Students shall achieve the following objectives with respect to knowledge and understanding, competence and skills, judgment and approach. After having completed the course the participant is expected to be able to:

• identify different perspectives on communication and sustainability
• explain how communication might contribute to sustainable or unsustainable processes in society
• identify different scales in the interplay between communication and sustainability
• identify ideological aspects in the interplay between communication and sustainability

• apply concepts of sustainable communication in the context of advanced theoretical or empirical research
• develop research problems and questions related to sustainable communication

• critically evaluate and problematize the role of communication in processes of sustainable development.

• Introduction to sustainable development and the complex relations between environmental, social and economic aspects of sustainability
• Introduction to the concept of sustainable communication
• Sustainable communication and journalism
• Sustainable communication as organizational cross-sector practices and collaboration
• Sustainable communication and social change
• Sustainable communication and critique of ideology

This is a hybrid course which includes both on-campus and online lectures and seminars, and an examination assignment.

The teaching is conducted in English.

To be admitted to the course, the applicant must meet the general entry requirements for doctoral programmes, i.e. have been rewarded a degree at second-cycle level, or have achieved at least 240 credits, of which a minimum of 60 credits must have been achieved at second-cycle level.
English proficiency corresponding to English 6, or English course B in the Swedish upper secondary school system, is required.

The course is graded Fail (U) or Pass (G).

Further information concerning assessment of specific intended learning outcomes and grading criteria is provided in a study guide distributed at the beginning of the course.

The examination is based on a written assignment at the end of the course. In order to pass, it is compulsory to actively participate in the seminar in which the written assignment is orally presented and discussed.

The instruction is followed up throughout the course, and a course evaluation is performed at the end of the course. The course coordinator collates and comments on the evaluation before submitting it to the associate dean of doctoral programmes at the School of Education and Communication. The evaluation is to function as a basis for future improvements to the course.

See separate attachment for a detailed schedule and information about the application procedure.

Almeida, P. (2019). Climate justice and sustained transnational mobilization. Globalizations, 16(7), 973-979.(5p.)

Berglez, Peter, Olausson, Ulrika & Ots, Mart (eds) (2017). What is Sustainable Journalism? What is Sustainable Journalism: Integrating the Environmental, Social and Economic Challenges of Journalism. New York: Peter Lang Inc. (Introduction, chapters 1-3, 5, 7, 8, 12, 13, 16-18, 20. About 200 p.).

Berglez, Peter & Olausson, Ulrika (2014). The Post-Political Condition of Climate Change: An Ideology Approach. Capitalism, Nature, Socialism, 25(1), 54-71. (17 p.)

Berglez, Peter, Gearing, Amanda (2018). The Panama and Paradise Papers: The Rise of a Global Fourth Estate. International Journal of Communication, 12, 4573-4592. (19 p.).

Cronon, William (1996). The Trouble with Wilderness: Or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature. Environmental History, 1(1), 7-28. (22 p.).

Dutta, M. J. (2015). Decolonizing communication for social change: A culture-centered approach. Communication Theory, 25(2), 123-143. (20 p.).

Hansen, Anders (2018). Environment, Media and Communication. Second Edition. Routledge. (244 p.).

Hartley, J., Ibrus, I., & Ojamaa, M. (2021). Emergent self-mediating classes in the digital semiosphere: Covid-19 conspiracies and the climate justice movement. Nordic Journal of Media Studies, 3(1), 118-140. (22 p.).

Hornsey, Matthew J., Harris, Emily A., Bain, Paul G., & Fielding, Kelly S. (2016) Meta-analyses of the Determinants and Outcomes of Belief in Climate Change. Nature Climate Change, 6, 622–626. (5 p.).

Jacobsson, Diana (2019). In the Name of (Un)Sustainability: A Critical Analysis of How Neoliberal Ideology Operates Through Discourses About Sustainable Progress and Equality. TripleC 17(1): 19-37. (18 p.)

Jönsson, Anna Maria & Karlsson, Mikael (2016). Cooperation, Media and Framing Processes. Insights from a Baltic Sea Case Study. Nordicom Review, 37(special issue), 41-55. (15 p.).

Koschman, Matthew A., Kuhn, Timothy & Pfarrer, Michael D. (2012). A Communicative Framework of Value in Cross-Sector of Partnerships. Academy of Management Review, 37(3), 332-354. (23 p.).

Kukutai, T., & Taylor, J. (2016). Data sovereignty for indigenous peoples: current practice and future needs. In Indigenous data sovereignty: Toward an agenda. ANU Press. (Chapters 2 and 4, 43p.)

Lekakis, Eleftheria J. (2017). Culture jamming and brandalism for the environment: the logic of appropriation. Popular Communication, 15(4), 311-327. (18 p.)

Magallanes-Blanco, C. (2015). Talking about our mother: Indigenous videos on nature and the environment. Communication, Culture & Critique, 8(2), 199-216. (16p.).

Olausson, Ulrika (2020). Making Sense of the Human-Nature Relationship: A Reception Study of the "Nature Is Speaking" Campaign on YouTube. Nature and Culture, 15(3), 272-295. (22 p.).

Olausson, Ulrika & Uggla, Ylva (2019). Celebrities “Celebrifying” Nature: The Discursive Construction of the Human-Nature Relationship in the Nature Is Speaking Campaign. Celebrity Studies. DOI: 10.1080/19392397.2019.1626749. (18 p.).

Pattberg, Philipp (2007). Conquest, Domination and Control: Europe’s Mastery of Nature in Historic Perspective. Journal of Political Ecology, 14. (9 p.).

Sassen, S. (2000). Women's Burden: Counter-geographies of Globalization and the Feminization of Survival. Journal of international affairs, 503-524. (20p.).

Touri, Maria (2016). Development Communication in Alternative Food Networks: empowering Indian farmers through market relations. Journal of International Communication, 22(2), 209- 228. (19 p.).

United Nations. Transforming our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.A/Res/70/1. Available at http://www.sustainabledevelopment.un.org. (41 p.).

Van Leuven, Sarah & Berglez, Peter (2016). Global Journalism between Dream and Reality: A comparative study of The Times, Le Monde and De Standaard. Journalism Studies, 17(6), 667–683. (16 p.).

Other literature

The Interactive Anti Plagiarism Guide - Jönköping University (will be available on the learning platform)

Search and write (n.d.). Citing sources - how to create literature references. University Library: Jönköping University