Current Courses

Current Courses

Berta Martín-López

Colloquium Social-ecological system research

Das Kolloquium wird inhaltlich verschiedene Methoden, Ansätze und Ergebnisse sozial-ökologischer Forschung behandeln und unterschiedliche Formate anbieten: Studierende präsentieren ihre Forschungsvorhaben und/ oder Ergebnisse, die dann mit den Betreuuenden und anderen Forschern diskutiert werden können

Ziel: Ziel der Veranstaltung ist ein Austausch zwischen den Forschenden und Promovierenden, aber auch eine Präsentation des Promotionsvorhabens und eine Reflexion über die Fortschritte der Promotion

Environmental Sciences - an Introduction. Humanities seminar A (for GESS)

The main content includes:

• Conceptualization of paradigms of value-systems with practical exercises

• Identification of relevant stakeholders and institutions for environmental decision-making

• The importance of social relationships in environmental governance

• Social conflicts and the role of deliberation

The knowledge in seminars is constructed through role-play teaching method that allows students to understand social-ecological dynamics and to assimilate the contents learned in lectures by facing realistic situations and environmental problems

Ziel: The seminar aims to get knowledge about social aspects that determine sustainability decisions, particularly value-systems, conflicts between social actors, and power relations.

Environmental Sciences - an Introduction. Humanities seminar. Group B (for UWI)

The main content includes:

• Conceptualization of paradigms of value-systems with practical exercises

• Identification of relevant stakeholders and institutions for environmental decision-making

• The importance of social relationships in environmental governance

• Social conflicts and the role of deliberation

The knowledge in seminars is constructed through role-play teaching method that allows students to understand social-ecological dynamics and to assimilate the contents learned in lectures by facing realistic situations and environmental problems

Ziel: The seminar aims to get knowledge about social aspects that determine sustainability decisions, particularly value-systems, conflicts between social actors, and power relations.

Basics of Inter- and Transdisciplinarity - lecture

Qualitative, semi-quantitative and quantitative methods for knowledge integration and identifying, framing and solving (sustainability) problems:

Stakeholder analysis, future scenarios and backcasting, assessment approaches, integrative approaches of problem transformation and solving, methods for designig and implementating collaborative processes (both transdisciplinary research approaches and approaches for supporting societal negotiation processes).

Ziel: The students acquire knowledge, skills and capabilities for purposefully engaging with sustainability problems in a project oriented way by: (i) understanding conceptual fundamentals of sustainability and respective problems, (ii) being able to apply a set of methods meaningfully to a given problem, (iii) being capable of identifying and discussing potentials and limitations of respective methods and the relevance of knowledge integration and achieving collaborative/participatory processes between science and society.

Ecological restoration for sustainability - final module (transdisciplinary project)

With the increasing human pressure on ecosystems and cultural landscapes, one of the main challenges is to design and develop ecological restoration that supports the preservation of biodiversity, ecosystem services and livelihood security. A central theme here is to integrate the ecological dimension with the socio-cultural dimension in order to create sustainable landscapes and equitable societies. Therefore, restoration does not only focus on ecological functions and biodiversity, but also on human communities, their knowledge and values. Indeed, restoration requires of society as agents of sustainable transformations.

During the seminar in the second module we will examine how we can restore nature, how we can engage different social actors and how we can measure the impacts of restoration strategies on human wellbeing and biodiversity.

Ziel: The overall goal of this seminar module is to move on from the designing and implementing work performed in the previous semester to working directly on the transdisciplinary project you have chosen in the previous semester. An outcome will include an outreach project e.g. a film, presentation to the wider public or article.

Upon completion of this module, students should be able to:

1. Get knowledge about basic ecological and social methods for implementing restoration practices;

2. Get understanding about the complex interactions between social and ecological systems in restoration;

3. Ability to deal with complexity

4. Be familiar with the scientific literature regarding ecological restoration

Students will also get competencies on:

1. Ability to systematically research information

2. Ability to work in interdisciplinary teams

3. Ability to communicate in writing and oral formats.

4. Designing and implementing an transdisciplinary project (from start to "finish")

Current Courses

Dr. Aymara Victoria Llanque Zonta

Environmental Sciences - an Introduction. Humanities seminar C (for UWI and GESS)

The main content includes:

• Conceptualization of paradigms of value-systems with practical exercises

• Identification of relevant stakeholders and institutions for environmental decision-making

• The importance of social relationships in environmental governance

• Social conflicts and the role of deliberation

The knowledge in seminars is constructed through role-play teaching method that allows students to understand social-ecological dynamics and to assimilate the contents learned in lectures by facing realistic situations and environmental problems

Ziel: The seminar aims to get knowledge about social aspects that determine sustainability decisions, particularly value-systems, conflicts between social actors, and power relations.

