Responsible Management and Sustainable Economic Development

UPM 6001-UPEACE Foundation Course

3Credits

The UPEACE Foundation Course provides a critical and concise introduction to the broad field of “Peace Studies” for students in all UPEACE programmes. It initially addresses key conceptual and theoretical underpinnings of the origins and development of peace studies as an interdisciplinary area within the fields of international relations and political economy, as well as a basic understanding of conflict analysis. Based on a critical analysis of policies, strategies, institutions, organizations and movements, the course then examines a range of core issues, dimensions, perspectives and paradigms for understanding the root causes of conflicts and violence and constructive strategies to address them and build peace in contemporary global, international, regional, national and local contexts, including: conflict management, conflict resolution and conflict transformation; alternative discourse analysis; militarization and disarmament; human rights violations and promotion; gender inequalities, gender-based violence and gender mainstreaming; structural violence, human security, development and globalization; environmental sustainability; corporate social responsibility; cultural and religious identities; media’s role in conflict and peacebuilding; strategies of nonviolence; and peace education. This Foundations course will be essential in catalyzing the awareness, understanding and motivation of UPEACE students from diverse academic programmes to relate, ground or intersect their specific areas of academic and practitioner interest with core theoretical, conceptual and analytical ideas in peace studies.

RMSED 6040-Review of Economic Theories and Concepts

3Credits

Economics play an important role in organising human activity. This course is an introduction to the histories, actualities, and futures of economic thinking. The purpose is to expose and critically analyse the development of the most influential economic theories, and review them in the light of contemporary eco-social challenges. Throughout the course, we’ll keep referring to the following questions: how do economic systems work; what and who is economics for; and what are the underlying assumptions behind different economic theories? Which are meant to help us holistically understand how we got to where we are, and most of all, where should we go from here. This development will make us see that complex issues require a new way of understanding.

That’s why we will explore the Systems Thinking approach. Which will give us the opportunity to better understand (and make understandable for others) how a system that is currently resulting in some form of harm has the potential to change.

UPM 6003-The United Nations System and UPMUNC (Part I)

2Credits

The course is intended to familiarize students with the creation, objectives, evolution, main entities and principal areas of work of the United Nations system. The course will look in some detail at the United Nations Charter and the functions of the UN’s principal organs, before delving into the UN’s work in spurring cooperation to address a number of key contemporary global challenges, such as those in the areas of sustainable development, international migration and large-scale refugee flows, and climate change and environmental degradation.

RMSED 6047 -Development Studies and International Cooperation

3Credits

This course is an introduction to development studies and international cooperation. The course covers the historical origins of development thinking in the post colonial world. It reviews modernization theory and the implications it had for foreign policy during the cold war period. This is contrasted with a critical review of dependency theories and structuralism. The course then uncovers the precepts of the Washington consensus as an introduction to the thinking of Amartya Sen and the world of alternative participatory development, the fields of popular education and participatory learning and action. This review (first week of the course) combines the description of developmental theories and concepts, with a deconstruction of the policies pursued by the man development agencies (World Bank, UN Agencies, BINGOS, CBOs, etc.). The second week of the course introduces students to the sustainable development goals and the concept of multilateralism. The SDGs are presented as a set of indicators that can lead humanity towards collective action for urgent systemic change. The final week of the course explores key current hot topics in development practice Climate Change, Biodiversity Loss, Gender Mainstreaming, Disaster Risk Reduction and Multistakeholder Partnerships. 

Through a combination of lectures and workshop dynamics students will learn to distinguish between the main concepts, theories and tools of development thinking and practice. The course will allow participants to explore "development" and "International Cooperation" as ideas, professions, institutions and narratives. The course is structured into 14 lessons, each composed of a lecture and two group work activities designed to build skills of students in the use of technical tools commonly used by development practitioners. Classes and lectures are designed to reinforce a sense of urgency and hope for transformative development practice among participants.

RMSED 6045- Circular Economy, a regenerative System

3Credits

What is now generally defined as “development” has not come without a cost. The industrial model standing at the roots of our current standards of living has been based on a linear system of production, where natural resources are extracted from the Earth; processed in manufacturing plants, used by consumers around the world; and finally get either incinerated or discarded as waste in landfills or in Nature. The current system, which relies on large quantities of cheap, easily accessible materials and energy, is coming up against constraints on the availability of resources, and our capacity to manage its huge amounts of waste. Resource constraints, as well as increasing volumes of waste and pollution compounded by the rising demand from the world’s growing and increasingly affluent population, are likely to impose mounting threats to welfare and wellbeing. All the key indicators confirm that the problems of a linear economy are grounded in the global economy.

