Be the Change: Solve Global Challenges with Bold Ideas
Societies all over the world grapple with socio-technical transformations that cause a divide between worldviews, political beliefs, interests, and ways of living. Moreover, we face grand challenges of climate change, inequality, health, and environmental degradation. This course prepares you to take up these challenges proactively and design interventions that co-shape societies for so-called pluriversal futures, in which multiple ways of being, knowing and making can co-exist. You will develop the mindset, knowledge, and skills to help transform - together with regional stakeholders - the social, environmental, and economic system. In this course you will work in a transdisciplinary manner, connect global challenges with local actions, histories with futures, academic with societal perspectives, action with reflection, and critical modes with creative modes of thinking and design.
Collaborate, Create, and Lead
More concretely, this course centers around a real-world challenge-based project. It is partly carried out with the entire group, and partly in small teams. In the context of the project, you will combine a thorough socio-technical and historical analysis of the challenge with a deep understanding of its local context and conduct hands-on co-imagining and co-shaping activities with different representatives from academia, government, industry, and society. These activities allow you to develop advanced design, analysis, and leadership skills. In this course you will learn unique, transdisciplinary methods for framing and analyzing problems and for responsible futuring and prototyping. Together, you will make a difference in society.
Make an Impact: Real Projects, Real Change
Activating workshops, intensive coaching sessions, field trips and inspiring guest lectures will support the project. The final product is a challenge analysis and an experiential provocative prototype of pluriversal futures, aimed at engaging stakeholders in a transformation of society in a local context. The assessment of the final product, its justification, and its presentation is pass/fail, with extensive feedback for your personal and professional development. It will be carried out by a broad team of teachers and external stakeholders.
