After completion of this course, students will:
- be aware of key global policy challenges and their interactions;
- understand the importance of framing problems for policy making, including ethical and political issues and the importance of discourses and paradigms;
- understand different meanings of transformation, power and truth as key concepts of SEEP and
- have a pluralist understanding of economics.

This being a ‘Course with continuous Assessment (PI)’, the university requires students to attend at least 80% of all classes for completing the course successfully. This means that you can miss a maximum of  2 sessions, missing a third sessions means you will fail the course. Ideally you don’t miss any sessions.

The course gives an introduction to contemporary policy challenges which are dealt with in the SEEP-program.

The introduction and synthesis will be organized by Sigrid Stagl.

Furthermore, you have to complete 3 thematic blocks, which you can choose out of 6 options. The 6 thematic blocks from among which you can choose are:

Thematic block 1 led by Maria Rita Testa (Fertility)

Thematic block 2 led by Sigrid Stagl (Climate Change)

Thematic block 3 led by Ernest Aigner (Sustainable Work)

Thematic block 4 led by Ulrike Scheiner (Social Policy in Aging Societies)

Thematic block 5 led by Andreas Novy (Multiple Crises)

Thematic block 6 led by Jürgen Essletzbichler (Inequality)

The class will be supported by the tutor Roman Hausmann (roman.hausmann@wu.ac.at)

The course is based on:

• inverted classroom: presentations by professors as video lectures
• thematic blocs and
• group work and innovative learning methods.

First Deliverable (in groups; 20 points, max. 1000 words, deadline: October 25, 2018):
Look at the “Human Development Report 2014 Sustaining Human Progress - UNDP” (Chapter 4) and the “World Development Report 2014: Risk and Opportunity. Managing Risk for Development” (Chapter 4 and 5).
The task of this deliverable consists in critically comparing and contrasting the two reports with respect to the following questions:
* How are “resilience” and “vulnerability” conceptualized?
* What are the respective actors of transformation?
* How is the agenda set and what are “non-issues”?
* Which report offers the true analysis?

Second Deliverable (individually, 20 points, max. 1000 words)
Choose one policy challenge related to your first thematic block, which you consider as a burning issue for socio-ecological development. Discuss the challenge and relate it to key concepts presented in the CGPC course.

Third Deliverable (individually, 20 points, max. 1000 words)
Choose one policy challenge related to your second thematic block, which you consider as a burning issue for socio-ecological development. Discuss the challenge and relate it to key concepts presented in the CGPC course.

Fourth Deliverable (individually, 20 points, max. 1000 words)
Choose one policy challenge related to your third thematic block, which you consider as a burning issue for socio-ecological development. Discuss the challenge and relate it to key concepts presented in the CGPC course.

Fifth Deliverable (individually; 20 points, max. 1000 words, deadline: February 8, 2019)
Synthesis report

Marking scheme: Excellent (89 – 100); Good (73 – 88); Satisfactory (60 –72); Sufficient (51 – 59); Insufficient (from 50)

These are strict deadlines! Submissions within 24 hours after the deadline will be accepted with a mark-down of 25% of points. Thereafter we will not accept any submissions. No exceptions.

All submissions via assignment section at Learn@WU.

Prerequisites for Incoming Exchange Students nominated by WU partner universities:

Minimum requirements to attend this course:

•    Economics (accumulated minimum of 16 ECTS credits) OR

•    Social sciences (accumulated minimum of 16 ECTS credits) OR

•    Mathematics / statistics / quantitative methods (accumulated minimum of 16 ECTS credits)

Proficiency in English is required. If you do not meet this requirement, we reserve the right to withdraw students from the course.

Roughly we expect you to spend time as follows in this course

10 ECTS = 250 hours of work (60 minutes each)

The elements of this course were designed with the following timings in mind.

Class attendance (13 classes): 45 hours

Weekly reading incl. journal writing (15 weeks, 3 hours each): 45 hours

First Deliverable (20% of your grade): 32 hours

Second Deliverable (20% of your grade): 32 hours

Third Deliverable (20% of your grade): 32 hours

Fourth Deliverable (20% of your grade): 32 hours

Fifth Deliverable (20% of your grade): 32 hours

Total: 250 hours

Obviously, these timings are mere suggestions and may vary considerably between individuals (e.g. due to differences in prior knowledge).

Be on time. Walking in late disturbs everyone. At this university and many places of employment, tardiness communicates lack of interest and lack of dependability. If you cannot avoid being late, make sure to be unobtrusive about your entry.

Please turn off and do not use mobile communication devices in class, you should be paying attention to the lecturer and class discussions, not communicating externally. Occasionally we will ask you to bring your laptop to class for some of the exercises. Also during these periods, we ask you to concentrate on the exercise and not communicate externally.

While it is acceptable – and for health reasons recommended – to bring your filled water bottle to class, we ask you to wait for the break or the end of class to refill it. Getting up and walking out during a session disturbs people and gives the impression that you don’t respect the class, the other students or the instructors.

If you must miss a class, contact Ms. Heimerl ahead of time to let her know that you will not be in class.

Do not dominate other students’ opportunities to learn by asking too many questions. It’s good to ask questions and make comments, but if you dominate the class time with too many questions and/or comments, the instructor and other students cannot participate in class discussions. When asking questions or making comments, keep them related to the discussion at hand.