PART II 

1.     Course Aims: 

The course aims to introduce students to competing visions of ‘sustainability’, and explains why sustainability is a growing concern for cities and city-dwellers, including issues of energy costs, food supply, and social relations as we enter the “peak oil” era of declining supply and rising energy costs, and face rising demands to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  Teaching-and-learning uses real-world case studies from cities and towns in Asia and elsewhere to illustrate sustainability issues and innovative solutions, and engages students in exercises to imagine and plan what would be required for the transition to more sustainable urban lifestyles, and to create the best kinds of new urban relationships for true sustainability.   

2.     Course Intended Learning Outcomes (CILOs) 

        Upon successful completion of this course, students should be able to: 

3.      Teaching and Learning Activities (TLAs) (designed to facilitate students’ achievement of the CILOs)  

4.      Assessment Tasks/Activities(designed to assess how well the students achieve the CILOs –Some assessment tasks/activities may address more than one CILO.)   

5.     Grading of Student Achievement: Refer to Grading of Courses in the Academic Regulations  

PART III 

Keyword Syllabus:  

1.  Sustainability and “sustainable development”.  Resources, food supply, energy, ‘ecological footprints’. Are there limits to economic growth? (CILOs 1-2, Weeks 1-3)  

TLAs: review and discuss definitions of ‘sustainability’. Discuss and debate the differences in sustainability issues for food, energy, and materials. Review and practice use of the concept of ecological footprint’; critical analysis of estimates of ‘ecological footprint’. Review ‘limits to growth’ analysis 

Readings (examples):

  Edwards, Andres. The Sustainability Revolution: Portrait of a Paradigm Shift (2005: New Society Publishers): Introd., and Chs. 1-3.

  Meadows, Donella, Randers, Jorgen, and Meadows, Dennis. Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update. (2004, Chelsea Green Publishing Company). Chs. 1-3

  Ecological footprint calculators (eg. at: http://footprint.wwf.org.uk/) 

2.  “Soft-Sustainability” issues for cities: pollution, green space, food, ‘quality of life’, social development. Why this is not really about “sustainability” in the ‘hard’ sense.       

(CILO3, Weeks 4-5)  

TLAs: Discuss and debate what ‘quality of life’ means for urbanite. Assess surveys on quality of life. Relate ‘quality of life discourse’ to ‘sustainability’ discourse. Site visits to particular locations in the city to discuss ‘quality of life’ and ‘sustainability issues for residents in different kinds of districts. Presentations on small group assessments of quality of life issues for types of districts, and relation to sustainability discussions. 

Readings (examples):

  Mottershead, Terri. Sustainable Development in Hong Kong. (2004: Hong Kong University Press): Chs. 1-5.

  Agyeman, Julian. Sustainable Communities and the Challenge of Environmental Justice. (2005: New York University Press). Chs. 1-2. 

3.      “Hard sustainability” problems: Energy supply, ‘peak oil’ analysis, the coming transition away from fossil fuels for energy in cities, and for production and transportation of food. Alternative energy technologies: uses and prospects for replacing fossil fuels for energy and food production. Implications for mass tourism, consumerism, trade, and economic growth.        

(CILOs 2-3, Weeks 6-8)  

TLAs: Discuss and debate energy supply issues and problems, related to urban energy needs and 101 consumption patterns. Site visits to particular districts to look at buildings and transportation from an ‘energy consumption’ point of view. Debate possibilities for energy-alternatives to replace fossil fuels and to reduce energy consumption and increase energy efficiency.  

Readings (examples):

  Heinberg, Richard. The Party’s Over: Oil, War, and the Fate of Industrial Societies., (2005: New Society Publishers). Selected chapters.

  Deffeyes, Kenneth..Beyond Oil: The View from Hubbert’s Peak. (2005: Hill and Wang): Chs.1-3.

  Pfieffer, Dale Allen. Eating Fossil Fuels: Oil, Food, and the Coming Crisis in Agriculture. (2006: New Society Publishers). 

4.     Climate-change issues for cities.  City-initiatives to reduce greenhouse-gases. Links to ‘hard sustainability’ issues. Implications for urban life.  

5.  Movements in cities around the world to deal with ‘hard sustainability´ issues: relocalization of energy supply and food production; strengthening of local socio-economic relations and of local “communities”, education for sustainability. How education must change.  

(CILOs 3-4, Weeks 9-11) 

TLAs: Briefly review evidence for climate change, and projections about impacts on cities. Review and discuss urban initiatives to reduce green-house gas emissions. Students’ presentations on particular cities and their plans or initiatives (eg. Portland, Toronto, London, etc.). Visits to near-sea-level districts to consider impacts of rising sea levels, storm surges, etc. Visits to local agricultural sites in urban and suburban locations in Hong Kong.

Readings (examples):

  Hopkins, Rob. The Transition Handbook: From Oil Dependency to Local Resilience. (2008: Green Books). Selected chapters.

  Frescata, Carlos (ed). Green China (Ecological Rural Development: An Information Bridge China-Europe). (2007: Palmela, Portugal:Biosani Lda). Pp. 21-39. 

6.   ‘Sustainable societies’: competing visions of the future. (CILO4, Weeks 12-13) 

TLAs: Student presentations on ideas which could (or could not) be applied in Hong Kong, to increase or improve sustainability, increase efficiency, reduce energy consumption, replace non-renewable sources of energy, and improve quality of life.

Readings:

  McKibben, Bill. Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future. (2007: Holt). Chs. 2-4.

  Diamond, Jared. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. (2005:Viking). Ch. 14-15.