"Educated Sustainability Strategists that understand and can handle the challenges within the field of sustainability are an asset"

Nina Lindgren is working as a Branch head at The department of social sustainability at Länstyrelsen in Jönköping county

Nina Lindgren

Why do the job market and society need the knowledge and skills that graduates from the program will possess?

– A series of changes are happening in our world right now, both on a global and national level, that makes previous development trends questioned or slowed down. To work with sustainability demands strategic and long-term work, based on knowledge and proven experience, rather than trends and opinions. Educated Sustainability Strategists that understand and can handle the challenges within the field of sustainability are therefore an asset for many public organizations in society.

What sustainability issues are currently most urgent in your area of expertise?

– Within the field of social sustainability, we need to meet the challenges that we’ve been having for a while now, such as the inequalities we see in everything from educational choices to the unpaid home and care work in the county. But also quickly emerged challenges that have been part of the work the last years, such as the social effects of Covid-19 or the rapid increase of asylum seekers in 2015. To monitor and safeguard democracy is also highly topical. For example, there are anti-democratic movements that challenge society, and we must make sure that every citizen in the county has to opportunity to participate and be heard.

What kinds of assignments can graduates from the program work with, in a sector like yours?

– To contribute to increased social cohesion and a more inclusive county, both long-term strategic work and more operational work are required, right here, right now. The strategic work can consist of formulating strategies and objectives for one or several areas. It can also be a supportive work to add a perspective or a method in others way of working. For example, to implement child impact assessments or stimulate rights-based ways of working in the public sector.

– Of the more operational tasks, you can increase the knowledge about different fields and perspectives, for example, by organizing educations and conferences or writing newsletters and managing web pages.




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