This course will cover three thematic areas:

(1) Sustainability and Systems Thinking: Sustainable Development aims balancing environmental protection, social well-being and lasting economic prosperity. While the UN Sustainable Development Goals constitutes a globally shared vision, humanity has crossed several planetary boundaries leading to climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution, reduced freshwater and ocean acidification (Richardson et al. 2023). A systems thinking perspective allows to identify drivers, barriers, vicious cycles and intervention points for policy, businesses and individuals (Meadows 1999).

(2) Discourses and Critical Thinking: Discursive approaches examine how power, identity, and organizational change are negotiated and shaped through language and how organizational narratives influence decision-making, legitimize authority, and shape collective identity (Hardy 2022). Critical thinking empowers questioning dominant narratives, identifying underlying assumptions, and evaluating the role of framing in shaping organizational and societal change (Rambaree 2021).

(3) Foresight and Business Strategies: As the fashion industry has diverse and substantial impacts, we will apply the approaches and tools discussed in this course to this sector in the last session. In doing so, we will utilize strategic foresight to explore, create, and test multiple possible future scenarios to challenge assumptions, identify potential risks and opportunities, and develop robust strategies (Fergnani 2022).

After attending this course, students will be able to:

• Understand the challenges of sustainable development and apply systems thinking for analysis and strategy development
• Critically analyze framings, narratives and discourses and their implications for sustainable development
• Identify hidden assumptions, overcome cognitive bias and construct rigorous arguments supported by evidence within sustainability debates
• Use foresight techniques, to explore plausible scenarios of (un)sustainable development and develop future-oriented, resilient strategies for companies

You have to attend at least 80% of the session time.

The course is organized in six modular sessions, with a high degree of interactive, participatory and experience based learning. The working language and all written materials will be in English.

1. In the first session, students will discuss sustainable development as a scientific concept, a policy objective and a business strategy and gain insights into related concepts, such as planetary boundaries, circular economy, wellbeing and post-growth.
2. The second session will focus on systems thinking and allow students to experience system thinking based instruments and tools in hand-on exercises and role-plays
3. In the third session students will gain a deeper understanding of discourses, framings and narratives, and explore how they can be utilized to initiate and promote change towards sustainable development.
4. In the fourth session students will critically analyze dominant business discourses, identify hidden assumptions and learn how to overcome cognitive bias and construct rigorous arguments supported by evidence within sustainability debates.
5. In the fifth session students will apply foresight techniques to develop plausible scenarios and explore how sustainability trends influence business risks and opportunities.
6. The sixth session integrates the insights of the previous sessions and applies them to the fashion sector in a real-world case study.

Successful completion of this course requires attendance of at least 80% of the sessions and of all the assignments. Grade evaluation will be based on

1. active and qualified participation during the course blocks (30%)

2. a background paper summarizing key concepts of the course (20%, individual)

3. a critical analysis of two contradicting papers (15% group work)

4. a sustainability impact map of the fashion industry (15%, group work)

5. a summary of lessons learned during the course in the form of a guideline on sustainable development, systems and critical thinking. It will be submitted as a set of 20 Powerpoint-slides four weeks after the last session (20%, individual)

In this course, the use of any AI-based software (e.g., ChatGPT, Bard, DeepL) as well as platforms for sharing written assignments (e.g., Studydrive) constitutes an unauthorised aid under the WU examination regulations. Such misconduct will be reported and will result in academic disciplinary consequences.

English skills (reading, speaking and writing)

Please log in with your WU account to use all functionalities of read!t. For off-campus access to our licensed electronic resources, remember to activate your VPN connection connection. In case you encounter any technical problems or have questions regarding read!t, please feel free to contact the library at readinglists@wu.ac.at.