Political Economy of the Environment (802AF)

30 credits, Level 7 (Masters)

Autumn teaching

On this module, you’ll critically investigate a range of key environmental issues and challenges. Through the lens of political economy and political ecology, you’ll explore diverse issues including:

• energy and extractivism
• food and agriculture
• climate crisis
• water.

You’ll address questions such as:

• Who wins and who loses from dominant development pathways?
• Why are the climate crisis and mass extinction environmental justice issues?
• How is ecological degradation linked to colonialism and capitalism?
• How can we address and reverse ecological breakdown?

We’ll show you how to critically investigate key concepts and ideas, such as financialisation of nature and green capitalism. You’ll explore alternative theoretical approaches, and discuss possible solutions to these issues.

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 300 hours of work. This breaks down into about 33 hours of contact time and about 267 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 2026/27. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum.

We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.