Social sustainability in engineering education

In this project – which is financed by the School of Education and Communication in Engineering Science, KTH and the KTH-Sustainability Council – we investigate how social sustainability (social dimension of sustainable development) is integrated into engineering education at the KTH. In 2012-2013 we performed a pilot study on how teachers and programme leaders at KTH define and operationalize the concept of social sustainability and how social sustainability is integrated and taught in KTH’s engineering programmes. In 2014-2015 a follow-up study will be carried out that focuses on how final-year students at KTH understand and conceptualize the notion of (social) sustainable development, and what role they believe technology can play in creating ecologically, socially and economically sustainable societies.

Participating researchers from the Division of Philosophy, KTH:

- Karin Edvardsson Björnberg, karine@kth.se

- Inga-Britt Skogh, ibskogh@kth.se

Project duration: 2012-2015

Publications:

Edvardsson Björnberg, K., Skogh, I.-B., Strömberg, E. (in press) Integrating social sustainability in engineering education at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology. Forthcoming in International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education.