← 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-Reading List”, you can find other material that you can dig into, if you are interested in the topic.
Oct 30: War, Conflict, Peace-building and Sustainable Development
Guiding Questions
- What does sustainable development / sustainability mean in times of peace and in times of war?
- How does (and could) local and global environmental change effect migration?
Mandatory Reading/Watching:
SLS Case Report and Readings:
Case 1: Education in the Middle East
- https://www.thesolutionsjournal.com/article/scaling-education-climate-crisis/
- http://www.unhcr.org/ph/13427-seven-years-timeline-syria-crisis.html
- https://www.brookings.edu/research/millions-learning-scaling-up-quality-education-in-developing-countries/
Case 2: Gender Equality in Rwanda
- https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2016/07/29/487360094/invisibilia-no-one-thought-this-all-womans-debate-team-could-crush-it?t=1536917678130
- https://www.thesolutionsjournal.com/article/lessons-from-rwanda-how-women-transform-governance/
Non Reading:
- Ammodi, Nordic Africa Institute: Website
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETEOdtIm_ac
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8QUgu2KrM8
Nov 6: Participation and Corruption in the Democratic Regime
Guiding Questions
- What’s sustainable about democracy? Is democracy too slow for sustainability?
- How are democracies at risk of corruption?
- What are anti-democratic visions of sustainable futures?
- What challenges do we face now and in the future concerning democracy and participation? In what better ways can we organize democracy and participation?
Mandatory Reading/Watching:
- Ch. 7 “The Abuse of Corruption” in Africa Works: Disorder as Political Instrument (1999) by Chabal and Daloz (available in Uppsala university libraries)
- Evertsson, N. (2016a). Corporate tax avoidance: a crime of globalization. Crime, Law and Social Change, 66(2): 199-216
- The nexus between anti-corruption and human rights (first few pages – Executive Summary)
- Look at the profiles of our panelists, and come with questions! Louise Brown (http://www.credability.se/about-us/), Nubia Evertsson (www.lai.su.se/about-us/contact/nubia-evertsson-1.291939), and Mike Jones (https://www.slu.se/cv/mike-jones/)
SLS Case Report and Readings:
Case 1: Political corruption in Chile
- Jonathan Franklin, ” Chilean president rocked by corruption allegations against family members” , April 8 2015
- Sabine Kurtenbach, Detlef Nolte, “Latin Americas fight against corruption: The end of impunity”, June 2017.
(page 6-7 are of most relevance)
Case 2: US, participation, prisoners
- Richard A. Webster (2016), “6 million people denied voting rights due to felony convictions : report”.
- Farah Stockman (2018) “They Served Their Time. Now They’re Fighting for Other Ex-Felons to Vote.” The
New York Times . - The Sentencing Project, “The US is the world’s leader in incarceration”
Non Reading:
- Hope for Democracy: 30 Years of Participatory Budgeting Worldwide
- UN Global Compact A Guide for Anti-Corruption Risk Assessment https://www.unglobalcompact.org/library/411
- UN Global Compact Impact – Transforming Business, Changing the World https://www.unglobalcompact.org/library/1331
- UN Global Compact Progress Report 2018 https://www.unglobalcompact.org/library/5637
- ICC Guidelines on Agents, Intermediaries and Other Third Parties
Nov 13: Workshop 3 – Critical Reflections and Backcasting
Readings and instructions coming soon!
Guiding Questions
Mandatory Reading/Watching:
Non Reading:
Nov 20: Technology – The “Solution” to all our global challenges?
Guiding Questions
- Why do we perceive technology as the solution?
- What is ‘good’ technology and ‘bad’ technology?
- How is technology changing and will change environmental (eg energy use by smart devices), social (eg community life, love, privacy), and economic sustainability (eg robots as labour)?
Mandatory Reading/Watching:
- Christoph Rosol, Sara Nelson and Jürgen Renn (2017): In the machine room of the Anthropocene (6 pg)
- Langdon Winner 1980. Do artifacts have politics? Daedalus, 109: 121-36. (16 pg)
SLS Case Report and Readings:
- Case Report
- Threat of Plastic Pollution to Seabirds is global pervasive and increasing
- Production Use and Fate of all plastics ever made
Case 1: The Ocean Cleanup Project
Literature coming soon!
Case 2: Desalination for the city of Algiers – How seawater desalination plant eases water scarcity
- Paper: Drouiche et al. (2011) ‘Reasons for the Fast Growing Seawater Desalination Capacity in Algeria’
- Hamma seawater desalination plant receives OPIC impact award https://www.wateronline.com/doc/hamma-seawater-opic-impact-award-for-critical-infrastructure-0001
- Desalination in Africa https://theconversation.com/desalination-africa-should-rather-manage-its-water-resources-better-82948
Non Reading:
Further reading for SLS cases
- Freshwater from salt water using only solar energy
- Technical review and evaluation of the economics of water desalination: Current and future challenges for better water supply sustainability
Nov 27: Biodiversity and the Degradation of the Natural World
Guiding Questions
- What is the state of the ‘natural world’ today?
- Why is biodiversity important (for humans)?
- How could different knowledge systems (scientific, local, and tradition knowledge) contribute to transitioning towards a sustainable and climate-neutral future?
Mandatory Reading/Watching:
Basics of Biodiversity
- Why is biodiversity so important?- Kim Preshoff (2015, 4 min)
- California Academy of Sciences (2014, 13 min) Human activities that threaten biodiversity
- Suggested Reading from Marie Kvarnström:
- The living Planet Report
- Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services on pollinators, pollination and food production
- Land Degradation and Deforestation
- Trading forests: land-use change and carbon emissions embodied in production and exports of forest-risk commodities
More information on –
Extinction Events:
- Biological annihilation via the ongoing sixth mass extinction signaled by vertebrate population losses and declines
- Defaunation in the Anthropocene
Eco-Wisdom:
SLS Case Report and Readings:
Case 1: Low-Emissions Oil Palm Development in Berau District, East Kalimantan
- https://www.giz.de/en/worldwide/68074.html
- https://www.orangutan.org.uk/downloads/Palm%20Oil%20Development%20and%20Biodiversity%20Conservation.pdf
Case 2: Diving into Sustainable Marine Protected Area Management in the Philippines
Non reading list:
SLS further reading:
Dec 4: Missing Perspectives Session
More information coming soon!
Mandatory Reading/Watching:
Non Reading list: