BUU22594 Organisation Change for Sustainable Futures

(5 ECTS)

Lecturer: Iseult Sheehy                                                 

E-mail: isheehy@tcd.ie          

Office Hours: TBC               

Not available to Exchange students

Module Description

This course is designed for students who want to think deeply and creatively about the reality of our shared future given the twin environmental crises we face, of climate change and biodiversity loss. These crises alter not just planetary systems, but all our assumptions about management and organisation. Students will be introduced to climate & biodiversity science literacy, then examine assumptions that are built deeply into business philosophy, such as capitalism, colonialism, value, growth, efficiency, production, consumption. We will then work with emerging concepts that deconstruct these assumptions: political ecology, Doughnut Economics, Natural Capital, de-growth, Indigenous cyclical modelling, and emergent strategy, to name a few. These concepts stretch the span of many disciplines: economics, development, psychology, planning, policy studies and marketing. Equipped with the conceptual vocabulary and analytical processes for diagnosing the threats of climate change and biodiversity loss from individual, firm-level and systems-level perspectives, the course will creatively trial visions of alternative organisational futures. We will look at current policy in this space and students will work through the process of developing a biodiversity strategy that aligns with current international best practice.

Learning and Teaching Approach

The module will follow a seminar format with emphasis on readings and discussion of assigned materials. Students will complete an MCQ, a group project and presentation. This module will be delivered primarily in-person with occasional online learning. Learning material (weekly content -readings/podcasts/other) will be made available online to be reviewed in advance and discussed during an in-person weekly seminar. The module will use a broad range of learning approaches which will include online and in-person discussions and debates, practical exercises, reflective practice, and group work amongst others.

Module Level Learning Outcomes

• Recognize and explain the importance of the natural environment to management and organizational thought;
• Communicate with environmental literacy – to speak in sophisticated scientific, economic, social and psychological ways about the environmental crises
• Develop the conceptual and methodological tools needed to analyze the interacting systems of nature, organization, economy, public policy, and technology;
• Understand the business-nature policy landscape and apply best practice tools to develop a corporate biodiversity strategy
• Develop self-awareness and resilience in dealing with the emotional burden of environmental change
• Develop transdisciplinary awareness and understanding of how personal spheres and approaches beyond academic and scientific knowledge (e.g. cultural and traditional) contribute to sustainability
• Creatively imagine and articulate visions of alternative futures.

Relation to Degree

Workload

Textbooks and Required Resources

All required readings are specified in the course schedule. There will be two to three pieces of content (book chapter/paper/report/podcast etc) to review before seminar.

Required core course textbook

It’s Not That Radical: Climate Action to Transform our World, by Mikaela Loach, DK Press, 2023 (Available from library) All other materials will be linked in Blackboard.

Student preparation for the module

Course Communication

Please note that all course related email communication must be sent from your official TCD email address. Emails sent from other addresses will not be attended to.

Announcements on Blackboard (which are also set to your TCD email) will be the primary form of communication on any relevant course updates so please keep an eye on BB and your email. Discussion boards are set up on Blackboard for any course-related query to ensure consistency in the response to all students. If you have a query which is of a more personal nature please email isheehy@tcd.ie directly. Alternatively please post your query on the Blackboard discussion board which will then turn into a useful FAQ for all students.

Assessment

Reassessment

For students who fail the module reassessment will be a 3 hour exam during the reassessment period.

Biographical Note

Iseult Sheehy is a Political Ecologist, working at the nexus of environment, economics, politics and sociology. She has BA in Economics and Political Science, an MSc in Development and was a Fulbright Scholar with the Indigenous Design and Planning Institute in the University of New Mexico, studying aspects of Puebloan and Navajo praxis for sustainability.

Iseult is the Head of Operations for Business for Biodiversity Ireland and former Executive Coordinator of Natural Capital Ireland where she brought her expertise in Natural Capital to many national projects including Ireland’s 4th National Biodiversity Action Plan and the National Economic and Social Council’s Valuing and Accounting for Nature in Ireland. Iseult is an Adjunct Teaching Fellow at Trinity College Business school where she coordinates an undergraduate module on business management and environmental crisis and has a keen interest in fostering ecological knowledge across disciplines.