Oulu, Finland

(Eco)critical Sustainability

• What does it mean to think critically about sustainability?
• What assumptions underlie environmental, social & economic sustainable development?
• How human-centred are current sustainability narratives?
• What might genuinely transformative sustainability education look like?
These are just some of the questions we will explore in this course, where participants will be introduced to posthuman, multispecies and more-than-human approaches and how they can be applied to sustainability. Participants will also distinguish power relations within sustainability narratives and reflect on their own positionality. Topics for discussion will include comparing anthropocentric with ecocentric approaches; whether there is a need to decolonise sustainability thinking; and what ecocritical sustainability might mean in practice.

Course leader

Faculty of Education and Psychology

Target group

- Bachelor's and Master's students.
- Fluency in English (min. level B2). All courses are taught in English, and sufficient English language skills are needed to follow lectures and participate in group work. No tests are required.
- Admission is possible for those who are NOT currently enrolled in the University of Oulu.

Course aim

On completion, participants will have:
• Critically examined the concepts of sustainability and sustainable development and underlying assumptions.
• Contrasted and compared anthropocentric and ecocentric approaches to sustainability.
• Reflected on their own positionality, and how that relates to and affects their approaches to sustainability.
• Developed their criticality, argumentation and presentation skills in this area.
• Collaborated critically with students from diverse backgrounds on a group project on critical sustainability.

Fee info

EUR 625: Tuition Fee, incl. VAT 24%
EUR 400: Accommodation fee (incl. VAT 0%), August 4 - 17.