Interdisciplinarity
and
Education for Sustainable
Development
Lars Rydén
Baltic University Programme
CSD Uppsala, Uppsala University, Sweden
Nordic and BUP ESD Conference
Åbo, 5-6 November 2013
Sustainable
development
is a child of many origins
Concern for the environment –
are we facing uncontrolled
pollution
• Rachel Carson Silent
Spring was published
in 1962
• It was followed by a
flood of reports
Concern for resource use – is
the carrying capacity of the
planet enough?
The theme was developed and given
a wider audience by the Russian
geochemist Vernadsky in a series of
lectures on the “biosphere” (Sorbonne
in the 1920s).
Swedish/American Geographer
Borgström in the 1950s warned for
overexploitation of resources,
and Hans Palmstierna talked
about plundering the Earth.
Concern for development – how
can we get rid of poverty and
develop welfare in the world?
• World bank, WB
• International Monetary
Fund, IMF
• International Aid
Something New Under the Sun
John McNeill, 2000
Development 1900 – 2000
• global population 4 x
• global economy 14 x
• industrial production 40 x
• energy use 16 x
• carbon dioxide emissions 17 x
• sulphur dioxide emissions 13 x
• ocean fishing catches 35 x
• number of pigs 9 x
• forests 0.8 x
• agricultural fields 2 x
• blue whale 0.0025 x
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Planetary boundaries
Rockström, J. et al., 2009. Nature, September 24, 2009.
Development!
From
Wackernagel and Reese
authors of the ecological footprint concept
”We live
in the
Anthropocene”
What does
Sustainability Science
say ?
The Friibergh Workshop
1.
2.
3.
4.
Scientists from the natural and social sciences and from across the world
convened at Sweden's Friibergh Manor in October 2000. Participants
concluded that
promoting the goal of sustainability requires the emergence and
conduct of the new field of sustainability science.
Sustainability science seeks to improve on the understanding of naturesociety interactions. By structure, method, and content, sustainability
science must differ fundamentally from most science as we know it.
Sustainability science will learn to work with all manner of social groups to
recognize how they come to gain knowledge, establish certainty of outlooks,
and adjust their perceptions as they relate to each other's needs.
Meeting the challenge of sustainability science will also require new styles
of institutional organization to foster and support inter-disciplinary
research over the long term; to build capacity for such research, especially
in developing countries; and to integrate such research in coherent systems
of research planning, assessment and decision support.
A new field of sustainability science is emerging that
seeks to understand the fundamental character of
interactions between nature and society; it needs to
move forward along three pathways. First there should
be wide discussions within the scientific community
regarding key questions, appropriate methodologies,
and institutional needs. Second, science must be
connected to the political agenda for sustainable
development and third (and most important) research
itself must be focused on the character of nature-society
interactions, on our ability to guide those interactions
along sustainable trajectories, and on ways to
promoting the social learning that will be necessary to
navigate the transition to sustainability.
Transdisciplinary Research
Characteristics
• Related to real-life problems and specific problem
solving
• Transcending of disciplinary and paradigmatic
boundaries
• Participation of (non-academic) stakeholders
• Acceptance of diverse perspectives, problem framings
and interpretations
• Holistic, i.e. non-reductionistic approach
• Explicity normative: knowlegde production to solving
specific problems (transformative knowledge)
Sustainability Science as
Post-normal science
Research begins with a polticially/socially relevant
probelmatique, requires big projects and is expected to lead to
applied knowledge.
Systems are characterised by
- uncertainty (facts are uncertain!)
- complexity
- values in dispute,
- high stakes,
- decisions urgent
Science is applied in conditions that are anything but "normal“!
Post-Normal Science
Applied science
Management and Consulting
Post -normal Science
(Funtowicz und Ravetz 1999:641, Funtowicz und Ravetz 2008:362, Decker 2007:17; verändert)
Sustainable
development
requires that we understand
systems
Gwendolyn
Hallsmith
Global
Community
Initiatives
Leads
to mor
e
Leads to
more
Suburban
Development
Vehicle Use
M
O
mo
re
RE
e
r
to mo
RE
M
O
M
O
Infrastructure
Le
ad
st
to m
Leads
ore
om
ore
Leads
mo
re
ds
to
Lea
Lea
ds
to
E
R
Big Box
Stores
Road
Congestion
SPRAWL
Urban Blight
Services
Transportation
O
M
R
E
s
Lead
ore
to m
Housing
Urban Flight
Car
Sales
Suburban Road
Construction
18
Aral Sea, 1957 coastline in red
Cause: Diversion of rivers to irrigate cotton
Effect: A whole system of impacts
Nature
Society
• Ecosystem collapse • Population collapse
• Loss of soil fertility • Collapse of institutions
Economy
Health & Wellbeing
• Loss of fishery
• Respiratory illness
• Loss of industries & • Depression and
agriculture
related problems
Figure 1. Causal loop diagram (CLD) with determinants of population (from de Vries,
2013, p. 304). The key determinants, birth rate and death rate are in bold. The
influence of education and health on family size is here only indirect. There may be
reasons to add arrows to indicate these as direct.
