UASFS300 Systems thinking and transdisciplinary collaboration

The course will give the students insight into, and understanding of, the role sustainable food systems and urban agriculture can play in relation to sustainable development - both socially, environmentally and economically - in villages and cities across the country. The concept of sustainable food systems encompasses the entire value chain from food production to consumption, with an emphasis on resource utilization and circularity. It includes various forms of food production in agriculture and aquaculture - from large-scale, professional production to small-scale initiatives in cities and villages. Urban agriculture is part of this and covers everything from commercial and industrial solutions to community-based and individual cultivation projects, where circular economy principles and local resource utilization are central. The course focuses on teamwork, the use of different tools, is case-based and the issues will vary from year to year.

The students work in interdisciplinary groups, which also collaborate with actors outside the university, and thus transdisciplinary teams are established and developed. The groups will jointly identify, concretize and solve challenges within sustainable food systems and urban agriculture. The course can also be adapted to different academic perspectives.

The content of the course is structured around three integrated processes:

1. Project work: The students develop and establish concrete projects in sustainable food systems and urban agriculture (or other relevant disciplines) in different contexts.
2. Group processes and collaboration: The students reflect on and learn about teamwork, prerequisites for good collaboration and challenges related to interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary working methods.
3. Methods and tools: The students are introduced to different methods and tools that are relevant for analyzing, developing and implementing solutions in the project work. This can include, for example, system mapping, stakeholder analysis, design methodology, scenario building, and tools for evaluation and decision support. The students will also evaluate and further develop these tools in the face of practical problems.

After completing the course, the student should have achieved the following learning outcomes in knowledge, skills and general competence:

Knowledge

Students:

• Have insight into which disciplines are included in sustainable food systems, urban agriculture and circularity, and can analyze the interaction between these in different projects.
• Can explain basic group theory, prerequisites for interdisciplinary collaboration and interaction with external actors.
• Have an awareness of how their own and others' patterns of action affect cooperation and group dynamics.
• Have acquired basic concepts from fields other than his/her own.

• Have knowledge of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals and how these can be applied and put into practice in their own work.
• Have an understanding of GreenComp, the EU's framework for sustainability competence, and its relevance to their own professional development and practice.

Skills

Students:

• Can apply his/her own professional competence in interdisciplinary collaboration processes and communicate with different disciplines and external actors, including the use of relevant technical terms.
• Can reflect on collaborative processes and analyze how the group communicates, plans, decides, solves tasks, handles disagreements and relates to professional, social and personal challenges.
• Can define and work towards common goals to develop solutions to complex problems.
• Can apply relevant methods and tools for project development, analysis and problem solving.
• Can present projects (cases) and proposed solutions along the way and discuss with clients.

General competence

Students:

• Can collaborate effectively with professionals from other disciplines and adapt their communication and work methodology accordingly.
• Has an awareness of how their own expertise can contribute in interdisciplinary teams and in interaction with external actors.
• Can contribute to solving complex problems that require an interdisciplinary approach and that cannot be solved within a single discipline.
• Can use project management tools and take an active role in the management of projects.
• Can develop and carry out oral and written presentations of project work.
• Can give constructive feedback to individual members and the team as a whole, as well as reflect on and learn from feedback from others.