Global Challenges - Sustainable Futures (Online) at Freie Universität Berlin

About

Please visit our website www.fubis.org for any organisational changes that might affect the course programme. The course introduces students to the politics, ethics, and governance of sustainability. The key challenges of our time are global by nature. However, the current system of global governance based on sovereign states (often in competition with each other) is ill-equipped to meet challenges such as poverty, climate change, environmental degradation, and availability of resources. As states cannot provide for a sustainable future of their citizens on their own, they are increasingly forced into a logic of sustainability for all people and responsibility for the global commons. This new logic is grounded on the scientific truth of planetary boundaries as well as on ethical requirements (e.g., caring for the Earth). The course examines major current global challenges divided into economic, political, and environmental issues. In the second part of the course, the main existing and potential solutions to these problems will be discussed. During the discussions in class and on field trips, we will try to find out why these solutions have not been implemented so far and what is needed to make our global society more sustainable, especially in terms of economics and the environment. Thus, we will also analyse the current system of international treaties with their normative principles (sovereignty, equality, and human rights) and institutions (governments, international organisations, and civil society). A special focus will be placed on the role of the United Nations as an organisation whose goal has been to prevent and solve major global issues. We will try to find out to what degree the UN has been effective and successful in fulfilling this mission. We will also take a look at the Earth Charter and analyse to what degree it shows the direction in which our global community should develop.