Pre-Course Assignment
Pre-course assignment aims to encourage students to research a particular sustainability issue and write an essay that reflects their findings during the research period. This assignment has to be completed before LUMES starts since there is a presentation session of essays which provides feedback from peers and also, students will get their individual feedbacks from assigned teachers.
The assignment aims to assist students to discover their personal interests about sustainability issues and allows them to reflect via essay. This task is quite effective in terms of getting familiar with academic writing skills and organizing essay structure before lectures begin and also useful in relation with improving and shaping the students’ ideas and visions through feedbacks.
Essay presentations allow students relate their knowledge with the others’ that coming from different countries/backgrounds, and this ultimately contributes to process of creating a common understanding of sustainability – so called LUMES journey.
Time Period: Hand in before the start of the programme (details will be sent to students via email)
Administrative Teacher and Examiner:
Environmental Problem Awareness
During this course, students are becoming familiar with sustainability challenges and current environmental problems that world is experiencing. Along with class lectures and individual tasks, students are also learning to work in an interdisciplinary and multi-cultured groups and review each other’s contributions.
Throughout the course, students are being informed about wide range of environmental problems such as climate change, global health issue, overfishing, food security, deforestation and land use change, population growth, biodiversity loss, poverty etc. In addition to asset of becoming familiar with natural sciences aspect, linkages between management and governance systems, role of education and how simple solutions might have profound impacts on society are being discussed as an introduction to social theories and sustainability science.
In order to develop learning skills of students, class lectures and group discussions are complemented with several field trips and a 3-day excursion to Breanäs which allow students to have a contact with nature itself and observe conditions in the field by themselves.
Time Period: August 24- September 23, 2011
Credits: 7.5 ETCS
Administrative Teacher and Examiner:
Ideas Behind Economy, Environment and Society
Understanding the function of natural ecosystems and identifying their roles within bigger picture of sustainability is essential. However, in order to achieve a sustainable state, society and accordingly individuals are the key actors that have means to change and adapt themselves to new conditions.
In this context, ideas course introduces social theory and different school of thoughts that aim to explain human nature in various ways throughout history. Lectures and readings provide an insight to economic, political and social components of sustainability. Also, assignments aim to improve students’ skills in relation with using social theory as a tool to understand complex human systems holistically and accordingly contributing decision-making process with suitable approaches and actors.
One of the most significant outcomes of the course is teaching students, how can we use social theory in order to cope with environmental problems and sustainability challenges we are confronting and on what extent different ideologies contribute to reconciliation of society’s needs and environmental protection measures.
Time Period: September 26- October 28, 2011
Credits: 7.5 ETCS
Administrative Teacher and Examiner:
Sustainability Science
Human systems and natural systems have specific characteristics that makes them quite complex systems to understand, interpret and tackle. On the other hand, dealing with crucial sustainability challenges and identifying their underlying reasons is strongly linked with how we deal with the interaction of these two complex systems.
Sustainability Science course provides an opportunity to understand the significance of linking knowledge to action through implementing problem-focused and interdisciplinary approaches. Furthermore, throughout the course, assets such as, adopting complexity as an analyze method, linking the global context with local, incorporating society and nature into problem-solving process and getting help from other disciplines will be discussed.
Theories such as systems thinking, resilience, transitions, ecological economics and other related systematic inter-disciplinary approaches will be introduced in order to facilitate students’ holistic thinking and system modeling activities.
Time Period: October 31- November 25, 2011
Credits: 7.5 ETCS
Administrative Teacher and Examiner:
Environmental Governance
Course aims to provide an insight to governance aspect of dealing with environmental challenges. Throughout the course, the term “governance” will be analyzed further and its political, economical and social dimensions will be pointed out through class discussions, lectures and individual tasks.
Learning about incorporating different levels of governance, adopting various agents and including different perspectives to decision-making process are some of the main points of the course.Furthermore, the significance of inter-disciplinary approach, integration of natural and social systems will be discussed in a similar way to Sustainability Science course.
Interpreting the dynamics of social change, complex power structures and policy making process requires a holistic way of thinking in order to change existing non-functioning practices. In this context, governance course is essential in terms of gaining the relevant skills and knowledge.
Time Period: November 28, 2011 – January 13, 2012
(No classes Dec 17, 2011 – Jan 8, 2012)
Credits: 7.5 ETCS
Administrative Teacher and Examiner:
Methodology, Methods and Tools for Environmental Studies and Sustainability Science
Students will be informed about theories, epistemological considerations, techniques and other relevant tools in order to construct a scientific research. Lectures that aim to give introduction to course and general information will be followed by specific optional methodology courses.
Qualitative methods, system analysis and statistics will be the options and each of them will provide further information with related method through class discussions, reflection papers and researches.
Along with providing comprehensive information regarding methodology and techniques, course also aims to provide a basis for thesis writing process and future academic writings.
Time Period: January 16 – March 16, 2012
Credits: 15 ETCS
Administrative Teacher and Examiner:
Environment and Health
Epidemiology, ecotoxicology, environmental pollution and global health issues and related sub-topics will be covered within Environment and Health course.Their definitions, relations with sustainability, effects, drivers and control methods will be introduced.
