How to Change the World (Coursera)

Offered by Wesleyan University,
How to Change the World (Coursera)

How can we use the things we share in common to address some of the most challenging problems facing the world? This course examines issues concerning poverty, the environment, technology, health care, gender, education and activism to helps us understand better how to initiate positive change.

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Syllabus

WEEK 1
What are Social Goods? From the Commons to Moral Revolutions
Discussion about what our social good is, how we define it and how it can be sustainably used.

WEEK 2
Poverty and Development
Discussion about poverty and the relationship of poverty to philanthropy and to foreign aid, actions taken to mitigate the effects of poverty, of major theorists and economists working in this area and , also, a new approach to this subject through randomized experimentation.

WEEK 3
Climate Change and Sustainability
Discussion about political and economic ramifications of climate change, including how to think big about sustainability

WEEK 4
Disease and Global Health Care
Discussion about health care and poverty, considering major challenges that disease presents around the world and the global role of healthcare

WEEK 5
Women, Education and Social Change
Discussion of gender issues and the upward mobility of women, across business and education.

WEEK 6
Looking Back, Looking Foward
Reflections on where we have been and where we are going

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