Admission requirements
This course is obligatory for students of the MSc Governance of Sustainability.
Description
The governance of sustainability deals with problems that originate from different, but highly interrelated realms (e.g., biophysical phenomena, human behaviour, economical dynamics). Understanding these interrelations and the diversity of language that is particular to each of the realms is crucial to tackle these problems and address complex sustainability challenges. To navigate this complexity, it is necessary to go beyond disciplinary boundaries and to find innovative and tailored solutions. Transdisciplinarity is acknowledged as the appropriate methodological approach to advance the science of sustainability. It entails the integration of different kinds of knowledge, not only from scientific disciplines but especially also from societal actors, who are practitioners, citizens and/or users of scientific outputs and involved in the real-word problems. How can we make sure that all these stakeholders work together and understand each other effectively? To this goal, transdisciplinary skills are needed. The main goal of this course is to provide students with a mind-set, a lexicon, communicative skills and operational tools to connect dots from the different disciplinary fields they are going to encounter during the Master Governance of Sustainability and to link these concepts with real world actors and situations.
Course objectives
At the end of the course, students will be able to:
Recognize and understand transdisciplinarity meanings and epistemological foundations
Use transdisciplinarity lexicon and concepts in presentations and written outputs
Create a collaborative workgroup environment by using a team-oriented communicative approach based on active listening, peer-feedback, verbal and non-verbal language use and group dynamics management
Analyse sustainability problems and challenges from a transdisciplinary perspective with the help of transdisicplinary tools
Use and assess a variety of sources of information including scientific articles, governmental and non-governmental reports, media outlets and interviews with local stakeholders
Create different written and oral presentation outputs for scientific and non-scientific audiences
Timetable
In MyTimetable, you can find all course and programme schedules, allowing you to create your personal timetable. Activities for which you have enrolled via MyStudyMap will automatically appear in your timetable.
Additionally, you can easily link MyTimetable to a calendar app on your phone, and schedule changes will be automatically updated in your calendar. You can also choose to receive email notifications about schedule changes. You can enable notifications in Settings after logging in.
Questions? Watch the video, read the instructions, or contact the ISSC helpdesk.
Note: Joint Degree students from Leiden/Delft need to combine information from both the Leiden and Delft MyTimetables to see a complete schedule. This video explains how to do it.
Mode of instruction
The course will consist of theoretical plenary lectures, lectures and tutorials on skills and tools, guest lectures and workgroup assignments. Workgroup outputs will be presented in various ways (video, stories, posters). Students will be asked to take part in debates, interactive exercises and role plays. Guests will be invited to present ideas and case studies.
Assessment method
The course has the following assessments:
An assessment of the final version of an individual weekly blog reflecting on the course learnings using transdisciplinary lexicon and weekly mandatory literature (50%)
An assessment of final workgroup outputs of an integrated transdisciplinary workgroup assignment (50%).
These two grades can each be lowered with a maximum of 0.5 point per final grade if submissions of weekly assignments are handed in more than once after the deadline.
The grade of both the (adjusted) individual blog and the (adjusted) workgroup output needs to be 5.5 or higher to pass the course. In case of a lower grade, the student(s) will have to redo the assignment within five weeks after the release of the first grade. The final grade will be the average of the two assessments.
Presence at plenary lectures, guest lectures, tutorials and workshops is required, unless extenuating circumstances apply, and active participation in workgroup assignments is deemed crucial in this course. Consistent absence (more than 30%) during plenary sessions and non-participation in workgroups as shown in attendance lists, activity logbooks and peer feedback will result in a fail for the course in which case the course has to be retaken the next year. This course does not have an exam so registration for examination is not necessary.
Reading list
Please see Brightspace.
Registration
As a student, you are responsible for enrolling on time through MyStudyMap.
In this short video, you can see step-by-step how to enrol for courses in MyStudyMap.
Extensive information about the operation of MyStudyMap can be found here.
There are two enrolment periods per year:
Enrolment for the fall opens in July
Enrolment for the spring opens in December
See this page for more information about deadlines and enrolling for courses and exams.
Note:
It is mandatory to enrol for all activities of a course that you are going to follow.
Your enrolment is only complete when you submit your course planning in the ‘Ready for enrolment’ tab by clicking ‘Send’.
Not being enrolled for an exam/resit means that you are not allowed to participate in the exam/resit.
Contact
Course Coordinator(s): Merlijn van Weerd, Antonella Maiello
Remarks
Other students than MSc Governance of Sustainability that are interested in following this course need to contact the study advisors of the programme via studyadvisor-gofs@cml.leidenuniv.nl
Software
Starting from the 2024/2025 academic year, the Faculty of Science will use the software distribution platform Academic Software. Through this platform, you can access the software needed for specific courses in your studies. For some software, your laptop must meet certain system requirements, which will be specified with the software. It is important to install the software before the start of the course. More information about the laptop requirements can be found on the student website.