Barcelona, Spain ยท A Living Classroom for the SDGs
Sustainable Development in Context
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) offer a roadmap for a global future that promotes human flourishing and healthy ecosystems. They are transdisciplinary in nature, spanning human rights, public health, education, gender, economics, energy, urban design, and ecology. Though the SDGs are global in their aim and vision, how they are engaged and achieved falls to individual nations and multi-national blocs such as the European Union. How are different macro-regions and countries seeking to uphold and advance the UN SDGs? Where is there innovation, success, and real progress? What are the challenges and obstaclesโglobally, regionally, and nationally? Using the local context as a living classroom and case study, this course examines the aspirations and realities embedded in the UN SDGs. Through lectures, field visits, and project work, students engage deeply with both theoretical frameworks and practical applications related to sustainable development, developing their analytical, research, and practical problem-solving skills and preparing themselves to engage effectively with the global sustainability agenda.
This course examines the full breadth of the 2030 Agenda โ touching on every one of the 17 SDGs, from No Poverty (SDG 1) and Climate Action (SDG 13) to Partnerships for the Goals (SDG 17). Barcelona and the wider European Union serve as a living case study for how these interconnected goals are pursued in practice.
Touches all 17 SDGs