Sustainable Development is a fast-growing discipline within areas of study that complement such growth, thereby developing in tandem. It requires researchers who can collect and analyse information from multiple academic disciplines.
The Ph.D. in Sustainable Development is an interdisciplinary programme presenting "alternative" narratives
and paradigms in contrast to the dominant meta narratives across the key areas. The students will be free
to collaborate with scholars across the various disciplines on original interdisciplinary research. In so doing,
students will help create new fields of inquiry that will have a wide impact in many aspects of daily life.
For a complete programme description, please refer to the detailed programme description accessible here
“With just under ten years left to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, world leaders at the SDG Summit in September 2019 called for a Decade of Action and delivery for sustainable development, and pledged to mobilize financing, enhance national implementation and strengthen institutions to achieve the Goals by the target date of 2030, leaving no one behind. The UN Secretary-General called on all sectors of society to mobilize a decade of action on three levels: global action to secure greater leadership, more resources and smarter solutions for the Sustainable Development Goals; local action embedding the needed transitions in the policies, budgets, institutions and regulatory frameworks of governments, cities and local authorities; and people action, including by youth, civil society, the media, the private sector, unions, academia and other stakeholders, to generate an unstoppable movement pushing for the required transformations.” https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/development- agenda/ This PhD programme contributes to academia’s response to this call for action. For this reason, the PhD in Sustainable Development is an interdisciplinary programme presenting "alternative" narratives and paradigms in contrast to the dominant meta narratives across the key areas. The students will be free to collaborate with scholars across the various disciplines on original interdisciplinary research. In so doing, students will help create new fields of inquiry that will have a wide impact in many aspects of daily life. In addition to the skills and competences outlined above, the programme of study is organised to attain the following objectives:
In order to attain these objectives, students following the PhD programme are monitored closely by one or more faculty members and/or experts from related fields of study. To this end, Dilemma Workshops shall be organised wherein papers will be evaluated and students will be required to demonstrate empirical, theoretical, structural and critical capabilities.
Candidates shall possess a Master’s degree (EQF/MQF level 7) in any area deemed relevant by Pegaso International’s Post-Graduate Admissions Board. Candidates should have proficiency in English or Italian language. Candidates applying for this Ph.D. programme are expected to hold basic IT skills and appropriate research skills and competences. Such skills are considered to be a pre-requisite for this Ph.D. programme. Candidates unable to meet the aforementioned requirements are invited to follow separate dedicated courses to gain such skills.
On completion of the PhD programme, students will be aware of the normative aspects of Sustainable Development as a discipline, its methodological cornerstones, and its relation to other social sciences, humanities and the arts. On completion of the PhD programme, students will be able to: