The course "Critical Sustainability" provides a digital space to learn, reflect, discuss and take action together. The participants will jointly analyze existing power relations as well as society-nature relations and democratize them. The course is the compulsory module of the Sustainability Certificate for Students issued by TU Berlin.
Through various interactive, artistic and group-dynamic formats, the participants will broaden their understanding of sustainability. For this they engage in individual work as well as small and large group work to jointly reflect and analyze their own positions/conditions in society. This will be the basis for their contribution to a socio-ecological transformation of society through individual and collective action.
Students of all study programs from all universities/colleges in Berlin and beyond are cordially invited. Non-Students are also warmly welcomed. In this course they come together to share and question their different knowledges, expertises and perspectives. Together they will explore societal problems across any borders between humans and mutually work on them.
The Critical Sustainability course takes place twice per week on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 14.00 to 16.00 CET for a total of 16 meetings. It starts on Tuesday, 05 April and ends on Thursday 02 June 2022. This condensed format allows for an intensive and focused work within the course. Upon successful completion, a certificate of performance of 6 ECTS points is handed out, which might be credited in one’s own study program. The course is offered for free by Technische Universität Berlin and anyone may enroll in the course.
What is the Critical Sustainability course about? - Power Relations - Society-Nature Relations - Critical Theory - Merging Arts and Science - Intervention Research - Democratization - Social-Ecological Transformation
The participants expand their understanding of sustainability, especially with regard to social aspects such as power relations as well as society-nature relations and political ecology. The theoretical foundation for this is Critical Theory and theories of radical democracy. The pedagogical foundation of the course lies in the realm of critical pedagogy and pedagogies of democracy. During the course, the participants work on societal challenges from different interdisciplinary and artistic perspectives and engage in corresponding practices. They conduct an intervention research project through which they contribute to a democratization of society and its social-ecological transformation.
Which learning outcomes? - Analyzing and Democratizing the Reciprocal Relations of Technology - Nature - Individuals - Society (TINS-D)
The participants analyze and evaluate in a democratic process the present reciprocal relations of technology, individuals, nature, society and democracy (TINS-D). Based on this analysis and evaluation, they learn to democratize these reciprocal relations. The participants acquire the competence to unveil the complex interdependency of their social, political, ecological and economic surroundings. This includes the consideration of different values, interests and needs within a global perspective as well as within one class(room). The course design encourages democratic decision-making not only to solve but also to define problems within the course itself and moreover outside of the classroom. In addition, the participants deal with artistic positions and practice artistic actions, for example by doing performances, and integrate these practices in their intervention research project.
...further information on the course's website |