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Content:

In the first term, you will acquire an in-depth understanding of current and historical debates on development and environmental sustainability, the notion of alienation from nature and how to repair it, and an understanding of the meaning of crisis and how it could trigger a beneficial paradigm-shift. You will learn the tools for a critical analysis of discourses on sustainable development, exploring their environmental implications for countries of the global South and North.

Term Two looks at political ecology as a framework for analysing real-world case studies. Together, we will evaluate how far various theoretical lenses from political ecology thinking can illuminate environmental challenges and address questions of sustainability.

We will set out some key conceptual frameworks for understanding human-environmental relations, drawing inspiration from work as diverse as feminist studies, posthumanism and decolonial thinking. We will then use these conceptual frames to critically analyse some of the institutions involved in governing environmental sustainability. Finally, we will examine the ways in which political ecology scholarship has informed practice, both through its influence on traditional planning and policymaking and via bottom-up action.

Issues of environmental justice and the intrinsic link between social emancipation and ecological sustainability will be central to the module throughout.

NOTE: This module is a mandatory component of the Environment and Sustainable Development Masters. If the numbers taking this course are high, it may be necessary to close the module to students not taking the course. Any non-ESD student wishing to register for it should enquire early.

Teaching delivery: The sessions will comprise weekly lectures, seminar presentations and group discussions.

Indicative Topics in Term 1:

• The contribution of Political Ecology to a socially just transition towards systemic health
• Nature as paradigm: understanding systems
• Where did humanity go wrong in its relation to the environment?
• Core and periphery: racism, colonialism and their ecological basis
• Historic themes of Political Ecology: re-examining ‘development’ as a pathway out of today’s crisis
• Ecological crisis and the body politic: how PE can critique of xenophobic nationalism, and re-affirm cosmopolitanism on a new basis
• What’s wrong with economics?
• Cycles, waves and ‘beyond capitalism’
• Re-inventing commons, towards a new ecological-social order

UNIT FOCUS

Indicative Topics in Term 2:

• Urban Political Ecology: A Framework for Analysing Environmental Change
• Emerging Ideas in Political Ecology
• Gender and Political Ecology
• Decolonising Political Ecology
• Governing, Politics and Environmental Change: Actors and Institutions
• Spaces of Politics and Environmental Decision-making
• Doing Political Ecology: Progressive Change and Where to Begin?

Module Objectives:

ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý After taking Term 1, students will be able to:

• Critically understand the assumptions ingrained within current unsustainable mainstream development paradigms,Ìý which have laid the foundation for today’s situation.
• Be able to analyse the environmental implications of these paradigms for countries of the global North and South, as well as the relations – including relations of inequality and the exploitative flows of human and natural resources – within and between them.
• Acquire an initial grasp of the definition of sustainability within systems theory, focusing on the concept of resilience.
• Possess a critical understanding of current debates on development, sustainability and environmental justice.
• Understand, within the field of political ecology, the articulation between environmentalism, political culture and social organisation.
• Investigate the application of both political ecology and systems thinking to the urban context, focusing on the notion of urban metabolism.
• Understand how environmental concerns are socially constructed and institutionalized in the policy process.

ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý After taking Term 2, students will be able to:

• Critically appreciate political ecology as a set of theoretical approaches to analyse the socio-environmental change in the urban Global South and North .
• Recognise and contribute to current debates in political ecology.
• Understand how sustainability concerns are both socially constructed and politically situated.
• Critically apply concepts, theories, and methods in political ecology to the analysis of political ideas, institutions and practices involved in the governance of socio-environmental change.
• Construct reasoned arguments, synthesise information and exercise critical thinking.
• Critically read a range of texts.
• Communicate effectively and fluently.
• Work both independently and in groups, demonstrating initiative, self-organisation, and time management.
• Make use of constructive feedback and critically reflect on learning and personal development.

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