Levels of Systems Thinking
Beginning
Intermediate
Advanced
• Modeling of
system elements
• Modeling of system
structures
➤
Modeling of system
dynamics
• Seeing multiple
linkages among
elements
• Differentiating
among stocks,
flows, feedback
loops
➤
Quantification of
stocks and flows
➤
Use of math to mimic
system behaviors
➤
Generates computer
models for scenario
exploration and
validation against real
world cases
• Systems mapping
with cause-andeffect chains (and
some loops)
• Generates new
ideas for change
Based on Alan AtKisson
• Formal causal loop
diagrams
• Generates new
insights about
system behavior
How can we develop
interdisciplinarity and
systems thinking in
the classroom?
Which disciplines do we need?
Which disciplines need ESD?
•
•
•
•
Basic disciplines
Natural sciences – biology, geology, physics, …
Economics – policy instruments, investments, growth …
Social sciences – governance,, sociology, ethnology ….
Humanities – history, literature, ….
Applied disciplines:
• Engineering, business administration, ….
Professional skills
• Journalism
• Languages
Obstacles for interdisciplinarityInternal
Environment in focus:
Sustainable Development has for a very long time a focus on
the environment and natural sciences. Others have felt
excluded.
The two cultures dilemma:
General education expects students to be familiar with
literature, the existing political system, what money and banks
are; however kWh, phosphate and eutrophication are accepted
as mysteries.
The disciplinary character of SD
Sustainable development has so far been mainly
environmental: Aspects of economics, human welfare, the
political systems etc have been underdeveloped.
Obstacles for interdisciplinarity –
external
Discipline-oriented mentality
Universities are organised along disciplines: ”The world has
problems, universities have departments“
Faculty mentality
Especially in the CEE faculties are quite independent, like
small universities; many students never leave their faculty!
Reductionism
The prevaling research culture is very reductionist. In
particular PhD students have great difficulties to think
outside their narrow topic.
Possibilities for interdisciplinarity
Composition of classes
Classes should if possible be composed of students with
different disciplinary backgrounds – it makes learning and
discussions much more interesting.
Case studies
Real-world problems are interdisciplinary – students can
work with cases of real-world problems.
Managment skills
Management of SD requires multidisciplinarity. Each
course on SD should best include aspects of management.
Management of Sustainable
development
The problem to be defined
The system to be specified
Stakeholders to be identified
The process to be chosen
Next:
Role game?
The real thing?
A pyramid workshop with Alan AtKisson using the ISIS managment method
The management process
(EHSA book III – Rural Development, pp 205-315)
1. Agree on what is sustainable development (the concept) among those
concerned.
2. Agree on a framework to be used to describe and work with the “system”
(the area or society to be planned).
3. Agree on a vision for the area in a future time, such as 20-50 years ahead.
4. Decide on a number of parameters to be followed, indicators, to measure
and monitor sustainability.
5. Decide on which parts of the society or system to address, and in a process
of innovation, find ways to improve these and design a number of projects.
6. Run projects often over a period of some 2-3 years.
How did Baltic
University
Programme
contribute to
interdisciplinarity?
A systems view has been
there from the beginning
• Publications have been interdisciplinary
(multidisciplinary) and regional in scope.
• Conferences (teachers and student
conferences) have gathered teachers and
students from many disciplines.
Teachers Conferences
33
Case 1: The Environmental
Science book
• The ES book (2003) has 25 chapters including natural
science (biology, chemistry, physics, etc), Economy,
Environmental Law, Engineering, Politics, etc.
• It is meant to include the whole map of background needed
for a student to start working in an authority, industry etc on
issues of environmental protection
• In real life situations it is not OK to say that you only know
pollution, or environmental law, or engineering. You are
responsible for the environment! That is all!
• Was the book used with this intention? To a very limited
extent!
