Political Ecology and Environmental Justice (013IDS)

30 credits, Level 6

Spring teaching

We will engage with environmental justice concerns through the lens of political ecology.

Political ecology is a broad set of theoretical and methodological approaches (incorporating feminist political ecologies, urban political ecologies and decolonial political ecologies) that helps us to understand the relationship between environmental change and social (in)justice.

We will explore the origins of political ecology through:

  • human geography, anthropology and ecological Marxism
  • the emergence of critical challenges from feminist and decolonial political ecologists
  • exploring the relationship between political ecology and other disciplines such as science and technology studies.

The second section of the course will provide you with the methodological and practical training required for your assignments.

We will also look at case studies drawing on current issues of political ecological concern (for example, meat consumption, Green New Deals, lithium mining).

Teaching

100%: Seminar

Assessment

40%: Coursework (Group presentation, Report)
60%: Written assessment (Essay)

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 2024/25. 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.

Courses

This module is offered on the following courses: