Brazil is a country of contrasts and contradictions. Crowded urban centres give way to massive soy and cattle farms, while traditional communities live simply in the world’s most biodiverse reserve on earth. It’s vibrant and captivating – every traveller’s dream destination – yet Brazil faces many social and environmental challenges invisible to the average traveller.

Join our experiential immersion in the Amazon Jungle to live with, and learn from, this inexplicable rainforest and its people. Experience what life is like when all the city’s resources and politics are stripped away to reveal only nature in its simplicity and abundance. See how a group of people live in contrast to what we are familiar with. Here they live with a forest rather than from it.... [-]

During this course participants will be provided with an understanding of South Africa’s political economy, looking at four dimensions that influence how it is shaped.

This, presented by Prof. Mark Swilling, will entail an understanding of four dimensions of this endeavour: (a) the way South African economic history has been understood from a political economy perspective; (b) the dynamics of post-1994 economic policy making and why the challenge of radical economic restructuring has not been adequately addressed; (c) the challenge of state capture from the perspective of the literature on neo-patrimonialism; and (d) potential alternatives, including industrial policy, radical green economy developments, ‘radical economic transformation’ and Fanonist perspectives on resistance and change.... [-]

In this course, a variety of biodiversity and ecosystem service frameworks will be introduced and discussed in light of how they help us understand our connection with and dependence on nature.

In the face of global change and natural resource depletion, it has become imperative to understand the links between biodiversity and ecosystem services such as freshwater, crop production, grazing, and climate regulation, which underpin the economy and well-being of different groups in society.

However, biodiversity, ecosystem services, and human well-being are all multidimensional issues characterized by complex interactions.

The course will also discuss possible tipping points that could trigger large, abrupt, nonlinear changes in ecosystems and society which might threaten critical ecosystem services that support human well-being, especially amongst vulnerable groups in society.... [-]

Imagine being able to look at the environmental disclosure of a company and gaining insight about the company’s strategy and pitfalls in the same sense that you would have gained when looking at the company’s financial statements.

This is indeed possible.

While many of the top 100 companies listed on JSE Limited already calculate their carbon footprints, this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Before long, every company will need to calculate its carbon footprint and also strive to reduce it. Soon carbon (and water) footprinting will be implemented and actioned by all listed companies.

Central focus areas will include:

This course investigates business responses to the challenges and opportunities presented by sustainability and the manifestations of social (sustainable) enterprise, with special emphasis on developing country contexts, particularly South Africa.

An overarching question is what role, if any, can enterprise play in the transition toward a ‘new economy’.

Is social enterprise a legitimate ‘new economy’ trend that imbues a genuine shift in attitudes and behaviour, or is it a veil for business as usual?

Central focus areas will include:

In order to deal with issues of food security, it is important to understand the globalized nature of food systems and how this context challenge attempts to address hunger and food security.

This course is particularly relevant in terms of the recent international and especially South African national initiatives around food security, which have seen high-level meetings of government departments, food processors, retailers, consumer groups, NGOs and farmers engaging around how to achieve food security in South Africa.

Participants will be introduced to varying notions of food security and a deep discussion of globalised food systems is a key focus: how international food trade works; challenges of globalised food systems; issues around climate change, food miles, peak oil, land for biofuels vs land for food and the environmental sustainability of this food system.... [-]

During the course, we will explore the diversity of paradigms in heterodox economics, emerging thinking in the World Academy of Art and Science, post-GDP debates, different modes of long-wave thinking, global green transformation and proposals for radical change.

This course will help participants understand the global debates about alternatives to the current crisis-ridden global economic order.

This course is presented by Mark Swilling, a Distinguished Professor of Sustainable Development in the School of Public Leadership, University of Stellenbosch and Academic Director of the Master’s Programme in Sustainable Development that is delivered at the Institute.

Delve deeper into the challenge of sustainability in general and sustainable development in particular. Explore the challenges posed by natural resource limits to the ways production and consumption are currently structured and managed within a world that is sharply divided between the rich (located mainly in the global North) and poor (located mainly in the global South).

The challenge facing the world today is not just about the redistribution of resources to ensure greater levels of social equity, but also about how to reorganise the extraction, use, and disposal of those resources in order to ensure longer-term survival of the eco-systems that sustain all life.

This course will provide course participants with an overview of the most significant global environmental, social and economic challenges that face humankind, and an insight into the solutions suggested by the universal commitment to sustainable development. Four questions will guide the lectures and discussions:... [-]

This course provides a comprehensive overview of the spectacular transformation of the world as it crosses the threshold of becoming a majority urban world for the first time in human history.

The module delves into the differential dynamics of worldwide urbanisation, with particular reference to the global South. It demonstrates that these large-scale shifts in human movement, economic development, and expansion of the built environment hold deeply troubling implications for sustainability.

The course is presented by Mark Swilling, a Distinguished Professor of Sustainable Development in the School of Public Leadership, University of Stellenbosch and Academic Director of the Master’s Programme in Sustainable Development that is delivered at the Institute.... [-]

A more sustainable world will mean changing our assumptions about design, and what should be designed. This course will focus on the role of design in all its disciplinary manifestations.

Design has affected the shape and experience of industrialisation, urbanisation, urbanism, political economics, power relationships, globalisation and the quest for a sustainable future. It has shaped ethics and leadership styles and processes.

Through its function of object-making, communication-making, space-making, experience-making and systems-making, design plays a powerful role in the forming of values, identities, lifestyles, aspirations, expectations, choices and behaviour.