Incorporating Global Sustainability Into The Curriculum Through Virtual Immersion

Author
Madhu Viswanathan and Ronald Duncan
Topic
Strategy & General Management
Length
10 pages
Keywords
low income
immersion
video
day in the life
#advertising
Global
sustainability
moral compass
honduras
uganda
tanzania
Social Justice
human
socioeconomic
worldwide
Student Price
$0.00
Target Audience
Graduate Students
Undergraduate Students
Executive Education
Other Audience

This provides virtual immersion learning opportunities about those in low-income contexts around the world and locally, referred to in the stream of work we have pioneered as subsistence marketplaces. We address hungers articulated in the inspirational paradigm, such as for experiential learning, a global paradigm, community, integrated knowledge, and a moral compass. Indeed, we believe that exposure is education. And we believe that the bottom-up approach and virtual immersion provides a deeply human vantage point from which to guide actions. Such student engagement in understanding the personal circumstances of those most vulnerable provides the basis for action grounded in social justice and larger good.

By way of background, the subsistence marketplaces stream has evolved over the last two decades, adopting a bottom-up approach to study those leaving with the least material resources around the world in their own right rather than as means to other ends. Our approach begins at the micro-level of life circumstances of consumers and entrepreneurs living in the broad range of low income, taking a bottom-up, inside-out approach. The term, marketplaces, rather than markets, is a constant reminder to respect these preexisting marketplaces and be humble in unlearning our own preconceptions and learning from those who survive each day in these contexts. We have developed unique research about such contexts, education about these subsistence marketplaces for our students, and education for these communities through marketplace literacy that has now reached more than 100000 women in four continents. 

Links to Videos:

(Password: subsistence)

360 Videos

  1. https://vimeo.com/user/8820246/folder/4367871
  2. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdeFwFdm8f27GDsDbOCefKoGsRpYbH2kO

Day in the Life Videos

  1. https://vimeo.com/user/8820246/folder/4368953
  2. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdeFwFdm8f24ilFSEjF4tG_qcIxepZY2P

Recorded Virtual Interviews

  1. Honduras: https://vimeo.com/user/8820246/folder/2627860
  2. Uganda: https://vimeo.com/user/8820246/folder/2692752
  3. Tanzania: https://vimeo.com/user/8820246/folder/3557408
  4. USA: https://vimeo.com/user/8820246/folder/3703206
Learning Outcomes

Virtual immersion is used to first and foremost, provide exposure to global contexts, that are different culturally and socioeconomically. Second, we enable virtual immersion for developing understanding of global challenges of environmental sustainability and poverty that businesses need to address in order to be competitive and sustainable in the broadest sense. Third, we use virtual immersion to design solutions for these contexts. Virtual immersion aims to move students from sympathy to informed empathy and broaden their global horizons.