UTVB2500 Choices of Sustainability Transitions Emneplan

The Faculty of Education and International Studies at Oslo and OsloMet offers interdisciplinary courses in Development Studies and North-South relations, leading to a Bacherlor's degree in Development Studies of 180 ECTS credits. This course on Problems of Sustainability is at the intermediate level and represents a 10 ECTS credits module in the 5th semester of the bachelor programme.

The course will be taught in English (or Norwegian, depending on needs according to the participants' language abilities). The exam papers can be written in English, Norwegian, Swedish or Danish

The course is open to students who have completed at least a one-year introductory course in Development Studies at either OsloMet, or equivalent courses at other universities/university colleges in Norway or abroad

On successful completion of the course, the student has acquired the following learning outcomes classified as knowledge, skills and general competencies.

Knowledge The student can

• identify different dimensions and interpretations of the terms «sustainability», «sustainable development», «the Anthropocene» and "the Capitalocene";
• discuss explanations of the present situation of "unsustainable development", and its historical background;
• identify the range of approaches and history behind sustainability transitions, such as doughnut economics, ecomodernism/green growth, degrowth, and the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Skills The student can

• reflect critically on the main strengths and weaknesses of frameworks for sustainability transitions in the context of countries both in the Global North and South, as well as in the relation between the North and South;
• identify political and economic impediments to sustainability transitions in the contemporary world.

General competenciesThe student

• has obtained a basic competence to critically examine, discuss and take part in democratic decision making and action regarding choices of sustainability transitions;
• has obtained a basic competence to identify "greenwashing", "green colonialism" and other types of unjustifiable claims of sustainability transition.

This course offers basic knowledge about sustainable and unsustainable development and the range of framework for sustainability transitions. Emphasis is put on the relationship between rich and poor countries.

The course will highlight the various uses of the term sustainability, sustainable/unsustainable development, the Anthropocene and the Capitalocene. Students will learn about the problems and challenges that these concepts address, and the main historical trajectories of global development that have brought us to the present situation. A main objective of the course is to introduce the students to insights and tools to critically discuss the broad range of choices about sustainability transitions.

There will be lectures and teacher-led seminars. Students are expected to participate actively in group work and discussions during seminars.

Activities with compulsory attendance

It is compulsory to attend the seminars. These are considered essential for developing skills and general competence, as they give the students the opportunity to verbalize, analyze and discuss key issues of the course. The group work on which the seminars are based require that most students are present.

Students with undocumented absence from more than 25 % of these seminars cannot take the exam. Students who have attended less than 75 % of the seminars, but can document valid compelling reasons for all the absences, will have to submit a written paper on a given theme as compensation in order to be able to take the exam. The length of the paper shall be in the range of 2,000-5,000 words, depending on the number of seminars missed.

Students shall also take part in online discussions on topics from the course. Each student is required to post at least four contributions of a minimum of 50-100 words each. Taking part in an online discussion of the course contents ensures the active involvement of the students with the issues the course deals with, and thus enhances learning. Information on deadlines for posting and questions to respond to will be given at the start of the course. If a deadline is not met, the student will be given a new deadline. However, unless all four posts have been posted by the last lecture/seminar (whichever comes last), the student cannot take the exam.

The course is assessed on the basis of an individual written home exam over 96 hours, with a scope of 2,500 words +/- 10 %. 

Resit/rescheduled exam:

Resit/rescheduled exam is organised in the same way as the ordinary exam. 

All aids are permitted, as long as the rules for source referencing are complied with.

A graded scale from A to E for passed and F for not passed will be used.

The exam will be jointly marked by an internal and an external examiner. The external examiner will read a selection of the exam papers and collaborate with the internal examiner in a way that benefits all the students.