A83525 Sustainable Economic Policy and Management

At the end of the course the student will be able:

• to collect and elaborate hard data and factual information regarding the critical global economic and business (i.e. environmental change, climate uncertainty, natural resource scarcity, waste disposal, public health, conflicts, security, and human vulnerability);
• to assess the local economic implications of global dynamics in sample human habitats in Africa, Americas, Asia and Europe (urban contexts, rural areas, marginal and extreme lands);
• to conduct in-depth analysis of global and local uncertainties and strategic foresight exercise in order to explore various possible scenarios (alternative images of future) of local economic realities (, sector, territory, town, region, country, trade block, monetary zone…);
• to imagine hypothetic solutions for the benefit of local economic realities (communities) as well as of the world-system (humanity), to face the challenges of 21^st century.

The course is aimed to provide the critical knowledge needed to understand the global debate on sustainability and to analyze its implications for economic policy and business strategy.

From the economic point of view ‘sustainability’ means adding value to the existing resources and assets one hand; and on the other, preventing the rise of scarcity, cost, crisis and burden for the future.

All economic actors, resources, activities, working tools, techniques and assets are inserted within wider natural and human systems: ecosystems, socio-cultural systems and the institutional frameworks (political system).

Any economic system’s long-term performance depends upon its ability to be in harmony with all those wider systems that envelop the economic system.

An economic system’s harmonization with the wider encompassing systems demands policies and practices that accord maximum priority to the environmental and human problems which often transcend the boundaries of the national and regional economic systems due to the inter-system linkages.

This course aims to provide a critical knowledge needed to understand the global debate on sustainability and to analyze its implications for economic policy and business strategy.

Therefore, this course intends to conduct a logical-consecutive teaching of the following short modules (5 lesson hours for each module, on average):

1.     Introduction to sustainable economy: history of idea and key-concepts (Prolusione: la storia dell’idea ed i concetti-chiave dell’economia sostenibile)

2.     Relevance of sustainability in a contemporary World: critical global economic issues (La rilevanza della sostenibilità nel mondo contemporaneo: criticità economiche globali)

3.     The long view: environmental and socio-economic sustainability in a historical perspective, from Neolithics to our times (Sostenibilità ambientale e socio-economica sotto il profilo storico)

4.     Sustainability through the prism of four dimensions: Habitat, Communitas, Ethos and Business (La sostenibilità attraverso la prospettiva di quattro dimensioni: l’ambiente, la società, la cultura, l’impresa)

5.     Measuring sustainability across the contemporary socio-economic systems (Misurare la sostenibilità nei sistemi socio-economici odierni)

6.     Existing policies and emerging paradigms towards a sustainable economy (Politiche esistenti e paradigmi emergenti verso l’economia sostenibile)

7.     Sustainable business management and the next business horizons (La gestione sostenibile d’impresa ed i nuovi orizzonti di affari)

8.     Sustainable development planning: case studies, examples and field reports (Pianificazione per lo sviluppo sostenibile: casi, esempi e racconti dal campo d’azione).

9.     Concluding remarks: new research prospects (conclusione: nuove prospettive di ricerca).

The course will be conducted in a mixed format, lectures and discussions, requiring active student involvement. In order to ensure open discussions and active participation of the students, special interactive (questions and answers) period is planned at the end of each lesson session.

Lessons begin in the earliest possible date of the academic semester (around mid-February 2016) and will conclude before the end of academic year (around mid-May 2016).

Students are recommended to study the reading materials suggested and handed-out, to follow the class-room references, to explore the university’s library and other sources, and to go through related scientific journals, professional reports, web-sites and media items.

Students are advised to explore and study the material/links indicated prior to the class-room delivery and also afterwards.

The slides projected in the class-room will be uploaded in the course web-site before the end of the course term.

Research-topics and guidelines for a small project in small groups (team work for class-room presentation) and question-topic for an individual written paper (home assignment) will be provided in the second half of the course term.

Prof. Pant, Dr. Marco Brusati and other research staff of the Interdisciplinary Unit for Sustainable Economy, LIUC) will help the students in team-working (group research) as well as in the entire learning process, in class-room as well as in their offices.

The students are required to submit their individual papers (max. 3 pages + references) before the end of the course; the score-marks on the small group projects and written works will be communicated during the comprehensive final oral exam soon at the end of the course term.