Critical Sustainability (5 ECTS)

About

Contents:
Critical thinking: key principles, concepts and issues and how they apply to sustainability.

The three pillars of sustainability (environment, social & economic): critical tensions and assumptions.

Anthropocentrism in sustainability: ecocritical, multispecies, relational and more-than-human approaches to sustainability narratives and human-nature discourses.

Western modernity & decolonising sustainability: decolonial critiques of sustainability and the reproduction of power inequalities in sustainability discourses.

Transformative / critical sustainability: putting transformative sustainability ideas into practice; transformative sustainability education

Learning Outcomes:
On completion, participants will be able to:

· Critically examine the concepts of sustainability and sustainable development and underlying assumptions.

· Contrast and compare anthropocentric and ecocentric approaches to sustainability.

· Describe, analyse and reflect on the values and power relations that underpin concepts of sustainable development and how these relate to sustainability in their own disciplines.

· Reflect on and articulate their own positionality, and how that relates to and affects their approaches to sustainability in their fields of study.

· Develop transformative and/or critical approaches to sustainability.

· Apply the contents and learning of the course to their own discipline/field(s).

Study methods:
Pedagogically the course is participatory and student-centred. Participants are encouraged to suggest relevant topics and questions for discussion and will have the opportunity to investigate and compare critical approaches to sustainability across different disciplines. Teaching is activity- and discussion-based. Independent work includes advance reading assignments, group tasks and activities and individual reflections

Teaching /implementation methods:
Due to its participatory & discussion-led nature, the course is delivered face-to-face. Moodle learning platform will be used to facilitate the sharing of materials, feedback and the uploading of participants' work. · Course breakdown: · In-person seminars (10 x 2 hrs) · Peer group studying & presentation (20h) · independent work (95h)

Primary Teaching Language:
English

Person in charge:
Joffy Conolly

* The course will be based at the University’s Botanical Gardens and will include short outdoor fieldwork.

Fee info