GY474 Half Unit
Politics of Environment and Development
This information is for the 2019/20 session.
Teacher responsible
Dr Kasia Paprocki STC 4.21b and Dr Julia Corwin STC 4.14
Availability
This course is compulsory on the MPhil/PhD in Environmental Policy and Development and MSc in Environment and Development. This course is available on the MSc in Development Management, MSc in Development Studies, MSc in Environmental Economics and Climate Change and MSc in Environmental Policy and Regulation. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.
The number of students that can be accommodated is limited. If the course is over-subscribed, places will be allocated at the Department’s discretion and a waiting list may be created. For further details, please contact your relevant Programme Coordinator.
Pre-requisites
None
Course content
This course explores key themes at the intersection of development and environmental politics. Specifically, the course is centred on the applications of political ecology, critical development studies, and materialist human geography to topics in environment and development. In exploring the complex relationships between historical dynamics of development, inequality, and the environment, it covers a range of important natural resource and environmental issues, such as climate change, conservation, waste, and environmental social movements.
Teaching
15 hours of lectures and 10 hours of seminars in the LT.
Formative coursework
Students will be expected to produce 1 short video in the LT summarising the key themes of key course texts
Indicative reading
- Li, T (2007), The Will to Improve, Durham: Duke University Press.
- Robbins, P (2012), Political Ecology: A Critical Introduction, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell
- Scott, J (1991) Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed, New Haven: Yale University Press.
- West, P (2006) Conservation is Our Government Now: The Politics of Ecology in Papua New Guinea. Durham: Duke University Press.
- Wolford, W (2010) This Land Is Ours Now: Social Mobilization and the Meanings of Land in Brazil. Durham: Duke University Press.
Assessment
Essay (80%, 3000 words) in the ST.
Coursework (20%, 1500 words) in the LT.
Key facts
Department: Geography & Environment
Total students 2018/19: Unavailable
Average class size 2018/19: Unavailable
Controlled access 2018/19: No
Value: Half Unit
Personal development skills
- Self-management
- Problem solving
- Communication
