Human Geography - Capital, Labour and Extraction Radboud University

Overview

In our one-year Master's programme the first semester has a strong knowledge and theory gaining orientation, whereby guest lectures, in-class interaction, assignments and excursions provide an opportunity to also apply theoretical lenses to empirical cases. 

The second semester is primarily devoted to your Master's thesis research. In many cases empirical fieldwork will form an important part of your research. For this we require you to have established a firm contact with one (or more) societal partners, to ensure your research has a local and/or more societal embedding. In some cases this may well resemble a more informal kind of internship. For those focusing more on secondary data or online data, the importance of societal partners in your research relates more to discussing the relevance of the research topic, and to share insights near the end of the thesis trajectory.

Future career opportunities

This specialisation hands you the scientific insights and practical skills for a professional career in jobs such as:

• Policy advisor in local or national government
• Position in local and international organisations tackling issues of labour rights, economic justice, local and regional development, and inequality.
• Consultant advising business on how to promote ethical, just, and sustainable practices.

• Our mission is also to nurture engaged citizens who drive social change through activism and critical thinking. 

Research

To indicate the type of research in this specialisation, a few examples:

• What forms of care are emerging to sustain marginalized life around the world, and how do these forms of care question narrowly economistic understandings of labour?
• How do processes of renewable energy transition reproduce neo-colonial relations between places?
• How do climate change mitigation policies and discourses on sustainability create conflicts over land and natural resources?
• How can alternative business practices be used to promote inclusive local economic development?

Accreditation

This programme is accredited by the NVAO (the Dutch-Flemish accreditation organisation).