Futuring for Sustainability

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Cursusdoel

Please note: the information in the course manual is binding.
In Futuring for sustainability we introduce students to the challenges and opportunities of planning a sustainable future. We discuss how social, political, and technological developments always interact, for better or worse. This course aims to help you to think critically about the future. Why do we work towards certain aspirations and not others? How can we create new and sustainable dreams?

After the course, you will be able to critically assess where sustainable futures might come from and who gets to determine what 'sustainability' is in the first place. The key term in this course is ‘futuring’: actively thinking and making (sustainable) futures. Simply put, this course aims to equip you with a new set of tools to think about where (un)sustainable futures may come from, what they might look like, how they are the result of present conditions and how they shape our decisions in the present.

This means that after following this course, students:
  • …understand the role of futures and futuring in relation to sustainability;
  • …are more aware of the need for alternative futures, on both ecological and social scientific grounds;
  • …can understand and apply a set of futuring interventions: namely backcasting, forecasting, scenario planning and modelling, horizon scanning, simulation gaming, and more;
  • …have a basic understanding of the most important philosophical underpinnings and ideas related to futuring;
  • …understand how imagined futures and their frames shape politics, economics, and society.

Vakinhoudelijk

The most important challenge of the coming decades is the need to craft a sustainable future. A sustainable future that is also just, desirable, and democratic. In this course, we connect technical and environmental questions around sustainability to social questions around equality, democracy, and participation – and show that these questions meet each other in our images of the future. What is a sustainable future? What do we think we know about the (sustainable) future? What can we know about the future? And who shapes our images and visions of and for the future? In the search for a sustainable future world, a world we want to live in, these questions are crucial. What we do in the present is always influenced by our expectations and aspirations. In the course Futuring for Sustainability, they are the central questions. In the course, we investigate sustainability from the perspective of the future, and try to understand how our images of the future can help (or hinder!) the sustainability transition. To do so, we look at how 'techniques of futuring', the practices we use to create ideas about the future, influence societal transformations towards sustainability. But what does a sustainable world look like? In what type of sustainable future would you want to live? How can we prepare and collaboratively create a sustainable world?

Our expectations about the future, and our dreams and imaginations for it, profoundly influence the way we act in the present. Visions of plausible, possible, or desirable futures are fundamentally important in shaping our social and environmental futures. For example, just think about the effects novels such as George Orwell’s 1984, films such as Back to the Future, and artistic styles such as Afrofuturism and steampunk have had on the way people feel about and prepare for the future. So too do unexpected downturns such as 9/11, the financial crisis, and the on-going C19 pandemic. But also think about the influence that climate projections and warnings about biodiversity loss have had on the way we act. Politics, society, and technology always rely on images of the future, on people acting based on their imaginations and expectations. In society, people and groups are also always actively trying to shape expectations and visions for the future. They are always trying to shape the future.

Drawing on a wide variety of literature, ranging from political science to urban planning to integrated assessment modelling, this course offers the Urban Futures Studio approach to shaping and creating visions for desirable sustainable futures. It also offers our interpretation of how to give those visions a social life, our take on making them affect processes in the real world.

Join us for an interactive course to learn to understand how techniques of futuring contribute to realising societal transformations towards sustainability: living well equitably within ecological means. Learn how to how people imagine alternative futures – and learn how to do so yourself. Understand futuring techniques including scenario planning, modeling, backcasting, experiential futuring, arts-based approaches, science fiction, and design. earn to understand where our current sustainability discourse comes from - and how 'the future' became an object of study. Lecturers from various disciplines will introduce what they deem to crucial insights for building a more sustainable future. This course builds your capacity to develop new visions and imaginations of possible futures and alternative sustainability pathways.

Werkvormen

Lectures
Toelichting

The course will be taught through weekly lectures and seminars. Lectures will be given by Dr. Jeroen Oomen and guest lecturers, such as prof. dr. Maarten Hajer, Lisette van Beek, and others.

Voorbereiding

We will assign specific (limited) material to read, listen, view in preparation of the general lectures.

Tutorial
Toelichting

Weekly seminars of up to twenty students with tutors aim to deepen the understanding of the course material.

Bijdrage

In groups, students analyse of past and present ‘futuring’ interventions, to see how these shaped the current present. Cases to study are suggested by the teachers, but students are encouraged to suggest their own. Seminars will also guide students in thinking creatively about their own imagined sustainable futures.

Voorbereiding

Early seminars will focus on in-depth reading of key texts. Later seminars center on the application and discussion of 'futuring' methods. This will include discussion of designs, presentations, or technologies make certain futures imaginable, inevitable, or impossible.

Toetsing

Eindresultaat

Verplicht | Weging 100% | ECTS 7,5

Ingangseisen en voorkennis

Ingangseisen

Je moet minimaal 45 punten van het bachelor programma hebben behaald

Voorkennis

We have no entry requirements for this course and we welcome students who choose this course to broaden (rather than deepen/specialise) their horizons. A basic understanding of sustainability issues would be helpful.

Voorkennis kan worden opgedaan met

For students uncertain about their prior knowledge about sustainability, we recommend watching TED talks by (easy to find online): Johan Rockström - On the Planetary Boundaries Tim Lenton - On Tipping Points Kate Raworth - On Doughnut Economics

Voertalen

  • Engels

Cursusmomenten

Gerelateerde studies

Thema's

Tentamens

Er is geen tentamenrooster beschikbaar voor deze cursus

Verplicht materiaal

Materiaal Omschrijving
LITERATUUR Peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and popular scientific articles, as well as videos, blogs and podcast. We will provide all of the literature at the start of the course. You do not have to buy anything

Aanbevolen materiaal

Er is geen informatie over de aanbevolen literatuur bekend

Coördinator

dr. J.J. Oomen j.j.oomen@uu.nl

Docenten

Inschrijving

Deze cursus is open voor bijvakkers. Controleer wel of er aanvullende ingangseisen gelden.

Inschrijving
Van maandag 18 september 2023 tot en met vrijdag 29 september 2023

Na-inschrijving
Van maandag 23 oktober 2023 tot en met dinsdag 24 oktober 2023

Inschrijving niet geopend
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