This topic is part of the suite of multidisciplinary Grand Challenges topics which focus on a range of complex issues facing the world. Throughout this topic, you will critically examine challenging societal contexts and make recommendations as to how to best tackle them.
This topic will comprise a critical study of the concept of sustainable development in all its forms both in terms of its history and the contemporary debates surrounding it. Sustainable development will be explored from development, environmentalist, local and indigenous perspectives. Students will analyse the tensions between the ‘global’ and the ‘local’ debates about governance, perceptions of science and nature, and theories of development. The topic will examine how sustainable development is played out in various terrains, such as mega-cities, agricultural regions, and mining areas, and how it is applied to issues such as biodiversity, climate change, energy use, population, environment and health, and food production.
The topic will unpack the shared global framework of development priorities to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by the year 2030 which were agreed to by all member countries of the United Nations and international development agencies in 2015. Students will work on real case studies to evaluate the challenges and prospects related to Sustainable Development Goals in a local, national, or global context.
This topic aims to:
Timetable details for 2021 are no longer published.