Social Sciences, Sustainable Urban Development

Urbanization is one of the biggest trends in the globalized world, and it is estimated that 2/3 of humans will be living in urban areas by the year 2050. The world is also facing key environmental challenges such as a changing climate, biodiversity loss, and societal challenges such as social justice and poverty. Urban development needs to be met with sustainable solutions that consider these challenges, and the societal and built environment transformations necessary to meet them.

The Bachelor’s Programme in Sustainable Urban Development offers you a way to develop multidisciplinary expertise related to urban development and sustainability. This multidisciplinary programme consists of three streams: Administrative Sciences, Social Sciences and Technology. Students in the social science stream will study basic and intermediate studies in social sciences, developing a broad theoretical understanding of societal change, and applying this understanding to develop solutions to challenges of well-being and sustainable development. Stream specific courses also equip students with social scientific knowledge and research skills needed to acquire, analyze, and interpret data, and to specialize and develop a professional profile.

In addition to stream-specific studies, a novel aspect of the programme is the multidisciplinary teaching with other Sustainable Urban Development streams. Common courses with students from the administrative science and technology streams help you understand the complex phenomena related to sustainable urban development from several perspectives, develop interdisciplinary thinking skills, and identify novel and constructive ways of solving complex problems.

Another unique aspect of this programme is the style of learning. Through the challenge-based Urban Lab courses, students are engaged in real-life urban development projects in multidisciplinary teams. These projects are carried out in collaboration with companies and public organizations such as the City of Tampere, providing students the opportunity engage with – and learn from - local stakeholders and actors in urban development. For example, we utilize a real-world laboratory, Hiedanranta, which is a future city district and a testbed for innovative projects related to smart and sustainable housing, energy, transportation and business.

Students of this multidisciplinary programme select their own specialisation (Administrative Sciences, Social Sciences or Technology) when applying for the programme. Although much of the contents of the programme is common for all students, there are variations in the application criteria, study contents and the name of the degree granted after completing the programme.

Please see the description of the whole programme and the research field on the progamme website:
Sustainable Urban Development

Please see the description of the two other study fields on the following websites:

Administrative Sciences, Sustainable Urban Development 

Technology, Sustainable Urban Development

All students accepted for this Bachelor’s Programme are automatically given the right to continue their studies for the Master’s degree, if they wish to do so. When accepted in the Social Sciences, Sustainable Urban Development, you will automatically have the right to continue studies in the Master’s Programme in Social Science Research - Comparative Social Policy and Welfare.