Case 2:
Peoples of the Baltic and
The Baltic Sea region
• The POB course material consisted of ten books (1993)
covering 8 themes, such as history, languages, minorites,
peace and conflicts etc. Each book was followed by a 2 hrs
video. It was later expanded in the Baltic Sea region –
cultures, politics, societies book (2002). The least successful
of all BUP undergraduate course.
• It is an area studies program. Thus in itself inter-disciplinary
since it focuses on the region, rather than a discipline. Is there
a basic theory, a paradigm, of area studies? If so it is
sustainable development.
Case 3:
A Sustainable Baltic Region
The SBR course material consists of ten books (1997 and
last edition 2000,) covering problematiques or areas of
society, rather than disciplines. Each book is followed by a
45 minutes documentary video.
SBR has been a spectacular success. The books have
been translated into 4 languages: The course has
registered 4000 students yearly for a long period, and
introduced SD to some 50,000 students in the region.
Today it has been updated as a open net-based material:
www.balticuniv.uu.se/sustainabledevelopmentcourse
Contents of the on-line Sustainable
Development Course
1. Historical background and concepts
2. Energy use and climate impact
3. Resources and limits to growth
4. Urbanisation
5. Sustainable production and consumption
6. Life and land, food and fibres
7. Mobility
8. Human welfare and sustainable life style
9. The political dimensions of sustainability
10. Economy and sustainable development
11. Changes and management
12. Education
8. Human welfare and
sustainable life styles
8a. Demography and population change
8b. Welfare
8c. Social sustainability, happiness and the
one-planet-life
8b. Welfare
A sustainable society needs to secure human welfare. Welfare is very multidimensional and in addition different for each person and it also depends on the
society. Basic is security, health, and justice; to secure basic needs such as food, and
access to education and work opportunities. Human welfare will be touched upon here
and in several other sessions, in particular see also Session 8c, and Session 10 b.
Welfare is an important component of the social dimension of sustainable development.
Here we will attempt to define what is included in basic needs and rights. This is not
similar to resource flows and other physical and biological conditions, and we will have
to rely on norms, that is ethics, as first principles, rather than laws of nature.
Materials for session 8b
Basic level
1. History of Universal human rights up to WW2 by Moira Rayner
2. The creation of the universal declaration of human rights by
Peter Bailey
3. Universal declaration of human rights
4. Read chapter 40, pages 510-519: Population and living
standards by Galina Safarova in: The Baltic Sea Region – Cultures,
Politics, Societies.
5. Read chapter 42, pages 529-542: Women and gender in history in
the Baltic region by Marina Thorborg in: The Baltic Sea Region –
Cultures, Politics, Societies.
Materials for session 8b
Medium level (widening)
1. Read chapter 44, pages 556-567: Work and unemployment by
Marina Thorborg in: The Baltic Sea Region – Cultures, Politics,
Societies.
2. Read Rural Development and work opportunities in the Baltic
Sea Region by Marina Thorborg in Rural Development and Land Use.
3. Read chapter 45, pages 568-581: Use and abuse of tobacco,
alcohol and narcotics – a Baltic dilemma by Sture Korpi, Lars
Rydén and Vera Segraeus in: The Baltic Sea Region – Cultures,
Politics, Societies.
Advanced level (deepening)
1. Examine how your country’s social security is organised
What is the new material on SD?
1. It is a material not a course
Each teacher may decide how to use it – where to start, how much to
include, the learning outcomes, i.e. the curriculum. It is a bus – not an
intinery (with defined stops) or timetable.
2. It supports a student-focused education
It should allow the teacher to lecture less and organise seminars more
3. Global and open access
It is less regional and opens up for students from all over the world to
use it.
4. Interdisciplinarity
With large sections on human welfare, economics, politics and
transition (change) it gives new points of entrance for humanities and
social sciences.
Character of BUP courses
BUP attempts to contribute to a BSR higher education area. The
same course is offered at different universities, and may be
equivalized by credit transfers (ECTS).
ICT is used for cooperation and mass scale “virtual mobility”.
Distance lectures, audio and video conferences are promoted.
BUP courses develops a competence not provided by the normal
curriculum. They address regional development, use a systems
approach (interdisciplinary) and promote regional understanding.
The courses are often connected to applied projects in cooperation
with other actors in society. They ask for problem solving and
practical results.
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We need
sustainable
development
!
Thank
you for
listening
www.balticuniv.uu.se/sustainabledevelopmentcourse
EXPLORE WAYS INTO THE FUTURE!
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