Announcing our Ph.D. course on "ICT and Sustainability"

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Me and my colleague Elina Eriksson will give a ph.d. course, "ICT and Sustainability", during the coming autumn term. We will meet every second week between the end of August and the end of December and have a final seminar at the end of January (2017) where course participants present and discuss their course papers. I have chosen to post the whole invitation below (it has also been distributed by mail).

Do note that there is space for a maximum of 15 participants. If more apply, we will have to select who can participate. If, at some point in August, it seems like less than 15 ph.d students will apply, we might disseminate the invitation to the master's students who took our first year master's level course last year. While this ph.d. course and our master's level course have the exact same name, the ph.d. course will of course be taught at a more advanced level and we plan to read 50-100 pages of text (primarily scientific articles and conference papers) for each seminar.

Below is the invitation to the course:

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Ph.d. course autumn 2016: ICT & Sustainability

Teachers: Daniel Pargman ([my mail address]) & Elina Eriksson ([Elina's mail address])
KTH, School of Computer Science and Communication, Department of Media Technology and Interaction Design

Learning outcomes

After completion of the course, the student will be able to:

• orient oneself among different ideas of what constitutes sustainable development and sustainability

• elaborate on the role of ICT in relation to societal goals of economic, social and environmental sustainability,

• reflect on the possibilities and limitations of ICT in relation to the development of a sustainable society,

• formulate how sustainability relates to his/her own phd project.

Course form and content

• The course will be given in the form of 9 bi-weekly three-hour long Wednesday seminars (with a few exceptions) during the fall of 2016 (August to December) plus a final seminar in January 2017.

• Each seminar will treat a specific subject (for example “Definitions and delimitations”, “Planetary boundaries”, “Nearest neighbouring fields”, “First, second and third order effects of ICT”, “Environmental footprint of the Internet”, “Computing with Limits”).

• The literature for each seminar will vary between 50-100 pages.

• Each course participant is expected to read the literature before each seminar and actively contribute to the discussions.

• Each course participant will write an essay in the course.

Seminars:
August: 25 [NOT 24 as was erroneously written in an earlier version!]
September: 14, 28
October: 12, 19
November 9, 23
December 7, 21
January: 25 (discuss course papers, 09.00-15.00)

Note: All seminars are on Wednesdays (13:00-16:00) with the exception of the first (Thursday 13:00-16:00) and the last seminar (Wednesday 09:00-15:00).

Students should prepare for the seminars by reading the given literature and for each seminar

• one student is appointed to summarize the most important points of the literature

• one student is appointed to prepare questions to discuss in relation to the literature and

• one student is appointed to prepare criticism against the literature.

Writing a short essay and presenting it at the final seminar (in January 2017).

Literature
Course participants will read a selection of texts primarily in the form of journal or conference articles.

Examination
Active participation in seminars.
Written essay and presentation at the last seminar (January 2017).

Application
The course is limited to a maximum of 15 course participants. You apply by sending a one page long "application" (in English) to Daniel Pargman ([my mail address]) AND Elina Eriksson ([Elina's mail address]). In your text, please specify:

•   Your contact information
•   Experience/interest in the subject (sustainability) and reason(s) for taking the course
•   How (or if) the course is connected to you research project/your interests and how you would like to contribute to the course

Do note that the applications will be distributed among the course participants so that we can know a little more about each other when the course starts!

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