News: Nov 15, 2019
The University of Gothenburg's Sustainability Thesis Award, GUSTA, was delivered for the first time at the Act Sustainable week final event. The GUSTA award recognizes outstanding theses written on sustainable development related topics. The award 2019 was delivered to Ryan Davis at the department of Political Science and Sandra Sternad Fackel at the school of Global Studies.
Ryan Davis is from the United kingdom and has completed the European Studies master’s programme earlier this year. He was awarded for his Master thesis "Economic Inequality, Corruption, and Personal Environmental Responsibility in Europe".
– My paper focuses on how economic inequality and corruption impact feelings of personal environmental responsibility . Social structures have important effects, both directly and indirectly, on the capacity and motivation of individuals to act sustainably. The analysis in the paper indicates that economic inequality and corruption are significant predictors of personal environmental responsibility in Europe, says Ryan Davis.
Sandra Sternad Fackel has been studying Human ecology at the School of Global Studies. She was awarded for her bachelor thesis on the Agenda 2030 work in the municipality of Värnamo. The thesis was written in Swedish: "Att våga se komplexa samband: En studie av hur Värnamo kommun kan arbeta med synergier och konflikter inom Agenda 2030."
– My recommendation to the municipality of Värnamo, which I also think may be relevant to other public actors, is to work much more holistically with sustainable development and see it as more than climate and environmental issues. But also to analyze the consequences of their efforts from a broader perspective and dare to highlight what is difficult with sustainable development and work more cross-sectorally, says Sandra Sternad Fackel.
The GUSTA award is meant to motivate students to critically engage with sustainability issues and search for more knowledge towards a sustainable world. The project addresses all bachelors, magister and masters students in all programmes across the university. The awardees are selected by a scientific committee that is comprised of five professors from five different faculties at the University of Gothenburg.
The award is administrated by the Gothenburg Centre for Sustainable Development.
More information an links to the theses
