Ethics of Large System Interventions

Large scale technical projects have potentially major impacts. They will have positive impacts; e.g., a new hydropower dam may provide affordable electricity, a new copper mine is supposed to provide profits for the owner and employment for the region, an airport extension may bring improved accessibility to a certain region, and so forth. However, in nearly all large scale technical projects will have more significant and adverse negative impacts, especially at the community level. They may form health and safety risks, potentially pollute the environment or may lead to negative social impacts such as a forced move of communities.

The goal of this course is to teach the students how to identify, analyse and classifying the societal ethical and environmental impacts of large-scale projects. To this end, students will focus on the evaluation of the impacts of major technological projects while considering the ethical aspects as well as the risk analysis aspects both in evaluation and mitigation of those impacts. Risks can be quantified, qualified and/or monetarized. Four major assessment and evaluation methods will be discussed, i.e. Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), Social Impact Assessment (SIA), Risk Analysis (RA) and Societal Cost Benefit Analysis (SCBA). A key component of the course is to scrutinise the ethical underpinnings of methods and outcomes that are associated with the assessment of large technological projects as well as with the four discussed assessment/evaluation methods.

Assessment will be based on two parts that carry equal weight:

1. Group work (4 to maximum 5 students in a group): consisting of writing a report about a comprehensive impact assessment. Group work is assessed with a rubric. In case of an insufficient grade (below 5) for the groups work, the group will have the possibility to 'repair' the groups work based on one feedback round with a supervisor. If sufficiently repaired, the 'repaired' grade can become maximum a 6. Groups that have failed and want a higher grade than a 6 have to do the groups work again next academic year with a new topic.

2. An individual exam: exam with reflection questions about the course content (lectures and reading material).
There will be a retake opportunity (resit) in the next quarter.
The individual exam will be taken on ANS.

Final grade calculation:

The final grade of this course consists of two partial grades: Group assignment (50%) and individual final exam (50%).

To pass the course, you need at least a 5.0 for both the group work grade and the exam grade.

The final grade must be a rounded up 6.0 (at least 5.8) or higher to pass the course.