The overall goal of the course is to create insight into what it means to lead an organization. Which includes: Developing Self-Awareness, Solving Problems Creatively, Communicating Supportively, Motivating Others, Managing Conflicts, Empowering and Delegating, Building Effective Teams, Leading Positive Change, Gender Perspective on Organisations and Making Oral and Written Presentations

Concepts such as ecosystems, ecosystem services, ecological carrying capacity and planetary boundaries as well as their relation to technical development, population growth, welfare and sustainable development.

The most important global and regional environmental problems of today such as global warming, acidification, eutrophication, ozone layer depletion, environmental pollutants, biodiversity, freshwater scarcity and deforestation.

Trends and changes around the use of natural resources such as forest, soil and drinking water.

Analysis of a socio-technical system- e g production and use of energy, transports, foods, electronics and textiles and its dependence as well as influence on ecosystems.

Which role societal actors at different levels e g individuals, companies, organisations and public authorities, play in relation to regional and global environmental problems and possible solutions.

Our point of departure will be practical ethical problems. These will vary each time the course is given but classical examples include conflicts between safety and economy or function, environmental effects of technology, conflicts between the engineer’s professionalism and his/her loyalty to the employer, work with morally dubious technologies, insider problems and industrial espionage, integrity issues related to IT, etc. In order to analyse these issues we will use tools from moral philosophy (ethics). We will acquaint ourselves with important theories from moral philosophy such as utilitarianism and deontological ethics, as well as with useful notions, e.g., moral dilemmas.

An important part of this course is an individually written essay under supervision. This work amounts to a specialisation in an ethical problem that can be selected in accordance with the student’s previous experiences and studies. The main aim of this work is the analysis, from an ethical perspective, of technology relevant to the student’s studies. In order to be able to apply the ethical theories and the tools from the course, substantial familiarity with the relevant technical aspects is required.

During the past years, questions about energy and energy policy have come to play an important role in global politics. Very few countries today have the means to secure their own energy need through national supplies, and instead long-going dependencies upon other countries have developed. A widespread international trade of crude energy material started already in the 19th century, but has increased exponentially during the second half of the 20th century. Energy trade has included everything from wooden chips, peat, and ethanol, to coal, oil, gas, and uranium.

This international trade has developed as a parallel process to the growth of as well new, radical energy technologies (nuclear, large scale water-power, gas power plants, combined power and heating, etc.) and large systems for transport and distribution of energy(in the form of electricity, heat, gas and oil)through pipelines and lines.

At the same time, energy politics has become more and more entangled with other political fields, such as environmental politics, research- and innovation politics and foreign politics, which makes it more difficult to understand the development within the energy field. This course aims to give a deeper understanding of energy provision from a geopolitical and historical perspective.

Some of the themes discussed during the course will include:

International dependencies: gas, oil, uranium
Transnational vulnerabilities
Energy and national identity in a global perspective
Energy and geopolitics during the cold war
International energy crises – old and new
The globalisation of energy politics and the EU as a new actor in energy politics
Russia’s role
The cybernetisation of energy systems
The deregulation of the energy sector
From national to global innovation systems in the energy area
The nuclear fuel cycle as a critical infrastructure
Energy and international terrorism

The course explores the interdisciplinary field of political ecology with a special focus on its historical dimension. Political ecology is a theoretical and methodological approach to the study of socio-ecological systems. It focuses on conflicts, power relations and uneven distribution of environmental costs and benefits. The field seeks to “politicise” debates about environmental problems, and thereby stands in contrast to †a-political†ecologies that tries to understand environmental issues in terms of universal driving forces related to, for example, population trends or biophysical factors.

The course intends to familiarise you with central concepts and tools used by political ecologists and thereby help you to take an active role in the political-ecological field if you wish. Unlike other sciences that you may be familiar with so far, political ecology does not work with experiments, modelling or quantitative analysis; instead, the course takes as its point of departure theoretical concepts that are documented through case studies which combine qualitative and quantitative information in an empirically-backed narrative (“story”). Each course occasion will focus on different key concept from political-ecological theory and use an important, published case study to illustrate how this concept is “put to work”.

The course describes alternative food systems and the complexities associated with assessing their sustainability, and demonstrates the sustainability trade-offs between contrasting systems (e.g. local vs. global; extensive vs. intensive). Topics covered include: agroecology, food and farming systems, nutrient cycles, sustainability impacts, life cycle assessment, climate change, ecosystem services, biodiversity, land-use and water-use impacts, food security and sovereignty, trade, GMOs.

The course develops a critical theoretical framework based on three key concepts: uneven development, “thinking from the South,” and political ecology. Political ecology emphasises how all development is about social and environmental transformation with winners and losers that shape rural and urban landscapes and often with destructive environmental consequences. In parallel, we draw upon postcolonial thought to challenge from where development, sustainability, and urbanization can be understood, providing ample space to engage with knowledge centres, organisations, and civil society groups from cities and countries in the global South. This expands the places, experiences and researchers that can inform the theory and practice of development.

Pedagogically, the course is based on creating a community of inquiry between students and the teacher. Lectures are followed by group work as well as seminars and individual consultation hours with the teacher. This creates an intimate learning environment, making it safe to both ask and try to answer difficult questions. Group work means to do a case study and receive training in applying theory to understand “messy realities.” You will also develop your essay writing skills with peer feedback and feedback from the teacher to support your growth as a writer and thinker.

The mechanical properties of metals in the form of:

Plastic deformation, seen from continuum and crystal plastic perspective
Dislocations and their properties
Hardening mechanisms
Static cracks with application on ductile and brittle fractures.
Fatigue
Creep