TY - CHAP
T1 - Philosophy of field methods in the GPSS-GLI program
T2 - Dealing with complexity to achieve resilience and sustainable societies
AU - Mino, Takashi
AU - Esteban, Miguel
AU - Asokan, Vivek Anand
AU - Satanarachchi, Niranji
AU - Akiyama, Tomohiro
AU - Ikeda, Izumi
AU - Chen, Chiahsin
PY - 2016/1/1
Y1 - 2016/1/1
N2 - The world is facing a multitude of pressing problems, including environmental degradation, natural disasters, and social inequity, to name but a few. These challenges are also complex and uncertain in nature, though it is crucial for humanity to attempt to solve them in order to achieve sustainable societies. The Graduate Program in Sustainability Science-Global Leadership Initiative (GPSS-GLI) of the University of Tokyo is an academic program which looks forward to facing these challenges. The program has a strong focus on field exercises, which attempt to introduce students to the real situations being experienced by people. Students are encouraged to deal with complexity by engaging the issue from a holistic (“topdown”) and transboundary (“bottom-up”) perspective. Having a holistic view and transboundary perspective may provide a basis to deal with the complexities and uncertainties present in sustainability issues, where it is difficult to provide solutions by thinking only of fixed end-targets. Through such efforts it is hoped that students can understand and propose solutions on how to achieve more sustainable and resilience societies. The present chapter will serve as an introduction to the rest of the chapters in this book, briefly outlining the general philosophy of the GPSS-GLI regarding Global Field Exercises (GFEs) and Exercises in Resilience (ERs).
AB - The world is facing a multitude of pressing problems, including environmental degradation, natural disasters, and social inequity, to name but a few. These challenges are also complex and uncertain in nature, though it is crucial for humanity to attempt to solve them in order to achieve sustainable societies. The Graduate Program in Sustainability Science-Global Leadership Initiative (GPSS-GLI) of the University of Tokyo is an academic program which looks forward to facing these challenges. The program has a strong focus on field exercises, which attempt to introduce students to the real situations being experienced by people. Students are encouraged to deal with complexity by engaging the issue from a holistic (“topdown”) and transboundary (“bottom-up”) perspective. Having a holistic view and transboundary perspective may provide a basis to deal with the complexities and uncertainties present in sustainability issues, where it is difficult to provide solutions by thinking only of fixed end-targets. Through such efforts it is hoped that students can understand and propose solutions on how to achieve more sustainable and resilience societies. The present chapter will serve as an introduction to the rest of the chapters in this book, briefly outlining the general philosophy of the GPSS-GLI regarding Global Field Exercises (GFEs) and Exercises in Resilience (ERs).
KW - Field methods
KW - GPSS-GLI
KW - Philosophy
KW - Resilience
KW - Sustainability science
KW - Sustainable societies
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85017650990&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85017650990&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/978-3-319-32930-7_1
DO - 10.1007/978-3-319-32930-7_1
M3 - Chapter
AN - SCOPUS:85017650990
SN - 9783319329291
SP - 3
EP - 19
BT - Sustainability Science
PB - Springer International Publishing
ER -