Analytics for Social Good (code: 51792)

Analytics focuses on transforming data into insights by applying advanced analytical methods, based on mathematics, statistics and artificial intelligence models and algorithms to improve the performance of an organization. On this course, key topics and issues in Analytics will be presented and discussed with a focus on their applications in social, healthcare, sustainable and humanitarian organizations.

In the first part of the course, the analytic tools and methodologies will be introduced. In the second part, case studies from humanitarian, social, healthcare and environmental organizations (such as NGO humanitarian organizations, social care organizations, public services, hospitals or primary healthcare institutions) will be presented and discussed. Examples are: home healthcare logistics and scheduling; planning disaster response and preparedness for improved decision-making; locations of primary healthcare centers, or schools; planning humanitarian aid distribution; planning sustainable transportation; etc.

Keywords: Health, Operations, Logistics, Sustainability, Environment, Organization, NGO, Planetary Wellbeing, Collective Action, Public Good

Fields: Natural Sciences, Mathematics-Analysis, Statistics,  Economics, Business

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Art, Mind and the Brain (code: 51794)

This course focuses on a solid dialogue between Neurosciences and Humanities by posing crucial questions on sight and aesthetics. If “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, what is behind the eye of the beholder? Why certain technical breakthroughs are so efficient? Are there inescapable rules of Art? Does biology condition what we can experience as art? Does it condition Art and Music? Can we gather reliable knowledge? Are we prone to believe? Why is Science counterintuitive? What is in our genes and what in our environment? Is the Nature vs. Nurture question a false problem?.

The course attempts to frame the above questions into the current scientific knowledge of the brain. We analyze how sensory systems build up a representation of the world, focusing on vision and audition in connection to painting and music. This leads to a general discussion on the “perceptual rules of art”, aesthetic universals and Beauty. It continues with the question of the foundations of knowledge, the limits of knowledge and the evolutionary roots of belief, linking neurosciences with long lasting obsession in Western philosophy: the grounds of knowledge. Finally, a discussion on the so-called “critical periods” of sensory development and the question of nature and nurture as framed by current biological evidence is carried out as conclusion.

Keywords: Painting, Epistemology, Cognition, Nature/Nurture

Fields: Life Sciences, Anthropology, Psychology, Biology, Music, Philosophy, Art

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Building a Brain (code: 51795)

Our brain is the main source of our creativity and, in general, our ability to interact with the world. Major scientific efforts have been made in the last century to understand the mechanisms underlying its operation. These endeavours have revealed an astonishing degree of complexity, involving billions of specialized neurons communicating with each other through trillions of plastic connections. But is that level of complexity necessary for a brain to function?

This course will explore the brain’s minimal requirements, building on both our knowledge of simple organisms such as bacteria and worms, and our age-old attempts to build artificial intelligence systems. We will review the history of artificial intelligence and neuroscience, focusing on the connections that the two fields have had, on and off, over the years. Following the classic maxim of Richard Feynman, “what I cannot create I do not understand”, we will work in teams to attempt to build the simplest possible brain out of interacting components.

The course has no prerequisites, since the lectures will be accessible to students of all disciplines, including non-science students, and the practical work will be undertaken by multidisciplinary teams, in which students will support each other and cross-fertilize using their respective backgrounds. The goal is thus to bring together a healthy mix of students from sciences, engineering, and the humanities.

Keywords: Natural Intelligence, Artificial Intelligence, Complexity Systems, Information Processing

Fields: Life Sciences, Anthropology, Physics, Neurosciences, Technology

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Ethics in a Globalization and Sustainability Context (code: 51796)

Although globalization and sustainability have become familiar terms, they are at cross purposes. The way globalization has been conducted with an emphasis on the economic sphere—international trade and cross-border investment flows, has created a series of crises that threaten the ethical values and beliefs of a sustainable society. The primary goal of a business is usually seen as making a profit, however, the path towards achieving this goal can, in many instances, create dilemmas regarding justice, equity and honesty.

Ethics goes beyond what is or is not legal as it is concerned with the ethical reflection of what represents right and wrong behavior in a complex, dynamic, and global environment. On this course we will discuss ethical approaches to global issues that are enhanced by the process of globalization and increasing multiculturalism, e.g. the environment, global citizenship & governance, poverty and inequality, peace and conflict, human rights, health and the effects of technology among others.

Because global issues are complex, this course is not about providing students with formulas for making decision-making easier; instead the ideas and frameworks introduced in this course are designed to actually make decision-making more difficult, but will help students to reason more effectively and develop their sense of responsible judgment.

