Perspectives on Governing Sustainable Development

• Stefano Ponte, Professor of International Political Economy, Department of Management, Society & Communication (MSC), CBS (SP)
• Jeremy Moon, Professor of Sustainability Governance, MSC, CBS (JM)
• Maria Figueroa, Associate Professor of Sustainability Management, MSC, CBS (MF)
• Erin Leitheiser, Manager, Climate Change at BSR (Business for Social Responsibility, Assistant Professor, MSC, CBS (EL)
• Kristjan Jespersen, Associate Professor, MSC, CBS (KJ)
• Caroline Aggestam Pontoppidan, Associate Professor of Accounting, Department of Accounting, CBS (CAP)
• Lisa Ann Richey, Professor of Globalization, MSC, CBS (LR)
• Steen Vallentin, Associate Professor of Corporate Social Responsibility, Director of CBS Sustainability, MSC, CBS (SV)
• Andreas Wieland, Associate Professor of Supply Chain Risk Management, Department of Operations Management, CBS (AW)

• Only currently registered PhD students can participate in the course.
• The course is intended for students undertaking PhDs in the social sciences, including business and management studies.
• At the time of application, you are asked to submit an abstract for the paper you would like to present at the course, on a topic related to governing sustainable development (500 words max).
• If you are accepted to the course, you will be expected to submit a paper (min 8 pages, max 20 pages – references excluded) that engages theoretically, methodologically and/or empirically with topics related to governing sustainable development (deadline for submission of the paper is 11 November 2022).
• To receive the course diploma, you will need to meet the above deadlines and attend the whole course.

This PhD course provides research students with an in-depth engagement with relevant frameworks, concepts and approaches to the topic of governing sustainable development, with specific focus on the role of business.  It draws on the strengths of the CBS Sustainability Centre and the CBS Centre for Business and Development Studies (CBDS), but it will also bring in other guest faculty and practitioners.

The first part of the course opens with a survey of key perspectives on governing sustainable development.  It then proceeds by unpacking these perspectives from the points of view of corporations as rule makers, as rule takers, and as interacting actors – including their role in new governance institutions (such as the Sustainable Development Goals, cross-sector partnerships, and multi-stakeholder initiatives).  In the second part of the course, students will engage with a number of more specific topics: sustainable supply chains; accounting for sustainability; business, power and sustainability; governing climate change; regulating international supply chains; the circular economy; sustainable finance; and the role of business and celebrities in humanitarian interventions.  Overall, the course aims at enabling critical consideration of different theoretical and policy approaches to governing sustainable development through a mix of theoretical and hands-on empirical engagements.   

Expectations

• You are expected to have read all the assigned readings before the start of the course;
• You are expected to have read all student papers submitted to the course and be ready to provide engaged, sympathetic and constructive criticism;
• You are expected to actively engage in all discussion sessions related to lectures, panels and paper presentations.

Presentation and discussion plan

• Longer papers (15-20 pages): 10-minute presentation by student; 10-minute feedback by the assigned discussant; 40 minutes for general discussion.
• Shorter papers (8-15 pages): 5-minute presentation by student; 5-minute feedback by the assigned discussant; 20 minutes for general discussion.
• Lectures and panels are followed by an open discussion session facilitated by the assigned chair.

Provisional course plan

After participating in the course, the students will be able to:

• Critically reflect on different theoretical and empirical perspectives on governance and sustainable development.

• Critically reflect on different specific policy and strategic approaches to sustainable development.
  
• Locate their own PhD. research in the context of wider theories, conceptualizations and debates about governance and sustainable development.