Climate Change Leadership in Practice – week 1


Updated 2018-09-03 at 15:07

If we are not honest about the situation we will continue to do nothing substantive … sticking our head in the sand and, despite the science and data, convincing ourselves everything is going to be all right.

– Anderson, 2012 p. 16 “Climate change going beyond dangerous – Brutal numbers and tenuous hope”

Good organizing, including acts of leadership, is very much a matter of finding the version that works in a particular context, with a specific group of people … and for a specific problem. Many treat matters as if there is an objective situation calling for an objective response.

– Alvesson, Blom, Svenningsson, 2017 p. 216, “Reflexive Leadership: Organising in an imperfect world”


Learning outcomes week 1


On completion of the course, the student should be able to:

  • summarise and critically relate to different perspectives, central theories and concepts within the climate change leadership field;
  • discuss and problematise current issues and research within the climate change leadership field;

Assignment week 1


The first examination for the mandatory seminar/workshop Friday September 7 is on oral communication/presenting and being able to summarise the most important aspects of climate change connected to the topics, concepts, theories and perspectives we have discussed during the week. You will work in the table-groups that was organised at the beginning of the course. The summary should include:

    1. The current state of climate change (where we are)
    2. Different possible climate futures (where we are heading)

10 min. presentation, 5 min. questions, discussion.

Bring your presentation to class at 9.15 September 7.


Texts (click on bold title to access the text), videos, audio and visuals

1.0 INTRODUCTION

Climate Change Leadership Declaration Spring 2017
– Students from the Climate Change Leadership course spring 2017

What Is Sustainability?
– Richard Heinberg, March 15, 2012, From The Post Carbon Reader: Managing the 21st Century’s Sustainability Crises

In English Teaching and learning at Uppsala University and in Swedish Pedagogiskt program för Uppsala universitet
– Uppsala University, 2018

What Is Education For?
– David Orr, 1991, The Learning Revolution


1.1 CLIMATE CHANGE

CCLIP 2018 Twitter wall
– Daniel Mossberg (ed), 2018, CEMUS

Climate change going beyond dangerous – Brutal numbers and tenuous hope
– Kevin Anderson, 2012, What Next Volume III: Climate, Development and Equity

Europe’s freak weather, explained
– Stefan Ramhstorf, August 16, 2018, Politico

Trajectories of the Earth System in the Anthropocene
– Steffen, Rockström et. al., July 6, 2018, PNAS

The Uninhabitable Earth
– David Wallace-Wells, July 10, 2017, issue of New York Magazine

WHAT LIES BENEATH – The Understatement Of Existential Climate Risk
– David Spratt and Ian Dunlop, 2018, The National Centre for Climate Restoration (Breakthrough)


1.2 LEADERSHIP

Chapter 1-3: Alvesson, Mats, Blom, Martin & Sveningsson, Stefan (2017). Reflexive leadership: organising in an imperfect world. London: SAGE.

The Future in Practice: The State of Sustainability Leadership
– Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership , December 2012


1.3 TRANSFORMATION

The Last Decade and You
– Alex Steffen, June 5, 2017, Medium

On Climate, Speed is Everything
– Alex Steffen, December 8, 2017

New Book: Climate Change as an Adaptive Challenge
– cCHANGE

Wicked Problems and Clumsy Solutions: the Role of Leadership
– Keith Grint, December 2008, Clinical Leader

Messy institutions for wicked problems: How to generate clumsy solutions?
– Steven Ney, 2015, Environment and Planning


1.4 QUESTIONS OF THE WEEK 2

Bring a quote, paragraph, news article, tweet/social media post, an argument, a question, statement, theory, graph, gif-animation, artistic representation, part of video/audio, etc. from the material above and/or things brought up in class. We’ll then structure the investigative discussion from all the things you have brought to the seminar.

Gjord med Padlet

1.5 ASSIGNMENT WEEK 2