Sustainability: scientific and social issues

Objective

The course aims to introduce the major contemporary environmental issues, then to introduce the conceptual contents of sustainability and, in fine, to discuss the various responses, and to know the main social scenarios in the scientific literature.

Content

Planetary overview:

• About economic activities from the 1950s onwards
• Income in terms of the planetary distribution of wealth
• Resource status and disturbance status of the biosphere system
• Genetic awareness of environmental problems
• The five characteristics of contemporary environmental problems: globality; invisibility; imprecision; visibility; inertia/irrationality; versibility; flows versus pollution
• Presentation of the major ecological scenarios: 1) Fundamentalist ecology; 2) Authoritarian ecology; 3) Sustainable development; 4) Prosperity without growth

The fundamentalist scenario:

• The intrinsic value
• Aldo Leopold
• Arne Naess
• Can we build a legal system that is no longer anthropocentric
• Can we construct a moral system that is no longer anthropocentric?
• Can we build a political system that is no longer anthropocentric
• Breaking the deadlock by moving on from biocentric galitarianism

The authoritarian scenario:

• Hans Jonas and the Principle of Responsibility;
• A situation inédite
• The Principle and its implications for the very concept of responsibility;
• The heuristics of fear
• The principle of responsibility and public policy
• Critique de l’autoritarisme en environnement

The sustainable development scenario:

• Historical introduction
• High vs. low sustainability
• Sustainable development, principles and strategies of sustainability: a) the 3 pillars; b) the principle of precaution; c) public debate; d) strategies for de-accessioning (clean production, co-design, co-branding, etc.); e) the principle of sustainable development, co-design, industrial ecology, circular economy and 3Rs strategy, functionality economy 1 and 2) and coupling
• Critical assessment: a) weakness of the concept; b) failure of coupling and reasons for failure; c) prospects

The prosperous scenario without growth

• Introduction to prosperity without growth
• Genetics of the critique of growth
• Pistes pour un modèle macro-économique sans croissance
• National governance and long-term management
• International governance and management of the long term
• Corporate governance
• Values and lifestyles

Objective

The courses-seminars aims to deepen the understanding of key notions and concepts raised in the course, through readings drawn from a targeted bibliography, concrete measures experimented with, and interdisciplinary discussions and reflections. 

The aim is to get students from different backgrounds to work together as a group, imagining and co-constructing creative solutions to the main obstacles raised during the course. 

They will be given the opportunity to mobilize their own sustainability trajectories and respective expectations in order to broaden their vision and lay solid foundations in sustainability expertise.

Content

Running of the séances : the idea of the seminar is to enable you to explore theoretical and practical themes in greater depth as a group, enriched by your backgrounds and training disciplines, so that you can work on them for the rest of the semester. 

As the year progresses, you'll deepen your knowledge through teacher presentations, as well as targeted presentations by researchers on their sustainability-related research, and by players in the world of sustainability.

You will learn and put into practice various tools to help you get organized together.

At the end of the seminar, you'll be asked to submit a report incorporating a series of thematic measures freely chosen and co-created throughout the seminar by integrating your best proposals and reflections. 

Each week we'll have alternating facilitation, intervention and collective work sessions to co-construct your report. Together we'll set up discussion sessions with sustainability experts and players.

Intervention calendar

The list of speakers will be announced during the seminar.

Course: can be taken without the "course-seminar".
Course-seminar: it is necessary to have followed and validated; or to follow in parallel ‘Sustainability: scientific and social issues’ course

Course: continuous control
Course-seminar: a poster presented and a report on the work of reflection during the semester.

NB: The corresponding credits for this course cannot be validated for FGSE students

Sophie Swaton : Sophie.Swaton@unil.ch
Alias Poma : alias.poma@unil.ch