Professional Expertise in Social Sciences, Innovation for Sustainability
GOALS OF THE COURSE
1) Increase students’ knowledge and understanding of the potential of a variety of innovations contributing to sustainability; 2) Provide students with real-life contexts and concrete examples to understand how sustainable transitions can be facilitated by practices and policies of public and private sectors and civil society.
CONTENT OF THE COURSE
The course will highlight several real-life examples but will also outline some key theoretical framings that facilitate approaching complex sustainability challenges. A specific, concrete case in point in the course will be a South African fragile urban settlement. Here, the course aims to virtually collaborate with young residents of the settlement as well as with a group of students at University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. These three groups will be split into groups to first identify the key challenges followed by group activities to find innovative solutions, also using models and tools presented in the course.
The course (5 ECTS) consists of 22 hours of lectures and workshops and appr. 10 hours of group work (using e.g. Zoom & Whatsapp):
Lecture. Introduction to the course + virtual get-together party (2 h, 7.3.)
Workshop. STI and Sustainable Development Goals (2 h, 14.3.)
Tutorial. Introduction to Matsafeni (tbc), Nelspruit, South Africa (2 h, 21.3.)
Lecture. Mainstream vs. Transformative perspective on innovation (2 h, 28.3.)
Workshop. Sustainable transitions (2 h, 4.4.)
Case workshop I. Student teams working on the local urban challenges (2 h, 11.4.)
Independent group work on the selected themes/challenges
Workshop. Innovation environments (2 h) & Lecture. Tools for innovation (4 h, 21.4., 14-18)
Independent group work on the selected themes/challenges
Case workshop II. Student teams working on the local solutions & Case workshop III. Presenting and discussing the outcomes (4 h, 25.4., 12-16)
Wrap-up of the course. Innovation for sustainability (2 h, 28.4., 14-16)