Dear Katrina,
I've been teaching a module in a graduate course on sustainability at ETH Zurich for a couple of years. I have found that students here typically come across bits and pieces of the history of sustainability (origins in forestry, WCED, Stockholm-Rio-Johannesburg, etc.) in various other courses and therefore become a bit impatient with duplication. Hence, the overall orientation of the course has slowly moved from an emphasis on key concept to applications. The module I have taught takes a practical approach and focuses on sustainability criteria, indicators, and assessments. The idea is that while some aspects of sustainability can be endlessly debated (e.g. the degree of substitutability among the various sustainability dimensions) at a theoretical level, sustainability as a concept comes 'alive' through the practicalities of negotiating a sustainability assessment. The module includes a one-lecture overview of political/administrative/juridical links/implications of sustainability; a one-lecture guest presentation from a (Swiss) government official in charge of coordinating the development and implementation of the country's sustainable development strategy; a one-lecture overview of the nature and use of sustainability criteria and indicators, and a three-lecture group exercise in which 4-5 students are provided with a list of 50-some indicators (in this case for sustainable natural resource management in mountain areas), which they have to evaluate individually and collectively, then distill to a short list of 15. I give the students complete freedom to define their approach and method, so long as they discuss, document, and present it. The outcomes have been fascinating - I'm currently writing them up in an article for a pedagogically-oriented journal or journal section (journal suggestions are welcome). Hope this helps, I'd be happy to share materials off-list. Best, Jörg -- Jörg Balsiger Senior Researcher and Lecturer Institute for Environmental Decisions ETH Zurich Universitätsstrasse 22 CH-8092 Zurich Phone: +41 44 632 4961 Email: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Katrina Z. S. Schwartz Sent: Mittwoch, 26. Mai 2010 20:23 To: [email protected] Subject: [gep-ed] politics & sustainability course Dear colleagues - I am drafting a proposal for a new course on "Politics & Sustainability" that would be a core course for a proposed new interdisciplinary major in Sustainability Studies at the University of Florida. This would be an introductory-level course, and would probably also serve as the prerequisite for existing upper-division polisci courses in environmental politics. Does any of you teach a course like this, or have any thoughts about how such a course might differ from an introductory "Environmental Politics" course, what topics you would cover etc? thanks, Katrina -- Katrina Z. S. Schwartz Assistant Professor Department of Political Science University of Florida 234 Anderson Hall, P.O. Box 117325 Gainesville, FL 32611-7325 Tel.: (352) 273-2371 Fax: (352) 392-8127 email: [email protected] homepage: http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/kzss/ <http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/kschwart/>
