Global Futures Initiative

Every citizen bears the responsibility to weigh the consequences of his/her actions for society. Since in a more and more integrated world, consumption, business, and politics have increasingly global impacts, we need to broaden our reference level and analyze our impact on a global scheme. Many of the discriminating power structures, injustices, and inequalities worldwide are bred and reproduced through a lack of awareness on how our lives are interconnected.

Mainstreaming a critical understanding of ethics and development is vital to foster a better grasp of this growing global interconnectedness and the implications of our actions for global society. In this respect, universities bear a special responsibility to educate and sensitize their students: All graduates and especially those working in decision-making positions need to dispose of solid knowledge safeguarding sustainable and just decisions.

To cultivate this knowledge, core curricula should contain a class on critical engagement with ethics and development from historical, economic, and socio-political perspectives. These classes can be tailored to the specific needs of the respective programs, but should aim for a comprehensive general education encouraging future citizens, entrepreneurs, and decision-makers to base their actions on critical analysis paired with responsiveness, envisaging sustainability and fairness.

Universities are particularly well-equipped to build this knowledge from an interdisciplinary perspective. With long-standing experience in teaching and engaging students, close networks to development practitioners, experts on sustainability and ethics, as well as to current decision-makers, they have all the resources at hand to mainstream these cross-cutting themes. By fostering dialogue and encouraging students to broaden their horizons, universities can help to build a more responsible generation of global citizens.

The inclusion of these cross-cutting themes into university programs is one of many possible ways to foster more awareness and critical engagement with the impact of our actions; it is one, however, that comes at a low cost and bears a large potential. While it surely does not constitute a panacea, such engagement can plant powerful seeds of cooperative, fair, and sustainable thinking on a more global reference level, which constitutes a prerequisite for sustainable and just pathways to global human development.

Jonas Bergmann is a Fulbright fellow in the MSFS program at Georgetown University. A passionate scholar of International Development, Bergmann is particularly dedicated to Human Rights and Migration.