Global Citizenship

Teacher(s)

Swaen Valérie;

Language

English

Prerequisites

You need to be enrolled in the CEMS MIM Program

Main themes

The objective of this seminar is to highlight some of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations (SDG’s). These goals have been launched in 2015 by the United Nations to transform the world. Building on the principle of leaving ‘no one behind”, the UN agenda emphasizes a holistic approach to achieving sustainable development for all. Each year, some of the Sustainable Development goals are chosen by the professors and are analyzed in depth by the students

Learning outcomes

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :
1	At the end of the seminar, the students will be able  to understand the issues related to the sustainable development goals and will understand how they can personally contribute to help achieving some of the goals of the United Nations. This seminar has been integrated in the CEMS curriculum to open the minds of students on these SDG’s and show how different actors act together to reach these goals.

Content

This seminar examines the systemic, strategic, and individual dimensions of the sustainability transition, structured around three levels of analysis:

• macro - the state of the global system and business's place within it: planetary boundaries, SDGs, regulatory context; systems thinking and leverage points (Meadows, 1999).
• meso - how firms and sectors actually transform: competing framings of the firm's role (shareholder primacy, stakeholder theory, purpose-driven business); firm-level (Waddock, 2020) vs. sector-level (Dixson-Declève et al., 2022) transformation
• and micro - the cognitive biases and organisational resistance that shape real decisions.

Teaching methods

The format is deliberately interactive and includes:

• Mini-lectures
• Structured debate
• Small-group breakout mapping exercises
• Role-play simulation
• Individual reflective writing

Evaluation methods

Individual written reflection (1–2 pages), submitted within 1–2 weeks of the seminar.
Students select one sustainability issue or company example and analyse it across the macro/meso/micro architecture used in the seminar, closing with a personal reflection.

Bibliography

Meadows, D. (1999). Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System. Sustainability Institute.
Waddock, S. (2020). Transforming business purposes and practices: The need for a systems approach. Rutgers Business Review.
Dixson-Declève, S. et al. (2022). Earth for All: A Survival Guide for Humanity.

Faculty or entity

> CLSM