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I. Jaisli et al.
highlighted in SDG 2 ‘Zero Hunger’ but also implicit in all other goals, is the fact
that the food system is key to a sustainable future of human kind (FAO 2019b).
The current situation calls for urgent changes in the way food is produced,
processed, traded and consumed. The design of sustainable food value chains
(FVCs) can offer pathways to fight poverty and malnutrition and to reduce environmental degradation (Neven 2014). Citizens and experts in public, private and
non-governmental organizations are called upon to develop innovative solutions to
meet these challenges and thus to contribute to the implementation of the SDGs.
Universities play an important role in educating future decisions-makers to design
sustainable FVCs and take part in shaping a sustainable global food system. They are
therefore challenged to adapt their existing educational formats in order to qualify
students for sustainability transformation. For transforming food systems, an understanding of the full FVC and its complexity is needed, as well as the ability to collaborate across disciplinary, national and cultural boundaries. Moreover, as pointed out by
Caniglia et al. (2017, 2018), connecting higher education institutions from different
parts of the world is key in order to address global sustainability problems.
The question arises as to how educational programmes must be designed to effectively contribute towards intercultural education for sustainability. A list of quality
criteria for international sustainability education is provided by Wiek et al. (2013),
which includes the following five aspects:
• cross-cultural education
• context-specificity of sustainability problems and potential solutions
• capacity-building in complex problem-solving
• interdisciplinary approach to sustainability problems and potential solutions
• teamwork in cross-cultural settings
This paper presents the ‘Geography of Food’ educational programme as an
example for sustainability education through intercultural exchange. It was initiated
in order to educate young researchers and future decision-makers from around the
world in designing sustainable FVCs. The programme not only focusses on knowledge transfer and participatory problem-solving approaches, but also acknowledges
the importance of international exchange to facilitate joint learning and experience
capitalization. For this purpose, it has been realized as a blended learning course
including e-learning, individual case studies and an international summer school.
After presenting our experiences and learnings from the three-year programme,
we will conclude by discussing its quality based on the criteria provided by Wiek et al.
(2013). Building upon experiences and theories concerning sustainability education,
the results provide a concrete example of how universities can educate those who
will ultimately instigate change and are able to contribute towards the transformation
of the global food system by designing sustainable food value chains.
I. Jaisli et al.
highlighted in SDG 2 ‘Zero Hunger’ but also implicit in all other goals, is the fact
that the food system is key to a sustainable future of human kind (FAO 2019b).
The current situation calls for urgent changes in the way food is produced,
processed, traded and consumed. The design of sustainable food value chains
(FVCs) can offer pathways to fight poverty and malnutrition and to reduce environmental degradation (Neven 2014). Citizens and experts in public, private and
non-governmental organizations are called upon to develop innovative solutions to
meet these challenges and thus to contribute to the implementation of the SDGs.
Universities play an important role in educating future decisions-makers to design
sustainable FVCs and take part in shaping a sustainable global food system. They are
therefore challenged to adapt their existing educational formats in order to qualify
students for sustainability transformation. For transforming food systems, an understanding of the full FVC and its complexity is needed, as well as the ability to collaborate across disciplinary, national and cultural boundaries. Moreover, as pointed out by
Caniglia et al. (2017, 2018), connecting higher education institutions from different
parts of the world is key in order to address global sustainability problems.
The question arises as to how educational programmes must be designed to effectively contribute towards intercultural education for sustainability. A list of quality
criteria for international sustainability education is provided by Wiek et al. (2013),
which includes the following five aspects:
• cross-cultural education
• context-specificity of sustainability problems and potential solutions
• capacity-building in complex problem-solving
• interdisciplinary approach to sustainability problems and potential solutions
• teamwork in cross-cultural settings
This paper presents the ‘Geography of Food’ educational programme as an
example for sustainability education through intercultural exchange. It was initiated
in order to educate young researchers and future decision-makers from around the
world in designing sustainable FVCs. The programme not only focusses on knowledge transfer and participatory problem-solving approaches, but also acknowledges
the importance of international exchange to facilitate joint learning and experience
capitalization. For this purpose, it has been realized as a blended learning course
including e-learning, individual case studies and an international summer school.
After presenting our experiences and learnings from the three-year programme,
we will conclude by discussing its quality based on the criteria provided by Wiek et al.
(2013). Building upon experiences and theories concerning sustainability education,
the results provide a concrete example of how universities can educate those who
will ultimately instigate change and are able to contribute towards the transformation
of the global food system by designing sustainable food value chains.