Námskeiðslýsing

Exploitation of natural resources often causes intractable conflicts between different interest groups. Due to globalization and the availability of information these conflicts tend to be getting more and more complicated and difficult to resolve. Environmental risks, and concern about them, are very often involved in such conflicts with these risks evaluated very differently by different stakeholders.

The course introduces theory, techniques and experiences in conflict resolution in resource management with a focus on coastal zone and marine management. Practical examples will include conflicts that have arisen due to exploitation of coastal and marine resources, as well as other environmental conflicts such as the storage and transport of oil, hazardous waste deposits, mining, and national parks.

The course will include case studies where students use varying methods to investigate historical, ongoing or potentially upcoming conflicts. Students will also participate in a simulated decision-making process concerning environmental management in the form of role play around a practical case.

Hæfniviðmið

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

Describe and use existing conflict resolution methods and strategies in resource management

 

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 be familiar with the principles of how these risks can be communicated to different interest groups

 

Analyse different frames held by stakeholders in an ongoing conflict. This means an evaluation of how different people and interest groups develop their views on a matter of 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 smaller assignments. The first, an individual written assignment, is an investigation of an existing conflict. The three smaller assignments relate to different methods for conflict resolution. All assignments will be presented both orally and in writing. Students must also take part in the lectures and discussions as well as in the role playing exercise.

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 focusing on 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" ecosystems, we try more and more to look at industrial activities as "metabolisms" which interact with other supporting ecosystems. 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 ecosystems in a sustainable way.

Professor Wennersten has been coordinator of several EU projects in the area of conflict resolution in resource management, one of them the COASTMAN project focusing on oil handling 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

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