Lecture 3 - Sept 4 (15-17) - Göran Finnveden

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Time and place: Tuesday September 4, 15-17 in lecture hall D1.

Title: "Global environmental and sustainability challenges"

Guest: Göran Finnveden, Professor and Vice-President for Sustainable Development at KTH

Talk: What are the major global environmental challenges and threats that humanity faces on its way towards sustainable development? What is the scientific background to these challenges and threats? What are the drivers? And, what can be done to mitigate them?

About: Göran Finnveden is a professor in Environmental Strategic Analysis. His research background is in the development and use of environmental systems analysis tools and environmental policy. Application areas include building, energy, ICT, transportation and waste management. Since 2011 he is also vice-president for sustainable development at KTH.

Literature to read before the lecture:

- Mulders (2006). Sustainable development for engineers: A Handbook and Resource Guide. Greenleaf Publishing, Sheffield, UK. Chapter 2, "Why is the current world system unsustainable?" (pages 24-64).

Note: the book is available as an e-book through the KTH library system Primo. I don't know what the restrictions are (I assume you can only reach the e-book when you connect to/through KTH's library/computer networks).

- Rockström, Johan et. al. (2009). A safe operating space for humanity. Nature (Vol.461), pp 472-475.

Note: Available in Bilda.

- United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) (2012). Global Environmental Outlook, 5th online edition. Read the 5 "Main Messages" in the book (link above) on pages 31, 66, 98-99, 134 and 168.

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Seminar group members

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Below are lists with seminar groups members. Your group membership is important so that you upload the assignment for seminar 1 (Fri 31) into the right Bilda folder tomorrow (Thu 30).

Also see an earlier blog post for info about which seminars you should attend. Do note that it's ok to change seminar group once or perhaps even twice during the course if the need arises.

Do get in touch with me if your name isn't in the lists below! /Daniel

Seminar group A:
- Philip A
- Sanna C

- Po-Yu C

- Joel F
- Pedro F H B
- Connie H M
- Veronika J

- Andrew L

- Lidija M
- Miguel R C
- Andreas R
- Mattias Ö

Seminar group B:
- Jacob C
- Daniel E
- Susanne F
- Emma F
- Niklas F
- Lars G
- Johannes H N
- Beatrice J
- Mikael J
- Jonas J
- Simon K
- Terese N

- Simon R

Seminar group C:

- Sabina A

- Clas E

- Bobby F
- Maksym F

- Håkan F

- Alexander H

- Antonio L

- Eleftheria E P

- Gustav R

- Carl O S

- Lydia W

- Chen W

- Huai W

- Markus W

Seminar group D

- Andreas A

- Henrik B

- Sara G

- Viktor H

- Donna H

- Richard L

- Manuel M V

- Javier M V

- Baptiste O

- Anne S

- Jussi S

- Simon W

- Viktor W

- Severin P W

Lecture 2 - Sept 3 (15-17) - Josefin Wangel

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Time and place: Monday September 3, 15-17 in lecture hall V1.

Title: "This is not sustainable development"

Guest: Josefin Wangel, Idealistic researcher with a Ph.D. from KTH in Planning and Decision Analysis with a specialization in Environmental Strategic Analysis.

Talk: What are the challenges of sustainable urban development? And why is sustainability so hard to achieve? In this lecture we explore the concept of sustainable development, its historical roots and how it is interpreted, enacted and used in contemporary practice.

About: Josefin Wangel divides her time between FMS (the Division of Environmental Strategies Research) and CESC (the Centre for Sustainable Communications) at KTH. Her research focuses on how scenarios can be used to support sustainable urban development. Another main research interest is socio-technical perspectives on energy systems and consumption practices, and how this relates to policy and planning. Josefin presented her Ph.D. thesis, "Making Futures: On targets, measures and governance in backcasting and planning" (pdf file) earlier this year.

Literature: 

- Connelly, Steve. (2007). Mapping Sustainable Development as a Contested Concept. Local Environment, Vol.12, No.3, 259-278. 

Note: the article is available in Bilda - you only need to read pages 259-268.

- Carrhuthers, D. (2005). From Opposition to Orthodoxy: The Remaking of Sustainable Development, In: Dryzek, J.S. & Schlosberg, D., (2005) "Debating the Earth: The Environmental Politics Reader", New York: Oxford University Press.

Note: Available in Bilda.

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Slides from intro lecture available in Bilda

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The slides from today's introductory lecture are available in Bilda. The slides from all lectures will be made available in Bilda (our guest lecturers will hopefully be forthcoming and provide us with them).

This message ("lecture slides are available in Bilda") will not be repeated. However, the slides from the intro lecture could be of interest to course participants who couldn't attend today's lecture as they contain useful info about the course, examination etc.
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Seminar groups

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The class will be divided into four seminar groups (A, B, C, D). Group A/B will always meet the same time and group C/D will always meet the same time. I unfortunately designed the seminar group schedule taking into account that 25% of the class would take the course DM2574 - something that apparently has changed recently! Here is the schedule:

Group A/B will meet:
- Fri Aug 31 at 13-15
- Wed Sept 5 at 8-10
- Thu Sept 13 at 15-17
- Tue Sept 18 at 10-12
- Thu Sept 27 at 13-15
- Thu Oct 4 at 13-15
- Tue Oct 9 at 10-12

Group C/D will meet

- Fri Aug 31 at 15-17

- Fri Sept 7 at 8-10

- Fri Sept 14 at 13-15

- Tue Sept 18 at 8-10

- Thu Sept 27 at 10-12

- Fri Oct 5 at 13-15 - Do note that it erroneously said Oct 4 in my slide at the introductory lecture (which is not possible as it collides with group A/B) 

- Tue Oct 9 at 13-15

Everyone who went to the introductory lecture today chose a seminar group to join. These groups are unfortunately pretty unbalanced at the moment (2/3 chose group A/B and only 1/3 chose group C/D). The default now is that you will automatically join group C/D - you should have a very good reason for joining group A/B instead!

If you haven't joined a group, please talk to me tomorrow right before or after the lecture.
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Seminar 1 - Pecha Kucha

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If you were at the introductory lecture today, you saw no less than three Pecha Kucha presentations of the teachers in the course.

You will do your own presentation for the seminar on Friday (deadline Thursday after lunch, 13.00)!

All the instructions you need (as well as resources) are available in Bilda (/Documents/Seminar 1).

If you have any questions about the Pecha Kucha exercise, please pose them here (in the form of a comment to this blog post).
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Lecture 1 - Aug 29 (15-17) - Nils Brandt

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Time and place: Wed Aug 29, 15-17 in lecture hall D2.

Title: "Sustainable development - and the role of technology?"

Guest: Nils Brandt, Associate professor in Industrial Ecology (KTH).

Talk: I will discuss different frames and aspects of sustainable development, especially based on the Brundtland definition. I will also focus on the role of technology for societal development and especially focus on sustainable development. What are the challenges for technological development from a perspective of sustainability? 

About: Nils Brandt divides his time between research and teaching in a masters program called "sustainable technology" at the School for Industrial Engineering and Management (ITM) at KTH. His research mainly focuses on local action and strategies for climate mitigation, especially on the level of urban district.

Literature: 

- Mulders (2006). Sustainable development for engineers. Chapter 1, "Why do we need sustainability?".

- United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) (2012). Global environmental outlook, 5th online edition. Parts of chapter 1, "Drivers" (pdf);

     - pages 4-5 (from "Main messages" until "Quantity") - i.e. not including text about "Quantity"

     - pages 10-13 (from "Economic development" until "Diets")

     - pages 15-16 (from "Quality" until "Transport")

     - pages 20-26 (from "Quality" until the end of the chapter)

Note: Chapter 1 from Mulders will be handed out on paper at the introductory lecture (Tue Aug 28). The whole book is available as an e-book through the KTH library system Primo. I don't know what the restrictions are (I assume you can only reach the e-book when you connect through KTH's computer networks).

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Welcome to the DM2573 course blog

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This is the blog for the 2012 edition of the KTH course DM2573 "Sustainability and Media Technology".

The course starts on Tuesday August 28 (13.15-15.00 in lecture hall B2). If you plan to take the course, make sure to come to the first lecture. It will be full of information about the course and about this year's theme.

The schedule for the course can be found here. 

This blog will be used as a one-way channel to spread timely administrative and practical information during the course, but with the added option of students being able to comment (ask questions) here instead of sending mail to the teachers. Please 1) check out the blog regularly or 2) subscribe to the RSS flow or 3) subscribe to blog posts by e-mail if you plan to take the course.

That's all for now, see you on August 28!

/Daniel Pargman (head teacher) & Jorge & Elina

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