Sustainability and Policy Processes: Issues in Agriculture, Environment and Health (930M9)

30 credits, Level 7 (Masters)

Spring teaching

Delivered jointly with SPRU, this course provides you with an in-depth analysis of the relationship between knowledge, power and policy processes. Initially you will examine the historical and philosophical roots of key environmental, science and policy debates. A case study approach explores real-life examples from forestry, pastoral development, health service delivery, vaccines, occupational disease, agricultural biotechnology, water resources and biodiversity conservation. In exploring the cases, the focus is on the interrelationships between local contexts, community involvement and wider national and international policy processes influencing livelihood outcomes.

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 300 hours of work. This breaks down into about 44 hours of contact time and about 256 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2020/21. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to COVID-19, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum. We’ll make sure to let our applicants know of material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.