Students will have the chance to explore further the topics they have personal interest through presentations and workshops. On the other hand, home exam, lectures and course paper will provide a deeper understanding of fundamental health issues in relation with environment. Finally, specific methods such as health impact assessment and environmental health risk assessment will be explained.
Time Period: March 19 – April 27, 2012
(No classes March 31 – April 9)
Credits: 7.5 ETCS
Administrative Teacher and Examiner:
Development and Sustainability
Development and sustainability course, examines these two fundamental concepts and their inevitable clash. Throughout the course, impacts of development, its sustainability implications will be introduced through a timeline starting from 1980′s.
In this context, certain topics will be particularly discussed including poverty alleviation, globalization and economic growth. These discussions will be harnessed as a baseline for introducing new concepts such as Amartya Sen’s human development.
Overall, course critically evaluates traditional development practices and its sustainability implications. Accordingly, course asserts new ways of reconciling these two clashing concepts which is essential in terms of finding viable solutions for sustaining both economic growth and life quality.
Time Period: April 30-June 3, 2012
Credits: 7.5 ETCS
Administrative Teacher and Examiner:
Energy and Sustainability
Energy is one of the hot topics that has being discussed by politicians, environmentalist, economists and other scientists. In this regard, students will have the chance to learn about various energy resources and their roles within governance and policy making process.
Each energy source has its pros and cons, but it is quite significant to examine entire energy provision chain in order to do accurate evaluations. Energy and Sustainability course, allows students to learn about energy systems through individual tasks and also through group works. In this context, group works consist considerable part of the grade and portion of the entire course. This allow students to learn from each other through creating a common decision-making while trying to solve real-life situations as tasks.
Lectures supported with guest lecturers provide different perspectives and field trips contribute to learning and understanding through experiences.
Course is optional.
Time Period: August 29-October 28, 2011
Credits: 7.5 ETCS Administrative Teacher and Examiner:
Water and Sustainability
This course is a comprehensive study of the various aspects of water resource management focusing on the complex interaction of technical, social, environmental, and economic issues. Through diverse sustainability science approaches, the course seeks a profound knowledge and understanding of the roles of water in society and of the underlying reasons for environmental impacts and social conflicts related to water. A wide array of teaching methods are employed in the course including literature review, lectures, debates, seminars, and field visits. The evaluated course work load consists of assignments and associated presentations as well as participation throughout the class term.
The course begins with the fundamental properties of the hydrological cycle as basis for recognizing and assessing environmental impacts on all scales; global, regional and local. This section is supplemented by a full day field excursion which visits regional water sources, municipal drinking water plants, wetland restoration areas, scenic rivers, agricultural water users and wastewater treatment plants. Following is an examination of differing perspectives on water governance and the controversial impacts of water privatization. Next the course introduces and critiques the widely promoted strategy of Integrated Water Resource Management(IWRM) with a field visit to Kristanstad Vattenrike, a UNESCO Biosphere reserve in Eastern Sweden, a truly interesting water management case.
The Water and Sustainability Course provides a strong base for understanding current issues surrounding water management. Through the use of different methodologies and the study of diverse topics, the course gives students a strong capacity to discuss and assess anthropogenic and environmental factors influencing water management strategies and technologies and the related positive and negative impacts on sustainable water management. The skills learned in this course bring an ability to apply analytical concepts to real world cases and to make informed reviews of scientific texts within the area of water management and sustainability. Most importantly, the course stresses the value of interdisciplinary and intersectoral communication on critical sustainability issues related to Water.
Course is optional.
Time Period: August 29-October 28, 2011
Credits: 7.5 ETCS
Administrative Teacher and Examiner:
Industry and Sustainability
Industry and Sustainability course initially will be examining complex relations of globalization, trade, corporations and sustainability. In relation with this, global resource flows, supply chain management will be analyzed in order to indicate problems within current system and modes to upgrade industries will be discussed.
Industrial ecology will be introduced as a tool which might pave the way to achieve an equilibrium between economic growth and environmental conservation. Through analyzing its impacts, implications, contributions and limitations students will gain further understanding of global issues and potential solution approaches. In this regard, sustainable consumption, sustainable production concepts will be another focus point, along with industry-policy interactions and social responsibility.
Students will have the chance to discover their personal interests through wide-range of topics that covered in lectures, and also, they will be able to reflect these interests through combining other sustainability tools through final reflection paper, class discussions, seminars and presentations.
Course is optional.
Time Period: August 29-October 28, 2011
Credits: 7.5 ETCS
Administrative Teacher and Examiner:
Stefan Anderberg, LUCSUS. stefan.anderberg@lucsus.lu.se
Transportation and Sustainability
Transport and Sustainability aims at increasing the understanding of different mechanisms to make change towards sustainable transport. There are books and papers on economic instruments, physical planning, legislation and regulations, innovation policies and how to psychologically influence norms and attitudes. With this broad array of instruments of change there are many opportunities to learn new things, mix the instruments and be creative.
