General provisions

The course is compulsory for students admitted to the Master's program in implementation, transformative learning and sustainability, but can also be given as a  freestanding course.

Entry requirements

A Bachelor's degree, equivalent to a Swedish Kandidatexamen, from an internationally recognised university. Proficiency in English equivalent to the Swedish upper secondary course English 6.

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course students are expected to be able to:

Knowledge and understanding

• Distinguish real-world equity issues in global health and sustainability transformations and formulate problem statements aimed at understanding power relations and diverse perspectives on transformation.

Competence and skills

• Analyse equity issues in global health and sustainability governance, including underlying drivers and possible resolutions.
• Evaluate equity aspects of implementation dilemmas in health and sustainability transformations, with emphasis on the role of stakeholder and learning processes.

Judgement and approach

• Critically reflect on equity-centred interventions in policy, practice and research in context of global health and sustainability, including their design and facilitation.

Content

This course focuses on the role of social equity in global health and sustainability transformations.   Emphasis is on contexts where stakeholder and learning processes are applied as policy instruments to address implementation dilemmas. It provides actionable understanding of how actors, such as governments, companies, and communities can contest and reconstruct visions and agendas for the implementation of sustainability actions and health for all. This involves respectful but critical engagement with diverging interests and views in transformative dialogue, drawing on science and other forms of knowledge - such as that of Indigenous Peoples, local communities, government officials and employees in private sector.

The course draws on a wide range of critical social theory, including radical democracy, critical institutionalism, political ecology, critical systems thinking, rights-based approaches, feminist theories, decolonization, and Indigenous scholarship. Through the teaching it seeks to inspire students to take active part in social change that aims to correct inequities, advancing an agenda inspired by participatory and action-oriented research. A central issue addressed during this course is how transformative dialogue and co-learning for more equitable health and sustainability outcomes can be achieved, despite disabling political structures and entrenched power imbalances.

The course is organized in three interlinked themes:

i) Understanding equity issues in global health and sustainability transformations;

ii) Examining governance responses to equity issues, and the role of stakeholding and learning;

iii) Facilitating equity-centred interventions in policy, practice and research

Instruction

The course consistsof lectures as well as mandatory seminars and individual and groups exercises. Sessions are interactive and students are encouraged to draw on their own experiences, e.g., from personal life and employment.  Language of instruction is English.

Assessment

Assessment iscomprised of a final written as well as  oral examination,  approved participation in mandatory seminars, and completion of weekly individual and group exercises. To pass the course, the candidate must pass the examination, seminars and exercises. If there are special reasons for doing so, an examiner may make anexception from the method of assessment indicated and allow a student to be assessed by another method. An example of special reasons might be a certificate regarding special pedagogical support from the University's disability coordinator. All examinations are in English.