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Objectives
Insight in the nature of sustainable development as an economic, social, technological and political challenge. Some knowledge of scientific analyses of the subject from various disciplines. Insight in the relations between a problematic, scientific perspectives thereupon and the nature of and opportunities for action.
Contents
Since the Brundlandt Commission produced its report, sustainable development has evolved into a concept that is no longer primarily the 'property' of activists. It has become a broadly shared challenge for the social, economic and technological development of the next decades. Thus the question how to actually realize sustainable development has now become salient. In order to answer that question, fundamental reflection on existing development processes and institutions is quintessential. Throughout Modernity, development processes have been oriented largely toward social and economic progress, and existing institutions - government, market and knowledge infrastructure - have organized themselves around those processes.
Against this background, realizing sustainable development requires a thorough analysis from a range of scientific disciplines. In this course a number of these disciplines will be discussed, including economics, complex systems theory, public policy studies, biology and technical sciences. Representatives of these disciplines will present their 'typical' perspective on sustainable development, dealing both with diagnosing and identification of interventions. There is explicit attention to the ways in which each of the disciplinary perspectives deals with a) uncertainties and b) normative aspects.Another recurring focus is the relation between a disciplinary perspective and the problematic of sustainable development.
The underlying objective of this course is to understand the relations between disciplinary perspectives, reality and opportunities to change reality. What does it mean that different perspectives suggest different diagnoses and interventions? To what extent can 'reality,' as a shared referent, be of help in clarifying mutual relations between perspectives? What, actually, is the relation between a normative orientation such as sustainable development and those perspectives? To what extent is a transdisciplinary perspective necessary? - and possible? Students will treat in their paper a particular problem of sustainable development from a variety of perspectives. The paper has an action orientations and pays attention to the type of underlying questions just mentioned.
Registration at
General regulations on Studieweb.
Format
Lectures.
Time
(under consideration)
Thursday 9.00-12.00
Study materials
A syllabus and articles.
Min/max participants
Maximum 25
Assessment
Paper
Remarks
Language: English.
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