective” (Marijke Leliveld) |
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17:00 – 17:15 |
Closing remarks (Michael Schwan) |
The winter school aims at advanced undergraduate students and early-stage graduate students. It also offers students interested in studying the PPE Master in Groningen an insight into teaching and research at the PPE Centre.
Registration and costs
The Winter School is free of charge. We would like to ask participants to please register until March 1, 2026, by filling out the online registration form.
Further information
Please send an email to ppe rug.nl