Professors: DIXSON-DECLEVE Sandrine & VAROQUIE Antoine Academic Assistant: Margaux COGNARD
Human history and development are marked by constant change and its intensity fluctuates from minor adaptations to deep structural disruptions. Presently – as documented in many political statements and ambitious strategy documents like the European Green Deal – humanity as a whole is undergoing what historians would label a Great Transformation: leaving the fossil fuel age whilst at the same time entering a digital one whilst facing intensifying ecological risks and limitations as well as growing social inequality forces societies into making radical choices: do they manage to implement structural change of their current modes of production and consumption quick and comprehensively enough to achieve desirable societal goals like those in the sustainable development agenda by design? Or will politically enabled transition processes be too slow or unambitious and transformation will happen by responding to disaster? Scholars and practitioners working on green and fair transitions clearly opt for the design-approach and visiting both, current theory and practice will be subject of this course.
Sustainability transitions are described as a co-evolutionary and interdependent change of multiple societal dimensions: knowledge and resource base, technological possibilities and infrastructures, market and industry patterns, user practices and cultural meanings, and political relations and frameworks. The course is thus by definition a non-disciplinary one, drawing on natural sciences, social sciences and political economy as well as the humanities to invite all participants to see their own role in shaping our common future.