Námskeiðslýsing

Exploitation of natural resources often causes intractable conflicts between different interest groups (Stakeholders). Due to globalization and availability of information these conflicts tend to be more and more complicated and difficult to resolve. Very often there are concerns about environmental risks involved in the conflicts where these risks are evaluated very different by different stakeholders.

The course introduces theory, techniques and experiences in conflict resolution in resource management with focus on coastal zone and marine management. Practical examples will be taken from conflicts that have risen due to exploitation of coastal and marine resources, but also other cases in the area of environmental conflicts will be studied like storage and transport of oil, hazardous waste deposits, mining, national parks.

The course will include case studies where students through different methods investigates historical, on-going or potential up-coming conflicts.

Hæfniviðmið

After finishing the course, the student should be able to:

• Describe and use existing methods and tools for conflict resolution and strategies in resource management applied to an individually chosen case
• Critically examine how information and knowledge are used by different interest groups in existing conflicts
• Describe and explain the concept of environmental risk from a social-technological perspective
• Evaluate environmental risks and know the principles for how these risks can be communicated to different interest groups
• Analyse different frames held by stakeholders in an ongoing conflict. This means evaluation of how different people and interest groups develop their views on a conflict
• Assess and explain how scenario methods can be utilized to facilitate planning and conflict management in decision making processes

Námsmat

Students' final grade will be based on one larger assignment and three minor assignments. The first, an individual written assignment, is an investigation of an existing conflict. The three minor assignments will be connected to different methods for conflict resolution. All assignments will be presented in written reports and also presented orally. Students should also take part in the lectures and discussions as well as in the role play.

Kennari

Professor Ronald Wennersten is head of the Department of Industrial Ecology at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, Sweden. After working in Industry with environmental management, he came to KTH in 1996 where he became professor and head of the Department of Industrial Ecology in 2000.

Industrial Ecology is a rather new research field presenting a new paradigm in environmental management. Going from traditional "end of pipe" solutions where human activities are looked upon as something "unnatural " which should be isolated from "natural" ecosystem we will more and more try to look at industrial activities as "metabolisms" which interacts with the life supporting eco systems. Sustainable solutions will probably not be the ones which involve closed loops of material and energy within industries and municipalities, but the ones which interact with other eco systems in a sustainable way.

He has been coordinator of several EU projects in the area of conflict resolution in resource management, e.g COASTMAN and BaltSeaPlan, projects focusing on resource management in the Baltic Sea Region. He is head of the Joint Research Center for Industrial Ecology at Shandong University in China where he also is guest professor. He is also a guest professor at Southeast University, School of Architecture in Nanjing.

Email address: rw@kth.se
Home page: www.ima.kth.se

Gestafyrirlesari

Ítarefni

Leal, W., Brandt, N., Krahn, D. & Wennersten, R. (Eds.), 2008. Conflict Resolution in Coastal Zone Management, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, Peter Lang Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften