← Back to course website “Global Challenges and Sustainable Futures”

Here you can find the weekly readings that you need to prepare before each session. Please read and watch all the articles, book excerpts and videos that you can find under “Mandatory Reading/Watching”. Please keep the guiding questions for each week in mind when reading. Under “Non-Readling List”, you can find other material that you can dig into, if you are interested in the topic.

Guiding Questions

• What questions do you want answered by the end of the course?
• What are the most important global challenges we are facing today?
• What is the best thing an individual can do for sustainability?

Mandatory Reading/Watching:

CEMUS Education – Why and how are we trying to do education differently?

• Stoddard, Isak, Ingrid Rieser, Sara Andersson, and Eva Friman. 2012. “Igniting a Learning Revolution: Student-Run Higher Education for Sustainable Development.” Solutions 3 (5): 34–39.

What is a case study? We will be using cases during our course

• Herreid, Clyde Freeman. n.d. “What Makes a Good Case Study? Some Basic Rules of Good Storytelling Help Teachers Generate Student Excitement in the Classroom.” National Science Teachers Association 27 (3): 163–65.
• Herreid, Clyde Freeman. 2001. “The Case Study: Don’t! What Not to Do in Teaching Cases.” National Science Teachers Association 30 (5): 292–94.

Inspirations for 30 Day Challenge

• Mary Manning and South African Apartheid (article)
• 30 Actions, 30 Days #Confront Human Trafficking (website)

Non-Reading List
More about CEMUS

• Sanna Barrineau and Lakin Anderson (2018) Learning “betwixt and between”: Opportunities and challenges for student-driven partnership
• Hald, Matilda, ed. 2011. Transcending Boundaries: How CEMUS Is Changing How We Teach, Meet and Learn.

More inspirations for 30 Day Challenge

• Is the 1.5°C target possible? Exploring the three spheres of transformation by Karen O’Brien

Guiding Questions

• How can we make sense of today’s global challenges and their complexities and interconnections?
• How do the Planetary Boundaries and Sustainable Development Goals guide current and future understandings of and actions in the world?

Mandatory Reading/Watching:

• Planetary Boundaries Research
• The nine planetary boundaries 
• Planetary Boundaries – an update
• What is resilience?
• About Sustainable Development Goals (Here you could look up summary reports on the success/status of the goals that have been raised in the High Level Political Forum, in 2016 and 2017, under inputs and background documents)
  

Non-Reading List

• Meadows, Donella H. 1999. “Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System.” The Sustainability Institute
• Transformations to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals: Report prepared by The World in 2050 initiative

• How do ethics and values influence our relationship to the world?
• How should we make decisions?

Mandatory Reading/Watching:

• Nelson, Michael P. 2012. “Introduction to Environmental Ethics.” In Ethics for a Small Planet : A Communications Handbook on the Ethical and Theological Reasons for Protecting Biodiversity, edited by Biodiversity Project, 41–53. University of Wisconsin Press.

For reflections for the 30 Day Challenge

• Ten things we learnt about behaviour change and sustainability

For SLS

• Wright, Erik Olin. 2010. “Introduction: Why Real Utopias?” In Envisioning Real Utopias, 11–17. London and New York: Verso.
• Case Report: Ombudsman and Future Generations in Hungary
• Case Literature: The Parliamentary Commissioner for Future Generations of Hungary and his Impact – Ambrusne 2010

Non-Reading List

• IPCC Report Chapter 3: Social, Economic, and Ethical Concepts and Methods Executive

Collapse of the Western Civilisation

Guiding Questions:

• What are the main reasons that humanity couldn’t prevent what happened, according to the book?
• Reflect on the differences and similarities to today, what are your perspectives on why there is no action today?
• Bring a quote from the book, a scene that sticks with you, or a discussion question that you would like to share and discuss in class.

In this session we will also be discussing the content of the course. Bring:

• Burning questions that you want to discuss in relation to lectures, literature, and activities we have had so far
• Reflections from current news or global/local challenges from where you are from
• Comments, reflections and ideas about how you feel you want your learning to develop moving forward.

• Film Review: Economics
• Case Literature: Economic Growth and Sustainability.

Guiding Questions

• How can we reach a 1,5°/2° future?
• What are the wider implications of a fossil free future? (land-use, impact on food systems, resource extraction, transportation)
• Why do we do so little when we know so much?

Mandatory Reading/Watching:

• Watch from 5.40 – 26.00 (Approx 20 minutes):

• Anderson, K., Peters, G., 2016. The trouble with negative emissions. Reliance on negative-emission concepts locks in humankind’s carbon addiction. Science, 354:6309, pp. 182-183.
• IPCC, 2014. Summary for Policymakers. In: Climate Change 2014: Synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Core Writing Team, R.K. Pachauri and L.A. Meyer (eds.)]. Geneva: IPCC. (Read only pages 1 – 10)
• Anderson, K & Broderick, J 2017, Natural gas and climate change. University of Manchester. (Read only summary pg 1 -5)
• UNEP. 2017. The Emissions Gap Report 2017: A UN Environment Synthesis Report. United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Nairobi. (Pages 1 – 10)

Case Report:

Climate Change and the Future of Energy SLS Case Reports

SLS Literature

• https://microgridknowledge.com/renewable-microgrid-simris-sweden/
• https://www.eon.se/en_US/samhaelle—utveckling/local-energy-systems/live-from-simris.html
• https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2018/05/how-china-charged-into-the-electric-bus-revolution/559571/
• https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/04/china-is-adding-a-london-sized-electric-bus-fleet-every-five-weeks/

Non-Reading List:

• Alice Larkin, Jaise Kuriakose, Maria Sharmina & Kevin Anderson (2018) What if negative emission technologies fail at scale? Implications of the Paris Agreement for big emitting nations, Climate Policy, 18:6, 690-714
• The Truth about Negative Emissions – Global Carbon Project seminar at Royal Academy of Sciences in Stockholm (video)
• Planting Seeds So Something Bigger Might Emerge. The Paris Agreement & the Fight Against Climate Change – An interview with Kevin Anderson

Extra Tools:

• Culture and Climate Change (website)
• The Carbon Map. (Interactive Website. Watch the introduction video and play around.)
• UNDP ‘Climate and disaster resilience’ (website front page. Browse for cases)

• How are race, gender and class interlinked? How is sustainable development connected to these questions?
• How could we approach race, gender and class in the future?
• Who do we consider, when we talk about (sustainable) development, and who not?

Mandatory Reading

• May-Britt Öhman, LAST MANUSCRIPT (2015) TechnoVisions of a Sámi cyborg: re-claiming Sámi body-, land- and waterscapes after a century of colonial exploitations in Sápmi, Ill-disciplined gender: Nature/Culture and Transgressive encounters, J. Bull and M. Fahlgren (eds.), Springer, 2016 (p.1-24; keep reading as further reading)
• Hudson, C., Rönnblom, M., 2008. The Woman-Made City. Feminist Utopia or Practical Possibility?. In: Denefle, S. (ed). Utopies féministes et expérimentations urbaines. Rennes: PUR, pp. 73-87.