The Human Dimension of Sustainable Development: From Ideal to Reality

Course Objective
This course centres around a number of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), set by the United Nations (UN) in 2015. The UN’s ambition is that the SDGs will be achieved by 2030. Being at the halfway point, it is time to start taking stock of how these sustainable development goals have translated into development policy and practice across the globe.
The SDGs include a diverse set of goals, ranging from “no poverty” (goal 1) to “reduced inequalities” (goal 10) and from “sustainable cities and communities” (goal 11) to “peace, justice and strong institutions” (goal16). In this course, we aim to uncover the governance, organizational and grassroots dynamics of sustainable development pertaining to these four SDGs.

Course Content
This course revolves around the human dimension of sustainable development from an interdisciplinary perspective in order to highlight power configurations and different actors’ responsibilities and accountability. Building on the framework of the Millennium Development Goals (2000-2015), the SDGs were decided upon by the UN in 2015 to identify universal goals that address the economic, political, social, cultural and environmental challenges facing our world. We will address three levels of action: top-down (governance), meso-level (organization) and bottom-up (grassroots) that create and implement sustainable development.
The aim of this course is to help students understand the interface between the development priorities of national governments and international organizations, as well as bottom-up development initiatives of local communities, NGO's and private sector actors. Individuals, communities, governments and businesses approach sustainable development with different interests and expectations. Students will learn about these perspectives and analyse how and when they diverge and converge. Students will demonstrate their theoretical insights in a written exam and will apply several disciplinary perspectives in an interdisciplinary group assignment.

Teaching Methods
The course follows the format of interactive lectures, mid-term exam, workgroups and a final assignment in the form of video creation and a reflection report.
The course aims to adopt a case-based learning approach for some of the SDGs, merging theory and practice, such as focusing on the decolonization of development and involvement of racialized groups or indigenous peoples for SDG 10 (reduced inequality) as well as the emergence of strong (political, social) communities for SDG 11(sustainable cities and communities). The set of lectures will help students understand the human dimension of sustainable development from an interdisciplinary perspective, and it will encourage students to use their creativity in contributing to a sustainable future. In small group projects, students will work on addressing one of the discussed SDGs and show the interrelated disciplinary approaches.

Type of Assessment
Group assignment