Between science, policy and practice, leverage points for transformations towards sustainability

This course aims to develop scientific skills through a research project that bridges science, policy, and practice. We begin with the premise that complex problems related to sustainability require comprehensive, multidimensional solutions, and that science plays a crucial role in this process. By employing mixed and transdisciplinary methodologies, science can identify key elements for problem analysis and define leverage points for transformation.

We think it is essential to implement research projects that are connected to everyday life. Therefore, this course will focus on food systems as its central theme. Students will explore food systems and food sustainability, including forms of production, transformation, commercialization, and food consumption; diets, bodies, and their links to ingredients; and the telecoupling of value chains (i.e., what are the invisible topics behind the products we consume). This exploration will enable a critical reflection on how we nourish ourselves and the underlying relationships of oppression present not only in conventional products but also in ecological products associated with the green transition. To achieve this, we will apply the food systems perspectives proposed by Colonna et al. (2013) and Rist and Jacobi (2016), along with our most recent work in food sustainability assessment using the Food SAF Assessment (Rist et al., 2021).

Additionally, students will learn about transdisciplinarity through participatory methodologies for multidimensional evaluation (we will provide a list of methods for assessing food systems, including mixed tools with a greater focus on qualitative data). Both conceptual frameworks will be applied in a descriptive research exercise.

Ziel: The primary objective is to design a research framework from a transformative perspective, drawing on students’ food experiences, challenges, and identifying where they perceive an opportunity (leverage point) for transformation.

"When we stand up, they have to negotiate with us" - South-North North-South proposals from local to global sustainable changes

The course proposes to reflect on participation and contributions for sustainability transformation from the perspective of knowledge generation. We will focus on sustainability from the point through lectures and workshop style methodology; for an understanding of political participation of social movements. We will emphasize in social learning and the adoption of a transdisciplinary approach to the interface between science, policy and practice. The inspiration will be local proposals to global changes, mainly examples of South-North North, and their pragmatic responsible towards sustainability.

There are 2 threads under which sessions will be organized in the seminar:

1. Interface of Science, Policy and Practice, resonance with social movements from North and South.

2. Understanding meta topics- transformative, transgressive and transdisciplinary learning.

Ziel: It is expected that at the end of the seminar, we have:

1) Develop broader understanding of the concept of sustainable development

Current Courses

M.Sc. Milena Groß

Ecological restoration for sustainability - second module

With the increasing human pressure on ecosystems and cultural landscapes, one of the main challenges is to design and develop ecological restoration that supports the preservation of biodiversity, ecosystem services and livelihoods security. A central theme here is to integrate the ecological dimension with the socio-cultural dimension in order to create sustainable landscapes and equitable societies. Therefore, restoration does not only focus on ecological functions and biodiversity, but also on human communities, their knowledge and values. Indeed, restoration requires of society as agents of sustainable transformations.

During the seminar in the second module we will examine how we can restore nature, how we can engage different social actors and how we can measure the impacts of restoration strategies on human wellbeing and biodiversity.

Ziel: Upon completion of this module, students should be able to:

1. Get knowledge about basic ecological and social methods for implementing restoration practices;

2. Be familiar with the restoration project in a traditional orchard

3. Identify relevant research questions and design a methodological approach to answer them

Students will also get competencies on:

1. Ability to systematically research information

2. Ability to work in interdisciplinary teams

3. Ability to communicate in writing and oral formats.

Current Courses

Pramila Thapa

Sustainability Science - Discussion session 4

'Participatory Research Methods for Sustainable Development'

Participatory approaches are key to sustainable development. They help better integrate plural knowledge for co-creating solutions. Their design and use vary with the objectives, resources availability, and the social-ecological contexts in which they are embedded. Thus, adaptability, flexibility, and creativity are important when it comes to participatory approaches.

Ziel: In this module, students will learn about different participatory research methods that are commonly used in sustainable science and that foster sustainable development. The following contents and research methods will be discussed in the class.

Session 1 Getting to know each other, course outline, and introduction to participatory research

Session 2 Role of power relationships in decision making / Role game

Session 3 Defining the project objectives- participatory cognitive, and fuzzy mapping

Session 4 Narratives, free-listing, and oral history

Session 5 Design considerations for focus groups and interviews

Session 6 Preference assessment and photo-elicitation

Session 7 Participatory video and Photo-voice

Session 8 Participatory mapping processes

Session 9 Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation

Session 10 Participatory scenarios

Session 11 Knowledge Synthesis Methods

Session 12 Work in groups for the final exam presentation

Session 13 Final exam - group presentations