Teaching Sustainable Development Goals in The Netherlands: a critical approach

Figures & data

Table 1. Summary of educational activities at HHS, LUC and LU.

Course	Literature (used in addition to films and excursions)	Written assignments	Lectures and in-class discussions (group)	Student-led discussions
HHS (PBE)	Lidskog and Elander (2010); Isenhour (2010); Kopnina and Blewitt (2014); Braungart and McDonough (2002); etc.	An individual assignment on sustainable business, linked to films and excursions; Written exam on the assigned literature	Weekly lectures. Group discussion of literature; individual presentation of written assignment	The students were asked to discuss a number of (sustainable) business-related cases in class
LUC (E&D)	Naess (1973); Braungart and McDonough (2002); Lewis (2005); Isenhour (2010); Lidskog and Elander (2010); Rees (2010); Crist (2012); Kopnina and Blewitt (2014); Derby, Piersol, and Blenkinsop (2015); Goodall (2015); Washington (2015), etc.	An individual assignment per week, linked to films, excursions and/or literature; Written essay using subjects/themes within the course	Weekly lectures alternated with discussions and student-led debates (e.g. Poverty can be solved by economic growth or economic growth is the cause of poverty; Justice for people should come before justice for the environment).	Weekly discussion of the assigned articles, with individual students being assigned the article to discuss.
LU (E&D I and II)	Lewis (2005); Isenhour (2010); Lidskog and Elander (2010); Rees (2010); Crist (2012); Derby, Piersol, and Blenkinsop (2015); Goodall (2015); Washington (2015), etc.	An essay relating students’ anthropological fieldwork (planned for January 2016) to the literature, films, and excursions offered in class	The same as for LUC (above)	The same as for LUC (above)

Table 2. Select SDGs’ areas corresponding to the programs at HHS, LUC and LU.

