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, policies, 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

Ever since its establishment in 1945, the United Nations has performed a pivotal function in a great variety of affairs, large or small, international and national. As such, the UN has played an incisive role in the lives of people around the world. Much of what the UN does is taken for granted and even goes unnoticed by the larger public, to the point that there has been expressed that ‘if the UN did not exist it would have to be invented’.

At the same time, millions around the world look to the UN expecting it to address many of the enormous challenges faced by humankind. These complex dynamics are complemented by the fact that the UN is both reliant on what the member states want, while at the same time, being much more than the sum of its members. This course provides a comprehensive and rigorous introduction into the UN system, including its origins and history, its organizational framework and the functioning of various organs, agencies, bodies and programmes. 

Students will critically examine the most important areas of the UN mission including the key Charter principles, the pillars of international peace and security, economic and social progress, development and human rights as well as a growing list of priorities and initiatives (e.g., gender equality and  mainstreaming; eliminating gender-based violence; environmental protection; climate change; post-2015 development agenda; Global Education First Initiative; action to counter terrorism; R2P, etc.).

In addition, the course offers a close scrutiny at some of the challenges the UN faces and discusses also various proposals for its reform. Students will be encouraged to reflect on how UN priorities and initiatives can be constructively addressed in their respective fields and programmes of peace studies.

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 6056 -Social 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 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 6066-Organizational Responsibility

3Credits

TBA

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.

RMSED 6055 -Gender, Environment, Development

3Credits

Mary E. Little is an associate professor of Environmental Ethics at the School for Field Studies in Costa Rica.  As a human rights lawyer she has worked to improve gender equality through micro-entrepreneur programs in China and to support survivors of domestic violence in Japan. Her current research focuses on environmental and social justice issues, particularly the roles of regenerative tourism and food security initiatives in protecting the environment while strengthening local communities. 

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. 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.