General provisions

The course is compulsory for students admitted to the Master's program in implementation, transformative learning and sustainability, but can also be given as a stand-alone course.

Entry requirements

A Bachelor's degree, equivalent to a Swedish Kandidatexamen, from an internationally recognised university. Proficiency in English equivalent to the Swedish upper secondary course English 6.

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course students are expected to be able to:

• Describe, in writing and speech, how institutions can both constrain and enable the management and governance of sustainability dilemmas, focusing on successful examples.
• Describe, evaluate and critically reflect upon the application and choice of different policy approaches (and or mixes) that enable social learning under varying socio-biophysical conditions.
• Describe, evaluate and critically discuss, using course literature, when social learning should be applied as a governance approach.
• Identify and critically relate, in writing and speech, successful examples of post-normal governance to the theories of governance.

Content

This course explores the role of institutions and policies in fostering social learning across different societal intersections at various scales, from local to global. This understanding is crucial in reconciling sustainability challenges in global health contexts. The course departs from post-normal conditions, which refers to situations in which "facts are uncertain, complexity is the norm, values are in dispute, stakes are high and decisions are urgent". Post-normal theory aims to recast the view of socio-biophysical problems as social dilemmas whereby the governance situation is shaped by an irreducible degree of complexity and uncertainty and the presence of power differentials. This course encourages the students to critically reflect upon the appropriate mix of coercive and non-coercive policy approaches to enable transformation​ in different contexts under post-normal conditions.

Instruction

The course consists of lectures, literature studies, mandatory seminars and group and individual assignments and presentations. Sessions are interactive and students are encouraged to draw on their own experiences from the fields presented. The language of instruction is English.

Assessment

All written exams and mandatory parts must be approved to pass the course. The course's final grade is based on a weighted rating of all course sections. Possibility to complete non-approved mandatory assignments may be given at the next course opportunity, at the earliest, and only in case of vacancy. If there are special reasons for doing so, an examiner may make an exception from the method of assessment indicated and allow a student to be assessed by another method. An example of special reasons might be a certificate regarding special pedagogical support from the University´s disability coordinator. All examinations are in English.​