The learning is primarily through student-led discussions based on the the readings with commentaries and direction provided by the teacher. It is an informal and contemplative course. It is a course where much is demanded in the way of thinking and letting the readings “digest”. The course is finished off with a paper which the teacher wants to be interesting, relevant and coherent.
Course is optional.
Time Period: August 29-October 28, 2011
Credits: 7.5 ETCS
Administrative Teacher and Examiner:
Stefan Anderberg, LUCSUS. stefan.anderberg@lucsus.lu.se
Urban Systems and Sustainability
According to researches, most of the human society is living in urban areas which consist of cities. On the other hand, growing population, urban sprawl, increasing industrial practices and many others damage the sustainability of these urban ecosystems. In this context, course presents various approaches to cope with this problem in a very flexible frame.
Lectures will highlight sustainability issues within cities which includes social, ethnical, ecological and economical problems. This section will be further analyzed through covering fundamental problems such as inequality, tensions between groups, increased economic gap between the poor and the rich, pollution, resource depletion, crime and others. Informative lectures, class discussions and supplementary class readings aim to facilitate the understanding of students regarding complex urban ecosystems and use these information within their final papers.
Lectures are complemented with educative and fun field trips to Malmö and Copenhagen areas which aim to present real-life examples and utilization of associated theories in practice, thus improve the assets of the course. Finally, class schedule allows students to peer-review each other’s paper and build a discussion upon it which ultimately improves the quality of papers. Also, paper presentations in a group environment, will provide a holistic understanding of sustainable urban systems concept through incorporating very different topics that students individually focused.
Course is optional.
Time Period: October 31- November 25, 2011
Credits: 7.5 ETCS
Administrative Teacher and Examiner:
Stefan Anderberg, LUCSUS. stefan.anderberg@lucsus.lu.se
Rural Systems and Sustainability
Rural systems, loosely defined as the 98% of the Earth’s surface not covered by dense urban settlements, supply us with both the physical materials and the ecosystem services upon which human well-being relies. Natural and managed ecosystems feed the growing global population and provide livelihood for many, including a majority of the world’s poor. In this course, we will explore the sustainability implications of food production, the largest driver of human transformation and pressure on the planet, particularly in the context of land use and climate change. We will also examine cases in forestry, tourism, and economic and development policy and impact assessment.
The course instruction consists of lectures, a problem set analyzing UN data on food production and rural trends, literature seminars, and an excursion to the local rural systems in Skåne, including organic and conventional dairies and a dairy processing cooperative facing the challenges of local marketing in an age of globalization. The major learning activity in the course is the production of a substantial research paper, in preparation for undertaking the independent MSc thesis. This includes a peer-review process to improve academic writing and revising skills.
Time Period: October 31- November 25, 2011
Credits: 7.5 ETCS
Administrative Teacher and Examiner:
Kimberly Nicholas, LUCSUS. kimberly.nicholas@lucsus.lu.se
Making Change Happen
LUMES is about learning to change the world to more sustainable pathways. LUMES graduates should be able to make change happen by both doing the right things and doing things right. In addition, this year 4 new seminars have been added to programme which allows students learn from each other through interactive sessions in relation with optional courses they did not choose.
During different LUMES courses you will get many ideas about unsustainable practices you are eager to try to change. In the Making Change Happen course some of these ideas can be put into practice and the theoretical learning from different courses be put to a test in real life!
In the Making Change Happen Project you work together in a group of students actively promoting change while learning how to speed up processes of change to increase sustainability – and having fun doing it! At the end of the course you communicate the project work process and the experiences at a Project Exhibition, and write both a theoretically based group report evaluating the project, and an individual reflection paper.
Time Period: November 28, 2011- January 13, 2012
Credits: 7.5 ETCS
Administrative Teachers and Examiners:
Ingegerd Ehn, LUCSUS. ingegerd.ehn@lucsus.lu.se
Stefan Anderberg, LUCSUS. stefan.anderberg@lucsus.lu.se
Thesis Work
The fourth and final term is devoted to the composition of a thesis, where students demonstrate their ability to carry out an integrated defined task, solve it in a set period of time and adequately report the results of the work.
The student selects a topic with relevance to sustainability and works independently with the guidance of a supervisor. The thesis should have an inter-disciplinary approach; it should be clear that the student studied at the LUMES programme and gained the knowledge, skills and attitudes that are broader than the usual mono-disciplinary academic backgrounds.
The thesis works mainly consists of writing a thesis requiring 20 weeks of effective individual work in the period from January to May, supported by a supervisor from Lund University or elsewhere. The thesis work also includes a number of thesis workshop sessions in advance, where research and writing methods are discussed, and where the individual initial drafting of the thesis scope and outline is discussed. The thesis work can be done individually or with another student; in the latter case the contribution of each student should be clearly indicated.
Time Period: January- May, 2012
Thesis Defence Seminars, May 28- May 30, 2012
Graduation, June 1, 2012
Credits: 15 ETCS
Administrative Teachers and Examiners:
Stefan Anderberg, LUCSUS. stefan.anderberg@lucsus.lu.se
Anne Jerneck, LUCSUS. anne.jerneck@lucsus.lu.se
Lennart Olsson, LUCSUS. lennart.olsson@lucsus.lu.se
