Geography of Food Summer School ...
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ensure intercultural perspective and cooperation. The future programme will focus
more closely on the exchange between participants and local stakeholders, including
feedback methods such as peer coaching to improve capacity-building and contextspecificity of the challenges addressed. The experience and understanding acquired
by this ‘knowledge building community’ will be documented on an online mediawiki
platform.
In addition, a purely ‘virtual’ summer school is planned between the ZHAW, the
UASB and the Universidade Federal de Grande Dourados in Brazil. Following the
motto ‘Global problems require international cooperation at eye level’, students from
the three participating universities will work together to develop solutions to challenges related to climate change. This project will extend the learning outcomes with
skills for working in virtual teams to overcome distances (John et al. 2017). Again, the
context-specificity of sustainability problems will be emphasized. Increased attention will be paid to aspects of cross-cultural education through guided discussion
and reflections.
International programmes, such as the programme presented in this paper, are but
one way in which universities can play a role in the promotion of sustainability and can
contribute towards the achievement of the SDGs (Zamora-Polo and Sánchez-Martín
2019). The increasing complexity and global interconnectedness of sustainability
problems call for future leaders who are able to develop solutions in international
and interdisciplinary teams. It is therefore crucial that universities equip students
with the skills and the mindset needed to successfully achieve this, and with the
opportunities to collaborate and learn across borders.
Acknowledgements This project was funded by Mercator Foundation Switzerland. The authors
thank all people involved in the project. Special thanks go to Ennio Mariani, Tom Bischof and
Lorenz Rieger from ZHAW, Matthias Stolze, Thomas Bernet, Christian Grovermann and Johan
Blockeel from FiBL, Ravi SC and Udaykumar MS from UASB as well as Špela Železnikar from
University of Ljubljana.
References
Campbell BM, Beare DJ, Bennett EM, Hall-Spencer JM, Ingram JSI, Jaramillo F, Ortiz R,
Ramankutty N, Sayer JA, Shindell D (2017) Agriculture production as a major driver of the
earth system exceeding planetary boundaries. Ecol Soc 22(4). https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-09595220408
Caniglia G, John B, Bellina L, Lang DJ, Wiek A, Cohmer S, Laubichler MD (2018) The
glocal curriculum: a model for transnational collaboration in higher education for sustainable
development. J Clean Prod 171:368–376. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.09.207
Caniglia G, Luederitz C, Gross M, Muhr M, John B, Withycombe Keeler L, von Wehrden H,
Laubichler M, Wiek A, Lang D (2017) Transnational collaboration for sustainability in higher
education: lessons from a systematic review. J Cleaner Prod 168:764–779. https://doi.org/10.
1016/j.jclepro.2017.07.256
Ericksen PJ (2008) Conceptualizing food systems for global environmental change research. Glob
Environ Change 18(1):234–245. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2007.09.002
121
ensure intercultural perspective and cooperation. The future programme will focus
more closely on the exchange between participants and local stakeholders, including
feedback methods such as peer coaching to improve capacity-building and contextspecificity of the challenges addressed. The experience and understanding acquired
by this ‘knowledge building community’ will be documented on an online mediawiki
platform.
In addition, a purely ‘virtual’ summer school is planned between the ZHAW, the
UASB and the Universidade Federal de Grande Dourados in Brazil. Following the
motto ‘Global problems require international cooperation at eye level’, students from
the three participating universities will work together to develop solutions to challenges related to climate change. This project will extend the learning outcomes with
skills for working in virtual teams to overcome distances (John et al. 2017). Again, the
context-specificity of sustainability problems will be emphasized. Increased attention will be paid to aspects of cross-cultural education through guided discussion
and reflections.
International programmes, such as the programme presented in this paper, are but
one way in which universities can play a role in the promotion of sustainability and can
contribute towards the achievement of the SDGs (Zamora-Polo and Sánchez-Martín
2019). The increasing complexity and global interconnectedness of sustainability
problems call for future leaders who are able to develop solutions in international
and interdisciplinary teams. It is therefore crucial that universities equip students
with the skills and the mindset needed to successfully achieve this, and with the
opportunities to collaborate and learn across borders.
Acknowledgements This project was funded by Mercator Foundation Switzerland. The authors
thank all people involved in the project. Special thanks go to Ennio Mariani, Tom Bischof and
Lorenz Rieger from ZHAW, Matthias Stolze, Thomas Bernet, Christian Grovermann and Johan
Blockeel from FiBL, Ravi SC and Udaykumar MS from UASB as well as Špela Železnikar from
University of Ljubljana.
References
Campbell BM, Beare DJ, Bennett EM, Hall-Spencer JM, Ingram JSI, Jaramillo F, Ortiz R,
Ramankutty N, Sayer JA, Shindell D (2017) Agriculture production as a major driver of the
earth system exceeding planetary boundaries. Ecol Soc 22(4). https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-09595220408
Caniglia G, John B, Bellina L, Lang DJ, Wiek A, Cohmer S, Laubichler MD (2018) The
glocal curriculum: a model for transnational collaboration in higher education for sustainable
development. J Clean Prod 171:368–376. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.09.207
Caniglia G, Luederitz C, Gross M, Muhr M, John B, Withycombe Keeler L, von Wehrden H,
Laubichler M, Wiek A, Lang D (2017) Transnational collaboration for sustainability in higher
education: lessons from a systematic review. J Cleaner Prod 168:764–779. https://doi.org/10.
1016/j.jclepro.2017.07.256
Ericksen PJ (2008) Conceptualizing food systems for global environmental change research. Glob
Environ Change 18(1):234–245. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2007.09.002