HS 288F — Shifting Development Paradigms

Meets for one-half semester and yields half-course credit.

As an introduction to sustainable development, this course serves as a conceptual umbrella for all the coursework in SID and related Global Studies degrees. Albert Einstein said it best that “we can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” The modern world is based on an idea called development that has made advances in public health and wellbeing for many but struggles with environmental damage, economic marginalization, and social conflict. Our course, including guest experts, encourages students toward new and independent thinking on some of the major challenges confronting practitioners and policy makers worldwide. Working in teams, students will probe such core subjects as the nature of development knowledge unifying science, ethics, and cultural traditions; new forms for economic and environmental governance; and global emancipation from poverty and preventable disease. Usually offered every year.

Laurence Simon