Iceland GSP-V: Systems Approaches to Regional SustainabilityContemporary scientists agree that solutions to complex global challenges such as environmental sustainability calls for "systems thinking": the process of understanding how things influence one another within a whole. Systems thinking as an approach to problem-solving argues that the component parts of a system can best be understood in the context of relationships with each other and with other systems, rather than in isolation. A scientific approach to examining the world that embraces systems thinking, therefore, demands that we consider landscapes, regions or whole continents as systems. In these systems, elements such as land, air, water, human societies, plants, and animals, interact in ways that influence the likelihood that the system will survive or perish. This 3-credit summer intensive course builds on ISCI 360, in which you will get a chance to examine the complex interconnecting components that contribute to the nature and status of the present-day system of a country, a region or a city. We intend to begin with a study of Iceland (as a completely self-contained nation-state ‘system', Iceland offers a particularly valuable case study).
Details
Program Type:
Group Study Program (GSP) Primary Language of Instruction:
English |
