701-1502-00L Transdisciplinary Case Study
| Semester | Spring Semester 2019 |
| Lecturers | M. Stauffacher, P. Krütli |
| Periodicity | yearly recurring course |
| Language of instruction | English |
| Comment | Number of participants limited to 25. Students have to apply for this course by sending a two-page motivation letter (why are you interested? what do you want to learn? what can you contribute?) to michael.stauffacher@usys.ethz.ch and pius.kruetli@usys.ethz.ch (latest by January 31, 2019). Important: for students in Agricultural Sciences, the case study can replace the compulsory course 751-1000-00L Interdisciplinary Project Work! |
| Abstract | This course is project-based and organized in a real-world context. Students scientifically deal with complex, societally relevant problems where environmental issues are key and that demand mutual learning among science and society. In 2019, the case area is the Hunziker Areal, a project of the housing cooperative “mehr als wohnen” (more than housing) in the North of the city of Zurich. |
| Learning objective | Students learn how to plan and organize their research work in interdisciplinary group of students, how to structure complex wicked problems and derive relevant research questions, how to design respective research work, how to use empirical methods answering these questions, and how to organise transdisciplinary collaboration between research and people from outside academia. |
| Content | The goal of the course is to identify and explore sustainable practices in the Hunziker Areal. Intensive collaboration between ETH students, people living and working in the Hunziker Areal, and various stakeholders important for the development of the area will be a major focus in the course. The Hunziker Areal is a project of the housing cooperative “mehr als wohnen” (more than housing) offering living and working space for approx. 1300 people in the North of the city of Zurich. The project started in 2007 with a participatory planning process. Building lasted from 2012 to 2015 with first people moving in November 2014. The cooperative mehr als wohnen understands itself as a learning platform to explore and learn from sustainable future living solutions. The preparation of the case study happens in in close collaboration with the cooperative mehr als wohnen to secure that research is relevant for the local context and can have concrete impact in the case. Together we defined mobility as the topic for next year, namely issues like the optimisation potential of the mobility infrastructure at the Hunziker Areal, effects of limited transport possibilities, bicycle traffic and health, mobility in leisure time or holidays. This is the second time that the transdisciplinary case study is organized at the Hunziker Areal. In 2017, several interventions in the food domain were developed and systematically analysed, see: http://www.tdlab.usys.ethz.ch/teaching/tdcs/former/cs2017.html. See as well the short film here which explains what the transdisciplinary case study is http://www.tdlab.usys.ethz.ch/teaching/tdcs.html |
| Prerequisites / Notice | The number of participants is limited. Students have to apply for this course by sending a two-page motivation letter (why are you interested? what do you want to learn? what can you contribute?) to michael.stauffacher@usys.ethz.ch and pius.kruetli@usys.ethz.ch (latest by January 31 2019). Important: for students in Agricultural Sciences, the case study can replace the compulsory course 751-1000-00L Interdisciplinary Project Work! |