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 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.

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-6059-Geopolitics and Geoeconomics in the 21st Century

3Credits

The world of the 21st century faces a series of challenges that threaten political, economic, social and environmental stability, endangering the very existence of the planet. To meet these challenges, the international community proposed a series of global objectives with the aim of achieving a kind of stability and guaranteeing maximum well-being for humanity in general, as well as for the various forms of life that inhabit the planet.

To understand the feasibility of these global goals proposed towards 2030, it is necessary to study their materiality on the ground, together with their interaction with political, economic, socio-cultural and geographical factors, and the ways in which these goals can be achieved through respect for nature, people's well-being and peace.

Specifically, the course is designed for the University for Peace Master's programs, Responsible Management and Sustainable Economic Development, and Development Studies and Diplomacy. The purpose of this course is framed within Development Studies through the use of analytical tools from geopolitics and geoeconomics for a better understanding of the relationship between the Sustainable Development Goals, the global situation in the XXI century and critical reflection for the approach of collective proposals for their realization

DED 6034 -Forest, Forestry and Poverty

3Credits

Deforestation is considered one of the main global environmental challenges of our times, because of its significant impact on biodiversity and its important contribution to Climate Change and Global Warming, as well as on the livelihoods of millions of people. This course analyzes the way deforestation and forest degradation have been and are being explained by both mainstream and alternative narratives. It critically engages with the way deforestation is defined and measured and discusses the various attempts in stopping or reducing it. We will look at a range of conservation approaches that go from traditional protected areas over community-based strategies, and the increasingly common market-based approaches and finally forest restoration. Illegal logging and timber trade will be looked at as a specific topic of particular importance since it is linked to development, poverty, and violent conflict. Additionally, this course looks at the links between poverty and deforestation, some of the possible strategies to reduce poverty through forest-based activities, and analyzes and discusses the importance of forests for humans and the challenges faced by those who try to manage them sustainably.

DED 6054-Coastal Resource Management

3Credits

Around 40% of the world’s population currently lives within 100 km of the coast, and nearly all humanity benefits from the world’s coasts and oceans for a variety of cultural, economic, and environmental reasons. Despite, or perhaps because, of their value to social and ecological processes, marine resources face increasing pressures and conflicts over their utilization. Additionally, climate change acts as a main driver of major oceanic and coastal threats. 

As a response to the evident crises of coastal resources, we have been able to move away from a proclaimed inexhaustibility of the ocean, predominant in Western societies in the 19th century, to the development of tools intended to help stakeholders, from the local to the national and international levels, to protect and to manage these resources more equitably, effectively, and sustainably. 

In this course, we will identify major challenges and threats to the world’s oceans and coasts and their impact on coastal populations. We will look into different coastal ecosystems, their functions and importance. In addition to that, we will become familiarized with innovations, strategies, and management tools related to coastal resource management. Finally, through practical exercises, guest lectures, and field visits, students will be able to explore the complex nexus of relations between humans and coastal/marine resources as it applies to Latin America and the case of Costa Rica. 

DED 6084-Social Research Methods

3Credits

In this course we will critically examine research methodology. Our course is designed to take student 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, I believe that learning about methods requires analyzing how these methods have worked (or not) in real world case studies; thus, in class discussions of current case studies will complement workshops and lectures.

DED 6050-Climate Change Governance

3Credits

Climate change has been described as one of the biggest challenges humanity faces, since it has and increasingly will affect all human activities and life of all species.  The way we organize our national and global society, our economy, will impact our potential for peace, development, wellbeing, and security, as well as all forms of life. A prime example of both global environmental change and global governance challenge, climate change continues to evade all past and present attempts of multilateral, national and local governance. Even though thousands of experts have been meeting annually over the last 30 years do discuss and negotiate, green house gas emissions have been growing at alarming rates.

This course introduces key concepts of and the general state of knowledge on climate change science, and the debates around science, policy, and politics. Second, the course goes over the history of mainstream multilateral climate change governance institutions and analyzes the increasingly diverse actors in climate change governance networks, at local, national and regional levels. Third, this course analyzes the increasingly apparent shortcomings of multilateral mainstream governance institutions to recognize the urgency and to act in meaningful ways to address this global and local crisis. Finally, the course discusses proposals of vision and action towards a much-needed sustainability transformation in economic, social, political, and ecological terms.

DED 6094 -Development and Conflict in Practice: role and application of sustainability frameworks in development projects

3Credits

The course looks into the role and application of sustainability frameworks in development projects and examines how their implementation influences local dynamics. The course introduces the main international frameworks that influence development finance institutions (DFIs) and private sector development, such as the World Bank ES Safeguards, IFC Performance Standards, Equator Principles, among others. It also focuses on the dynamics and drivers of conflict around development projects and the role of existing accountability and grievance mechanisms. The course dynamics include case studies, simulations and role play.

DED 6043 -Urban Sustainability

3Credits

By 2050, it is estimated that two-thirds of the world’s population will live in an urban environment. In many countries in the developing world, this is already a reality, with 80-90% of their populations living in cities, with increasing and rapid rates of urbanization. Increased urban population growth, paired with other socio-economic realities that are characteristic to cities, poses enormous challenges to ensure quality of life and wellbeing for everyone, leaving no one behind. Urban sustainability goes beyond how "green" a city is. This course will be based on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) #11 Sustainable Cities and Communities and the New Urban Agenda, and will provide an understanding on how sustainability in cities is a multi-variable concept, interconnected with other SDGs and issues such as urban planning, transport planning and design, inequality, climate action, health, gender, economic development, among others. You will learn from case studies, articles, reports and the experience of experts in the field, in addition to gaining tools and developing skills that will help you propose strategies, projects and policies to improve your community, town or city in order to make it more sustainable.

DED 6095-Gender, Environment, and Development

3Credits

This course will focus on the linkages between gender, environment, economy, and human development. We will examine key contemporary environmental issues such as climate change, food security, the green economy, low-carbon development and degrowth; access to water, sanitation, and energy; pollution; and biodiversity conservation from the perspective(s) of gender equality. The course will explore how sexism, racism, classism, heterosexism, colonialism, imperialism, and other forms of oppression have shaped and continue to shape environmental discourses, and how we might confront and subvert such hierarchies and inequalities. Course materials will include academic and non-academic literature (including policy and journalistic literature), activist texts, fiction, and film. 

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.