Sustainability: Transformation as Enabler of Green Transitions

Explore what drives and blocks the transition to sustainable societies.

 

In this eight-week online course, Master’s students explore the foundations, prerequisites and barriers for the sustainability transformation of our societies. The course’s premise is that fundamental change in how we organise consumption and provisioning in our economies and societies is necessary for all humans to be able to live a good life, both now and in the future.

 

On that basis, students will develop a holistic understanding of sustainability, investigate unsustainability and its causes, understand barriers to the pursuit of necessary changes, and identify actors and changes in material and ideational structures that may create momentum for change. Ultimately, the course aims to identify pathways for a just and democratic transition towards sustainability.

Registration dates 21 September 2026 09 October 2027
Course dates 12 October 2026 04 December 2026
Registration is open
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Sustainability: Transformation as Enabler of Green Transitions

Course content

Each week focuses on a specific topic and concludes with a short reflection assignment. The reflections are graded on a pass/fail basis and are due by Friday at 23:59. We encourage you not to leave the assignments until the last minute and to take sufficient time to engage thoughtfully with each reflection.

Week 1: Introduction: Conceptual Foundations of Sustainability, Transformation and Green Transitions I
Week 2:  Introduction: Conceptual Foundations of Sustainability, Transformation and Green Transitions II
Week 3: Policy Fields and Governance Instruments in and Structural Barriers of Green Transitions
Week 4: Sustainable Consumption & Provisioning and Consumption Governance
Week 5: Empirical Case I: Mobility Transitions
Week 6: Empirical Case II: Housing Sufficiency, Energy Efficiency and the Built Environment
Week 7: Empirical Case III: Food Systems, Sustainable Diets & Food Practice Analysis
Week 8: Integration: Futures of Green Transitions

Learning outcomes

After completing this course, students will be able to:

  • explain different sustainability frameworks
  • understand needs-based approaches to a sustainability transformation
  • identify structural barriers to transformation and systemic pathways to overcoming them
  • analyse different approaches to transformation in three consumption domains
  • take action for a sustainability transformation

Recognition

This online course is open to students of all Ulysseus partner universities. The course runs for eight weeks and awards 3 ECTS, which your home institution may recognise, depending on its policies. 5 ECTS are possible with additional assessment. Mandatory assignments need to be completed to receive ECTS. Please consult your academic advisor or mobility coordinator for details.

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