The ‘circular economy’ is an industrial system that is restorative by intention and design. The idea is that rather than discarding products before the value is fully utilized; products should be designed for ease of reuse, disassembly, recycling, and remanufacturing. The transition towards a circular economy offers an opportunity to reduce our ecological footprint by lowering raw material consumption and minimizing waste generation. This, no doubt, is a major prerequisite to stay within the Planetary Boundaries.

This course includes an introduction to the Circular Economy concept. It provides an array of case examples, a solid framework, and guiding principles for implementing it. Ultimately, the Circular Economy is about the optimization of entire processes and systems rather than single components. The transition towards a circular economy is one of the biggest challenges we face in order to create a more sustainable society. This transition requires an interdisciplinary approach, combining socio-technical, managerial, and environmental considerations.

RMSED 6049 -Research Methods

3Credits

In this course we will critically examine research methodology. Our course is designed to take students sequentially through the process of thinking about and designing research. Together, we will explore the basic structure of research and examine the philosophical origins of different research approaches. I will guide students as they learn to link different information-gathering methods to different research approaches. My emphasis will be on qualitative research methodology but we will introduce quantitative data gathering and sampling. To ensure that students gain hands on experience with the process of developing methodologies and implementing different information gathering procedures, I will complement lectures with workshops where students will learn by doing. Furthermore, learning about methods requires analyzing how these methods have worked (or not) in real-world case studies; thus, in class discussions of published research will complement workshops and lectures.

RMSED 6051-Environmental Justice

2Credits

This interdisciplinary course analyzes case studies of environmental, energy, and climate justice through the len(s) of abolition ecologies, sacrifice zones, and feminist environmentalism(s). Drawing on diverse literature within radical planning, gender & sustainable development, and feminist climate policy, we will document histories of grassroots environmental activism in the Global North and South. We will also explore environmental racism, economies of care, and feminist approaches to COVID response & recovery. Finally, we will investigate the use of social media, film, podcasts, web series, climate fiction, and other digital tools for feminist climate storytelling. Students should leave this course with a better understanding of the role of race, class, sexuality, ability, and gender in shaping political identities within frontline and fenceline communities as well as strategies to center joy, hope and healing during/despite disaster. 

RMSED 6044- Leading in Times of Change: Innovating from the inside out

1Credits

This course aims to help participants reflect on the next steps in their personal and professional journey. It focuses on a human paradigm of leadership – the ability to reflect on self, think about people you collaborate with, and reflect on frameworks for engaging people around a common goal. Using cutting-edge concepts in positive psychology, design thinking, and organizational effectiveness research, the course will give participants the space, structure, and frameworks for planning in the face of complexity and a fast-changing world. The overarching objective of the course is to provide an opportunity for participants to step back from the day-to-day and reflect upon important questions about personal and professionals goals and how to take action on them!

RMSED 6043-Introduction to Responsible Management

3Credits

The justification for the proposed course is addressing crucial issues in our contemporary society. The roles and responsibilities of business as well as governments and social sector are becoming more urgent and complex, and concepts related to societal responsibility and sustainability – like human rights, gender issues and impacts on the environment - are gaining recognition as essential elements in business management. The need for responsible global citizens, leaders and managers is urgent and this course will help students in sharing and providing ideas, frameworks, and case studies to ensure that they will understand their role as future responsible citizens, leaders and managers. A more “responsible” workforce will allow governments, corporations, NGOs and communities to contribute, rather than detract from the sustainability of the world. Recent empirical research shows that profitability is sometimes greater for those companies that are actively engaged in the resolution of global issues and that a better interconnection between all sectors will achieve a more sustainable development and world economy. 

The course will be taught as a combination between theories and practical exercises which will be introduced and coached by external experts from the public, corporate and social sectors. For all topics addressed, the course is aiming for a reality check – that will result for some in a reality shock – by introducing different and sometimes opposing models and research outcomes to similar issues because responsible managers should be able to deal with the complexity of contradictory viewpoints and interests that are often there in reality.

RMSED 6010-Social Responsibility

3Credits

The Agenda 2030 calls for partnership between all actors in society, solidarity and redistribution of resources towards the most needed.  Moreover it puts emphasis on the need to review our current economic system and urges to find a balance between economic prosperity and the safeguard of our planet and its resources.

In essence it stresses the need of concerted efforts from all societal stakeholders to find structural solutions and design a new way of ‘doing business’.  A radical transformation needs to take place to influence behaviours but also to change the mind set of society in favour of new global economic model which sees social responsibility as a tool to achieve sustainable development.