Keywords: Development, Governance, Society, Justice, Interculturality, Technology

Fields: Biology, Humanities, Philosophy, Political Science, Law, Economics, Business, Cultural Studies, Contemporary Studies

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Gender-based Violence and International Protection of Human Rights (code: 51798)

It was as recently as 1992 that a UN Committee (the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women) asserted that gender-based violence against women was a form of discrimination and a human rights violation and not just a private matter in which the State should not interfere. Since then, a number of instruments and mechanisms have been developed within the UN Human Rights System as well as in regional human rights’ protection systems to address such violence and, in recent years, to also include protection of other persons affected by gender-based violence, in particular, the LGBTIQ+ community.

For this purpose, the historic evolution that led to frame gender-based violence as a human rights violation and analyze the existing instruments and tools available at the international level (both UN and regional) to ensure that states adequately address gender-based violence against women and LGBTIQ+ individuals will be reviewed.

The course will focus on international binding instruments, including international conventions (both, general and specifically addressing gender-based violence) and jurisprudence from international courts, as well as non-binding instruments such as recommendations from specialized bodies and organs at the UN and regional levels. It will examine the existing mechanisms and procedures available at the regional and international levels for individual complaints or communications as well as for reports of wider situations of gender-based violence, and  the developments to address gender-based violence in International Criminal Law, including the evolution in jurisprudence towards framing gender-based crimes as international crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Keywords: Sexuality, Feminism, LGTB, Material Culture, Human Rights, Justice, Globalization

Fields: Law, Gender Studies, Cultural Studies, Political Science, Humanities

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Global Marketing and Culture of FC Barcelona (code: 51664)

European football (soccer) has become a major cultural vehicle in the global world, both in terms of economical impact and social influence. This course focuses on how this sport shapes the social, economical and cultural realms, and tries to interpret the different links between the game itself and the dimensions surrounding it: media coverage, aesthetic value, political targeting, public and corporate policies... In that context, FC Barcelona remains a unique case, studied in business schools as an example of global market branding, while passionately lived by millions of fans all over the world. Moreover, Barcelona city offers a privileged standpoint to better understand football as a growing issue within contemporary culture.

Keywords: Barcelona, Football, Sport Impact, Identity

Fields: Communication, Marketing, Cultural Studies, Business

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Great Ideas that Have Shaped our World: From the Axial Age to the Robot Revolution (code: 51799)

This course builds on the idea that ethical-religious, philosophical, and scientific imagination is vitally important in the development of human societies. It focuses on key religious, ethical-political, and scientific innovative ideas that have revolutionized and shaped society from antiquity to modern times. The course deals not only with understanding the context of the emergence of these ideas, but also their impact on the contemporary world and mentality. It will begin with the “Axial Age” (Karl Jaspers), characterized by a series of ethical-religious, scientific and philosophical innovations from China to Ancient Greece, and move chronologically to the Renaissance, Enlightenment and the current digital and robot revolution.

The substantive and methodological approach is not Eurocentric and reductionist, but rather global and interdisciplinary. The course adopts a problem-solving approach based on understanding why and how new and creative ideas - from Buddhism and monotheism to Marxist materialism, genetical engineering and quantum physics - answer different types of challenges and queries - existential, epistemic, or ethical-political. The classes are structured through lectures and open discussions based on texts and videos/documentaries. The emphasis is on discussing primary sources (e.g. texts by Confucius, I. Newton, Ch. Darwin, S. Freud, A. Einstein) and relevant videos/documentaries, with the aim of understanding revolutionary ideas, their relevance and their long-standing influence on current practices and societies.

Keywords: Imagination, Science, Revolution, Society, Innovation, Globalization, Technology

Fields: Ethics, Political Science, Religion, Philosophy, Intellectual History

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Innovation and the Law. How Technology Changes the Legal System (code: 51801)

The course aims to give the students a general overview of the core legal institutions, while introducing the students to the main legal problems attached to the new technologies. The reading assignments and the classroom discussions will illustrate how technology changes traditional legal concepts and the way in which the legal rules are applied. A basic introduction to contracts, property, torts from a comparative perspective will be followed by an explanation of the relevant technologies and their implications in the legal understanding of the core legal topics.

In addition, the course will focus on the current trends of the harmonization process in order to give a common response to technology challenges providing a general overview of the problems arising from the interaction between technology and the law. The general legal analysis of contracts, torts and property will be applied to the challenges posed by smart and relational contracts, the interaction between big data and competition law, the internet of things and the application of products liability and insurance to fully automated devices. Sharing and collaborative economy formulas will also be analyzed in the course.

Keywords: ¡Technology, Economic Analysis, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence

Fields: Law, Economics, Computer Sciences, Business

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LGTB+: Exploring Identities and Diversity (code: 51802)

This course will navigate the complex and mutating field of gay, lesbian, bisex, trans, intersex and queer studies, exploring its history and developement  since its inception. The course explores non-hegemonic identities and gender and sexual diversity from many different perspectives: their criminalization, pathologization or their fights for equality and rights. Social, legal, historical, and cultural implications of sexuality, articulating academic and activist perspectives will provide a framework and a context.

