Interdisciplinary Cooperation and Collaboration in Undergraduate Sustainability-Based Programs: A Canadian Example of Environment and Urban Sustainability (EUS)

Abstract

While much of the literature on urban sustainability tends to focus on the importance of protecting natural systems and determining engineering and technical solutions, many of the central challenges to envisioning and delivering appropriate and meaningful sustainability lie within social, cultural, and political structures. This paper draws on the insights related to the development and implementation of the undergraduate program in Environmental and Urban Sustainability (EUS) at Ryerson University (Toronto). The conceptual framework of the program reflects the need for a broad foundation of sustainability education which spans disciplinary boundaries. EUS has blended new and existing teaching configurations, and has embraced both cross-disciplinary and disciplinary content and academic structures in its curriculum development and course offerings. The key to success has been the merging of existing course offerings from fourteen disciplinary areas as part of the core of the EUS program structure. Since the program operates concurrent with existing academic departments and schools (each of which has at least one of its own programs), developing cooperation and collaboration, while vital to program success, has been an enduring challenge. Within this context, the paper discusses the motivations and processes of ongoing program and curriculum development.