At the end we all need to take actions and share commitments as well as responsibility in addressing J.Sachs (2008) concern: ‘the world’s current ecological, demographic and economic trajectory is unsustainable, meaning that if we continue ‘business as usual’ we will hit social and ecological crises with calamitous results’.

In line with these considerations, the course aims at leading the students towards a journey of learning and analysis of the most recent theories, approaches and application of social responsibility and sustainability.

It will use the ISO 26,000 guidelines as a theoretical reference and will analyse each of the principles and components of social responsibility with the most recent theories and with practical support of concrete case studies in Costa Rica as well as abroad.

The course is delivered in 3 weeks. 

The first week will focus on understanding “Social Responsibility”, its origin and implications within the Global Business Environment and with respect to the current debate on ‘sustainable growth’.  In particular, it will introduce the basic concept of stakeholder management to help identifying and managing the key stakeholders in the context of social responsibility. It will share the criteria for allocating responsibilities of all stakeholders along global supply chains. 

The Second week the attention is put on the roles and responsibility of all actors in society with specific attention on the business sector.  Theoretical and practical approaches to CSR will be shared with the students in class and during field visits.

Finally the third week will challenge the students with enhancing their critical thinking on reviewing and analyzing current and new economic and business models in order to inspire them with new insights on the building of a more peaceful and sustainable world.

The course will be interactive, built on theories and practical experiences, sharing knowledge and lessons learnt from the field, and learning from guest lectures and host organizations.

GPB 6043-Gender, Human Security, and Development

3Credits

In 2015, all UN member countries adopted seventeen sustainable development goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change[1] as part of a new sustainable development agenda: With these development goals and gender equality being one of them, this new development agenda forms one of the latest UN-led intergovernmental agreement.
While taking these seventeen SDGs as an important point of departure, this course will go beyond them and re-frame the debate on human security and gender in the wider light of climate change, the recent international financial crises, violent conflicts[2]/the “international war on terror“, and a neo-liberal and globalized world system.
The course will discuss that the key drivers of a lacking development/ unsustainability and gender inequality are closely intertwined and interlocked (see also Fukuda-Parr, Heintz and Seguino 2013): Wichterich 2012 among others refers to development models which promote under-regulated market-led growth and the persistence of unequal power relations between women and men as key drivers. Other drives constitute the economic liberalization and the concentration of productive and financial activities; unrestrained material consumption; unparalleled levels of of increased militarism and political violence; and the privatization of public goods and services (see UN Women 2015: 22).
The course will show that one cannot assume a simple “win-win” relationship between gender equality, human security and sustainable development: Policy and practical approaches that promote sustainability might hinder or undermine transforming gender stereotypes, gender equality and women’s and men’s rights for empowerment and participation.

UPM-6003-The United Nations System and UPMUNC (Part II)

1Credits

The UPEACE Model United Nations Conference (UPMUNC) is the second part of a composite three credit course that begins with the two-credit introductory course on the United Nations System, taught in the first semester. Through a simulation of UN bodies, committees, procedures, and codes of conduct, this immersive and experiential educational exercise encourages the application of knowledge gained in previous courses, including an understanding of the objectives and functions of the United Nations system, as well as the development of professional skills related to research, public speaking, negotiation, mediation of conflict, and the preparation of official documents.   

Historically, the conference has been open to outside participants from colleges and universities both regionally and internationally, presenting additional possibilities for networking, dialogue, and educational exchange among all participants. UPMUNC is further enriched by special events, which typically include a panel of invited speakers, a diplomatic reception, an awards ceremony, and a closing celebration.   

RMSED 6041-Social Entrepreneurship

3Credits

The worlds of ‘working for the betterment of society’ and ‘private enterprise’ are often seen as incompatible. This course will attempt to breakdown that perception in order for participants to see the social sector as a place of opportunity, both to ‘do good’ but also to innovate and build a financially sustainable social enterprise, whether non-profit, for-profit, or some combination of the two. The course suggests that in order to get a socially beneficial idea off the ground, effectively grow it, and make it financially sustainable, social entrepreneurs need to think creatively beyond models of traditional non-profits or for-profits.

This hands-on and dynamic course will expose participants to a number of cases of social entrepreneurs who have converted their desire of building a better world into a reality. The course will include case studies where participants will experience first-hand a social enterprise. The course hopes to inspire participants with an entrepreneurial spirit, help gain an understanding of the challenges of the start-up process and the complexities of growing and managing it. In order to do so, students will have the opportunity to expand their overall knowledge about a topic they are interested in. Not only the science behind it, but also about the context that sustains its status quo, the efforts being made to solve it, and the possibilities to move forward towards its solution. Students will be given the time, space and structure to learn and to propose a doable solution to it.