735118 Sustainability and consumption: Uncovering the roles of different actors
- Type
- Lecture and exercise
- Semester hours
- 2
- Lecturer (assistant)
- Wallnöfer, Laura Maria
- Organisation
- Offered in
- Sommersemester 2024
- Languages of instruction
- Deutsch
- Content
-
The course "Ecological Sustainability and Consumption: Understanding the Perspectives of Different Actors"; deals with selected, systemic connections between socio-ecological problems and business activity and consumption patterns in industrialized countries with market economies. In particular, the roles and options for action of the three actors politics, companies, and consumers are explored, discussed, and reflected upon. These actors have a major impact on the social and biophysical environment through their decisions and behavior. At the same time, they are " key actors" in the transformation towards a sustainable and just society. In this course, students learn about the key actors in environmental and climate policy and their often conflicting interests. They also gain an insight into the fundamental conflicts of interest.
The aim is to convey to students the perspectives and conditional connections between consumption patterns, corporate practices, and political framework conditions in an interactive process. A range of didactic methods are used in the course, such as interactive discussion formats, self-awareness, guest lectures, and peer feedback. In the self-study phase, students also deal with a specific consumption context. Selected questions are addressed independently and acquired knowledge and experience are processed in a multimedia format in the form of a Design-A-Class unit and an e-portfolio. In this way, the course combines activating learning with experience-based and analytical learning.
During the course, students work in teams on a selected consumption context (mobility, nutrition, energy, clothing, etc.). This consumption context is to be analyzed with regard to (i) the ecological, social, and economic challenges; (ii) the role of the three actors politics, business, and consumers in addressing these challenges. All team members are expected to actively participate in the teamwork.
- Objective (expected results of study and acquired competences)
-
After successfully completing this course, students will be able to
1) describe existing socio-ecological problems in relation to selected consumption contexts.
2) explore, analyze and argue the perspectives and roles of political, economic and individual actors.
3) prepare their acquired knowledge and experience in a multimedia format and communicate it to specific target groups in written and verbal form.
4) formulate and accept constructive feedback.
Achieving the learning objectives promotes students' technical and methodological skills as well as their social and personal skills.
Critical thinking and discussion skills are trained. Depending on the work chosen, project management or literature research may also be included.
By attending the course, students should also discover curiosity and pleasure in their own change processes
You can find more details like the schedule or information about exams on the course-page in BOKUonline.