| Learning objectives |
To achieve the grade 12, students should meet the
following learning objectives with no or only minor mistakes:
- Critically analyse the circular challenges faced by a single
organisation/corporation of your own choosing drawing on the
theories and concepts introduced in the course.
- Map different strategies for circularity according to different
schools of thought and critically relate them to the concept of
sustainability.
- Explain the different approaches to accounting for circularity
and critically assess their merits and limitations across different
organisational forms.
- Explain the different approaches to governing circularity and
critically assess their merits and limitations for different
organisational forms.
|
| Examination |
|
Circular
Economies for Sustainability:
|
| Exam
ECTS |
7,5 |
| Examination form |
Home assignment - written product |
| Individual or group exam |
Individual exam |
| Size of written product |
Max. 15 pages |
| Assignment type |
Essay |
| Release of assignment |
An assigned subject is released in
class |
| Duration |
Written product to be submitted on specified date
and time. |
| Grading scale |
7-point grading scale |
| Examiner(s) |
One internal examiner |
| Exam period |
Autumn |
| Make-up exam/re-exam |
Same examination form as the ordinary exam
If the student fails the ordinary
exam the course coordinator chooses whether the student will have
to hand in a revised product for the re-take or a new
project.
|
|
| Course content, structure and pedagogical
approach |
|
Course content and structure
|
|
The concept of the circular economy (CE) has been proposed as
the panacea for addressing the predicaments of climate change. By
moving from open linear supply chains to closed circuits within
inter-organizational networks, the promise is that CE
will transform the global economy from the current
take-make-waste paradigme to novel forms of secondary resource
flows, which retain value in closed loops without
leaks. This would elimiate waste altogher and
reinvent how we produce and consume from the ground up. This
course offers critical insights into the how, the
what and the why of this grand idea.
Attracting increased attention from businesses, governments and
civil society, the CE is an emerging field of study. This course
presents the leading strategies for circular transitions and the
knowledge frontiers of CE. While the course will introduce
conceptual approaches to circularity, it is strongly case
based. The aim is to equip students with a tool kit to better
understand why leading corporations and major cities
have pledged their commitment to the circular economy.
Going beyond circularity as "cost reduction" in
operations management, as "reverse logistics" in supply
chain management and as "corporate branding" in
marketing, the course introduces circularity as strategy,
as accountability and as an object of governance.
These are three critical perspectives, that you would need to
command to assess circular start-ups, advise executive boards and
municipalities regarding their aspirations to
circularity and/or launch your own circular venture.
|
|
| Description of the teaching methods |
In the virtual classroom, teaching and learning
is organized around live interactive lectures, guest speakers
(tba), case work, student presentations and discussions. Instructor
feedback is provided on those activities.
The classes will feature peer and group exercises in break-out
sessions on Zoom for discussions in smaller forums, combined with
student group presentations in plenary. The exercises will revolve
around the mapping of circular concepts, evaluation of circular
strategies, and accounting for - and critically reflecting on -
various approaches to the circular economy. These exercises are
designed to support the students in their writing of the final
essay for the class. |
| Feedback during the teaching period |
| Feedback is a critical part of the class and will
be provided in connection with group presentations and case work,
as well as in the form of peer-to-peer evaluation. |
| Student workload |
| Participation in lectures |
30 hours |
| Preparation for classes, assignments & exercises |
152 hours |
| Exam preparations |
24 hours |
|
| Further Information |
|
The course is strongly aligned and in fact comes right out of
our Nordic Nine strategy, in so far the class cultivates the
relationships between knowledge, values and interventions as
practice and entrepreneurship akin to our new strategy.
Students build knowledge about the what of the
circular economy and apply their acquired conceptual tools to
critically assess interventions in the name of circularity and
sustainability. This skillset aligns with "business knowledge
placed in a broad context" ; "analytical rigor and
curiosity"; and last but certainly not least "planetary
challenges and the entrepreneurial mindset to tackle
them".
|
| Expected literature |
|
The primary literature for the course will be a collection of
research articles published in the leading scholarly journals,
supplemented with case studies. The specific selection of
these articles will be introduced in the first class. Below,
you will find a tentative list of reference literature, which
informs the course as frame of reference/background
literature.
Reference literature (subject to change)
- Roberta De Angelis (2018) Business Models in the Circular
Economy: Concepts, Examples and Theory. Palgrave.
- Mika Sillanpää & Chaker Ncibi (2019) The Circular
Economy: Case Studies about the Transition from the Linear
Economy. Academic Press, London.
- Catherine Weetman (2020) A Circular Economy Handbook for
Business and Supply Chains
- Terry Tudor & Cleber Dutra (2020) The Routledge
Handbook of Waste, Resources and the Circular Economy.
Routledge, London.
- Brandao, Lazarevic & Finnverden (2020) Handbook of the
Circular Economy. Edward Elgar Publishing. Cheltenham,
UK.
- E. Worrell and Reuter Waltham editors (2014) Handbook of
Recycling: State-of-the-art for practitioners, analysts, and
scientists. MA, USA, Elsevier.
- Michael Braungart & William McDonough From Cradle to
Cradle: Re-Making the Way We Make Things (Vintage: [1988]
2009)
- Ellen MacArthur Full Circle: My life and Journey
(Michael Joseph: 2010)
- Ken Webster (2017). The circular economy – A wealth of
flows (Ellen MacArthur Foundation Publishing, 2nd Edition:
2017)
- Walter R. Stahel The Circular Economy: A User’s Guide
(Routledge: 2019)
- Peter Lacy & Jakob Rutqvist Waste to Wealth: The
Circular Economy Advantage (Palgrave: 2015)
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