SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT PRACTICUM in Spring 2025 (CM5063)

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How does communication work as local government bodies, civil-society actors and NGOs put together sustainable development initiatives? How can communication be made to work better? Cutting across disciplines, this practicum allows students to see individuals, groups and communities in collaboration (and sometimes conflict) in a South Asian context marked by the 2004 tsunami. Based in the international eco-community of Auroville (Tamil Nadu, south-east India), students will explore substantive areas including micro-credit, health care with special reference to HIV/Aids, socially responsible business and environmental management. On-site visits and team-work are central to the course, leading to the production of multi-media reports on the interface between communication, development and sustainability. This course has an extra course fee - to guage an estimated cost, the fee was approximately 1600 euros.

Course Master: 
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT PRACTICUM (CM5063)
Term: 
Spring 2025
Discipline: 
CM (Communications)
Credits: 
4 credits
Type: 
Regular
Level: 
Graduate
Can be taken twice for credit?: 
No
Pre-requisites: 
Major=MA: Global Communications OR Major=MA: Global Comm. (Development Communications) OR Major=MA: Global Comm. (Digital Cultures and Industries) OR Major=MA: Global Comm. (Fashion Track) OR Major=MA: Global Comm. (Visual & Material Culture Track) OR Major=MSc: Strategic Brand Management
Co-requisites: 
None

Professor(s)

Learning Outcomes

  1. apply prior knowledge and coursework in civil society, public sphere, gender, race, postcolonial, and cultural theory, as well as history and economics to the phenomena mentioned above.
  2. develop a concrete understanding of Sustainable Development and Development Communications within the unique cultural context of Auroville, Pondicherry and the state of Tamil Nadu.
  3. gain an understanding of local Tamil Indian culture and the specific, local challenges of working in the field of development therein.
  4. learn about the challenges of sustainable food production, alternative types of energy production and consumption and waste management cycles
  5. learn how businesses can be run in a socially responsible manner and how other economic systems can coexist within the market economy or exist as an alternative to it.
  6. learn the basic methods and theories of intercultural communication and development communication and be able to apply them to the larger context of development and to other media/development communications projects.
  7. learn to apply methods of participant observation and field note-taking and analysis.
  8. learn to recognize and analyze interrelated processes of sustainable development: social, economic, ecological, cultural, political.
  9. learn to understand how education, empowerment and development are interrelated in social sustainability.

Syllabus

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Schedule

Start Date: 
Monday, January 13, 2025
End Date: 
Tuesday, May 13, 2025