Furthermore, to highlight the importance of understanding these topics as non-homogeneous and in an intersectional way students's contributions will be asked for in order to build up an intercultural dialogue based on their own perspectives and geographies. The course aims to establish a dialogue between different positions within society and cultural production (such as cinema, literature, poetry, theatre, etc.) so as to reflect on the implications of visibility for the community and for the different representations of such dissident sexualities and identities.

The assumption of stability of biological sex and the meaning and goals of gender expression will be subject to inquiry. Theoretical lectures, seminars and debates, critical workshops and field trips will be used to address  in a critical manner the importance of (re)thinking our sexualities in a political and non-monolithic way.

Keywords: LGBT Studies, Gender Studies, Sexuality, Diversity, Identity, Queer

Fields: Philosophy, Sociology, Humanities, Communication, Cultural Studies

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The Collectivity Revolution (code: 51804)

Says author Yuval Harari, that the capacity to organize ourselves collectively through a “fiction” or an intagible or abstract concept agreement –such as money- is the singled-out most distinctive characteristic of humans beings vs other species. In the managerial sphere of brands, corporations and organizations of all sorts, the question today, is: Should money still be considered the most valuable asset? Will it disappear? What will it be replaced with? What is value and which are the values ruling our current-future society? Shifting paradigms are proposing new ideas and tools to face the now inevitable purpose of maintaining our own sustainability: both as organizations and as humans. In so, how do rising collective responses differ from the individualistic approaches of the last Century? In the challenge but also the opportunity of our times, what kind of world do we want to live in and how are we going to get there? Argumenting the principle that brands operate in societies, not just markets, students of this course will be encouraged to have critical views and to openly participate in the ethics discussions behind examples show-casing how collective entities of all sorts are currently coping/adapting to new context reality and how the innovation challenges of a Post “non-entirely” human era, as well as those derived from our consciousness over the natural limits of our planetary resources, are transforming our way of life, our values scale of expectations and thus our companies and enterprises managerial practices.

The course in all will underpin examples of COLLECTIVENESS in the context of a ultra-highly CONNECTED society that can no longer solve the global challenges of the future, following individual strengths or singled-out efforts; following examples the innovation and knowledge transfer capabilities and responsibilities of in specific sectors/issues such as food and nutrition, architecture and living design, health and genomic sciences, fashion and responsible consumerism and production or travel&tourism and urban and global mobility, among others. The Collectivity Revolution is an account of the new paradigms of management and commerce across businesses and its communities, as a whole. The title of the course responds to a play-on-words between the terms Collective and Connection and the Revolutionary outcomes of its merging forces.

Keywords: Collective Action, Management, Corporation, Cooperation, Brand Equity, Innovation, Technology, Sustainability, Capitalism, Ethics, Humanism

Fields: Business, Sociology, Communication, Marketing, Media Studies, Economy, Global Studies

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¿Qué es noticia? verdad, desinformación y hegemonía (code: 51806)

Vivimos una época de creciente preocupación por la desinformación en la que es necesaria una mirada desde la ética a toda actividad relacionada con la información y la comunicación. Preocupa principalmente la actividad de los medios de comunicación y en especial del periodismo, pero debemos atender a todos aquellos ámbitos desde los que se genera información: administraciones públicas, política, economia, empresa, derecho, medicina, ciencia... La falta de verdad es un problema fundamental para una sociedad que se quiera democrática. En este curso pretendemos abordar esta preocupación partiendo de una pregunta que busca problematizar la producción de la comunicación: “¿Qué es noticia?”. Nos preocupan las ‘fake news’ o la ‘posverdad’, que podemos detectar en medios de comunicación, mensajes políticos, económicos.

Pero para entrar a analizar de qué hablamos cuando hablamos de noticias falsas o de manipulación informativa, es necesario preguntarnos también qué es verdad, y abordaremos algunos debates éticos al respecto. Las nociones de verdad y objetividad son esenciales en toda sociedad, existen formas muy diversas de desinformación. En este curso trabajaremos de manera interdisciplinar; recurriremos, por ejemplo, al conocimiento que nos ofrecen diferentes disciplinas: la ética, la ciencia política, la antropología, el periodismo, la sociología de los medios de comunicación, la economía... Las noticias y los mensajes comunicativos que nos llegan son siempre una construcción y necesitamos entender cómo se construyen. La comunicación cumple una función clave a la hora de establecer realidades compartidas, que nos permiten vivir como comunidad. Nuestra sociedad no puede existir sin comunicación. Por eso mismo, es fundamental reflexionar sobre los discursos que se generan.

Keywords: Ética, Análisis del discurso, Justicia, Democracia, Verdad, Comunidad, Sociedad (Ethics, Discourse Analysis, Justice, Democracy, Truth, Community, Society)

Fields: Comunicación, Ciencia Política, Humanidades, Economía, Periodismo, Antropología (Communication, Political Science, Humanities, Economy, Journalism, Anthropology)

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