Enroll in our Ethical Cities online course - March 2021
The iconic Shibuya Scramble in central Tokyo. Photo by Thomas (Some rights reserved).
We have been working away updating our massive open online course (MOOC) on ethical cities and we are delighted to announce that the course will commence on 29 March 2021 on the FutureLearn platform. Please consider enrolling in the course.
This five-week course was originally developed in 2016 with funding from RMIT University and support from the Global Compact Cities Programme (now closed) and there have been two previous very successful course runs in November 2016 and April 2017. Ralph Horne, John Fien and myself are lead educators.
With the launch of our new book on Ethical Cities, we decided to update the MOOC. The course provides an overview of the ethical city, and those students who wish to dig deeper are referred to our book and other supporting sources of research.
How is the course structured?
The course is divided into five weeks (each requiring around two hours to complete).
In week one, we introduce the notion of the ethical lens which encourages you to look afresh at your community, town or city. The aim is to reflect on right and wrong, what works and what does not work, and how it may be possible to address, from an ethical perspective, some of the more intractable problems facing our cities.
Next, in week two, we talk about the ethical leadership of ideas. This is big change from earlier versions of the course which focused simply on ethical leadership. Our goal here is not to highlight the role of individual leaders at different levels, but to consider how influential ideas emerge and come to shape our thinking and action. These innovative ideas can come from anywhere, and realistically they rarely come from our current leaders (they are too busy).
In week three, you will shift gears again to consider how to plan for ethical urban futures. While there are many professional experts who play important roles in the technical aspects (city planners, architects, urban designers, mobility experts, and so on), the ethical dimensions of planning require that we respect the contributions from all members of the community.
Preston, England. Boarded up shops increasingly part of our high street experience. Photo, Brendan Barrett
This is followed in week four by an exploration of new initiatives designed to reconfigure how a local economy functions. The advent of Covid-19 has decimated many of our high streets, resulting in the closure of many local, small businesses. As we enter the recovery phase, ideas like community wealth building, sharing economy, local currencies and many more could play a critical role in recreating vibrant economies that work for all local people.
Finally, in week five, we talk about the role of ethical practitioners in democratic communities. Again, this is a new angle for the course since previously we focused on ethical citizens. This time around we want to emphasize ethics as a practice and our central contention is that we need to reinvigorate local democracy.
What is the student experience like?
As a participant in the course you will interact online with students from across the globe. We have designed the course to showcase examples for a diverse range of cities. This is enhanced by the stories and insights that the learners bring from their communities, towns and cities. The urban reality of places like Cape Town is very different from that of Dhaka, Rio de Janeiro, Osaka, Toronto or Melbourne.
The course encourages interactions and there are numerous opportunities for you to share comments and give feedback. We have also incorporated quizzes and a wide range of learning activities.
We would like to take this opportunity to share with you some of the feedback we received from students who have previously completed the course.
“I enjoyed the introduction of each topic, followed by thinking, then supported by examples from the course and from participants. It is the combination of theory, reflection, examples, more reflection and interaction that made it so good. I liked the videos scattered throughout too.”
“I enjoyed the small exercises of trying to solve real problems, or at least spare some time to think about possible solutions and understand what can be done.”
“I enjoyed most the ethical lens, looking into what other progressive cities are doing and results of my own research on my pet issue climate change/environment inspired by the fact my city is not doing so well economically.”
“The interaction with peers and with the course convenors and mentors was the best part, particularly given the wide spread of people from all over the world. Given the topic, the time-frame and the expectations placed on participants, I thought the course was well organised and logical with just the right amount of theory and practical examples.”
We hope these comments will inspire you to enroll in the course and we look forward to welcoming you online on 29 March.