Sustainability in a Complex World (1 cr)

Objective

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

Recognise the core global sustainability challenges (e.g. climate change, biodiversity loss, governance crises).

Apply the Cynefin framework to categorise these challenges and propose context-appropriate strategies.

Analyse potential solutions, evaluating feasibility and ethical considerations.

Reflect on how complexity shapes both problems and solutions in sustainability contexts.

Content

This one-credit online course introduces learners to the major global sustainability challenges—such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and crises in governance—through the lens of complexity. Using the Cynefin framework, participants will learn to categorise complex issues, explore potential solutions, and consider the ethical and practical hurdles to real-world implementation.

Course Structure and Content:

Understanding Global Sustainability Challenges: Overview of climate change, biodiversity loss, resource depletion, and governance issues.

Complexity and the Cynefin Framework: Introduction to the Cynefin framework (simple, complicated, complex, chaotic).

Potential Solutions and Their Hurdles: Overview of technological, social, and policy-oriented solutions.

Synthesis and Next Steps: Integrating knowledge from previous modules.

Workload and Progress:

Estimated time commitment: 27 hours (1 ECTS)

Video lectures, readings and quizzes: 20 hours

elf-paced interactive tasks and reflections: 5 hours

Final assessment (auto-graded): 2 hours

Evaluation scale

Hyväksytty/Hylätty

Assessment criteria, approved/failed

Quizzes (60%)

Final Online Test (40%)

Assessment methods and criteria

Quizzes (60%)

Final Online Test (40%)

Further information

Students who are already full-time degree students will not be admitted to the training programs.