The SDGs	HHS	LUC	LU
1. End poverty in all its forms everywhere.	An accent on CSR in relation to poverty, questions concerning the role of MNC’s in relation to global inequalities	The general question of poverty and social inequality, their origin, what is new about, and the issues associated with addressing them	Same as for LUC, with the additional cultural element, poverty in cross-cultural perspective (in relation to the film Schooling the World)
2. End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture.	Food security and autonomy are discussed in the context of corporate and ‘traditional’ provision; (fair) production, consumption and distribution of food	The same as for HHS, with the addition of discussion on food autonomy and dependency theory; and what ‘sustainable agriculture’ entails	The same as for LUC, but with a greater emphasis on non-Western modes of food provisioning, traditional agro-systems.
3. Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.	Discussion of general indicators of well-being and generational changes. Case studies from (sustainable) business practice in which CSR has positively affected health and/or well-being of company employees or clients	The same as for HHS, except for case studies, additionally the discussion of ‘poor’ and ‘rich’ word diseases; medical advancements that have driven out most of the infectious diseases and enabled population growth	The same as for LUC, with an added emphasis on cultural framing of well-being, historical overview of ‘pre-industrial’ or modern indigenous communities and global Western definitions of well-being; using case studies of traditional communities
4. Ensure inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifelong learning.	Particular focus on the film Schooling the World, different ways of viewing Western education, self-reflection on being international business students	The same as for HHS, additionally weighing advantages and disadvantages of pro-economic development education	The same as for LUC, including self-reflection on being international Masters anthropology students and cultural observers
5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.	Discussion of equality in the context of human rights, global women’s empowerment as part of Western and globalizing tradition	The same as for HHS, with specific emphasis on interdisciplinary approaches to gender equality: legal, political, ethical	The same as for LUC, with the discussion about culturally specific versus ‘universal’ (or Western defined) gender rights, roles, perceptions
6. Ensure access to water and sanitation for all.	Discussion of state and corporate provisions versus the notion of autonomy (arrangements regarding water and sanitation provisions). The students were asked to provide case studies from (sustainable) business practice, which have positively affected water and sanitation	The same as for HHS, except for case studies, with greater accent on historical developments in relation to water supply and sanitation, e.g. from the Roman viaducts to canal-building during industrial revolution, and ‘modern’ irrigation systems in developing countries	The same as for LUC, with an added comparative cultural and historical element and examples of autonomy from international case studies of local irrigation systems
7. Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.	Discussion on the subject of (renewable) energy and climate change. Critique of current energy provision from C2C perspective (Braungart and McDonough 2002)	The same as for HHS, with greater emphasis on current events such as an COP conference in Paris (2015), political negotiations, and media analysis of energy politics	The same as for LUC, with emphasis on the articles assigned in class, see Table 1. Additionally, cross-cultural comparisons between ‘traditional’ energy use and modern provision
8. Promote inclusive and sustainable economic growth, employment and decent work for all.	Discussion about conflict and congruence between economic growth and sustainability; emphasis on paradoxes and contradictions as discussed in assigned literature and films	The same as for HHS, with emphasis on articles by Rees 2010; Wijkman and Rockström 2012; and Washington 2015;	The same as for LUC, with emphasis on the articles assigned in class, see Table 1
9. Build resilient infrastructure, promote sustainable industrialization and foster innovation.	Discussion of ‘sustainable industrialization’ in a similar context as ‘sustainable economic growth’. Discussing innovation in the positive context	The same as for HHS, discussing innovation in business, technology, and other areas connected to alternative forms of development (C2C as the ‘third industrial revolution’)	The same as for LUC, but with specific reference resilience as a broader social and cultural change
10. Reduce inequality within and among countries.	Discussions of ‘big questions’ of justice and inequality as applied in CSR contexts. Specific discussion of challenges in Lidskog and Elander (2010) article.	Discussions of ‘big questions’ of justice and inequality in cross-disciplinary perspectives (legal, political, ethical)	Intra-generational justice: culturally and historically specific versus Brundtland report perspective (e.g. Is inequality ‘new’? Are there examples of egalitarian societies?)
11. Make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.	Discussion of ‘sustainable cities’, sustainable construction/building, C2C certification	The same as for HHS, with specific focus on social inclusion in urban contexts and urban environment (Derby, Piersol, and Blenkinsop 2015)	The same as for LUC, with added discussion of urban vs. rural context, and re-iterating discussion points in relation to resilience
12. Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.	Discussion of sustainable production and consumption, C2C critique of eco-efficiency approaches, examination of consumer-based approaches with focus on Isenhour (2010)	The same as for HHS, with additional literature on socio-cultural and political aspects of consumption, focusing on Wilk (2002) and Zizek (2010)	The same as for LUC, with an added emphasis on consumption in cross-cultural and historical perspective
13. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.	Climate change is discussed in two separate lectures and guest lectures, focus on the major bottlenecks (Lidskog and Elander 2010), e.g. industrial lobbies. The COP Summit in Paris (2015)	The same as for HHS with greater emphasis on social equality, intergenerational justice and ecological justice (Crist and Cafaro 2012) in relation to climate change	The same as for LUC, with specific focus on vulnerable communities and risk areas in developing countries, local and top-down adaptation. Climate change and nonhuman species
14. Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources.	Conservation of the global commons (e.g. oceans) is discussed in the context of commodification of nature and biodiversity loss (Shoreman-Ouimet and Kopnina 2015)	An extended discussion of commodification of nature as well as various conservation strategies (Goodall 2015) and deep ecology (Naess 1973).	The same as for LUC, with an added emphasis on anthropological critique of neoliberal conservation and counter-critique (Shoreman-Ouimet and Kopnina 2015)
15. Sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, halt and reverse land degradation, halt biodiversity loss.	Sustainability of natural habitats, biodiversity loss and scarcity of resources discussed in a larger context of tragedy of the commons, population growth, and expansion of industrial activities	The same as for HHS, with focus on the dilemmas surrounding ‘sustainable resource management’. Biodiversity loss discussed from a non-anthropocentric perspective	The same as for LUC, with ‘field’ examples of local/traditional versus modern forms of environmental management
16. Promote just, peaceful and inclusive societies.	Discussion of intergenerational justice, as well as human rights and democratic participation in decision-making processes (Lidskog and Elander 2010)	The same as for HHS, with more problematic aspects of social inclusion and economic equality discussed (Rees 2010; Washington 2015). ‘Inclusive pluralism’ andeco-representation (Lidskog and Elander 2010).	The same as for LUC, with additional discussion on indigenous, nomadic, and generally more egalitarian societies
17. Revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development.	The global partnership is discussed in the context of sustainable development and its paradoxes	The same as for HHS, with the specific discussion of ‘ways forward’ define and act upon the principles of sustainable development	The same as for LUC

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