Teaching Cases
A core element of our strategy for teaching this course has been the crafting of a small number of in-depth case studies about how people in particular times and places have grappled with the challenges of sustainable development. We use these cases to help students explore how the general ideas about concepts, relationships and capacities that we introduce in each Unit play out in particular contexts. Using the same case repeatedly throughout the course helps students to see how the ideas of successive Units interact to shape development pathways. Using multiple cases allows comparisons that help to build an appreciation of what about the pursuit of sustainability has general relevance and is specific to particular contexts. Several of the cases we use are set forth in the textbook used for the course (Matson et al., 2016). Provided here are newer cases or case extensions we have written since that book was published.