Course syllabus

Sustainable development:

Ethics, technology, society, and the researcher

GFOK105 (3.0 credits), Autumn 2025

Full course-PM available here.

Contact details & communication

Martin Persson (examinor)         Fredrik hedenus (teacher)     Elisa Bernal Reino (teaching assistant)

martin.persson@chalmers.se     hedenus@chalmers.se           elisabe@chalmers.se

tel. 031-772 21 48

Ongoing information about the course (such as any changes to the schedule or similar) will be provided on the course announcement page. For general or practical questions about the course, please send an email to the examiner or ask a teacher in class.

The course is offered by Physical resource Theory, Dept. of Space, Earth & Environment.

Course objective

The overall aim of this course is thus to give you a thorough understanding of the concept of sustainable development, its ethical underpinnings and possible interpretations, stimulating you to reflect on your own view of sustainability and the role and responsibility we as researchers have for sustainable development.

Intended learning outcomes

After the completion of the course you should be able to:

• Identify key ethical and/or sustainability aspects of your research and discuss these using relevant concepts such as:

• basic ethics (e.g., final value vs instrumental values) and different ethical frameworks. (e.g., consequentialism vs. deontology),
• sustainable development and its interpretations in relation to different worldviews and values,
• socio-technical systems and the interaction between technological and social factors in society.

• Discuss and reflect on different roles that researchers can and should take in relation to sustainable development and other normative societal issues connected to their research.

Examination & grading

To pass the course you have to:

(1) Take part and actively contribute to each of the four session (including peer-review sessions),

(2) Submit and get a passing grade on the reflective essay (including submitting a draft versions of your essay after session 1 & 2 in order to get feedback from your peers and on teacher), and

(3) Give two rounds of written feedback on the essays from the other members of your essay group (usually 3 persons).

The grade for the course is pass or fail.

Schedule