GEOGG015 Environmental Management: Critical Perspectives
CORE: GEOGG015 - ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT: CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES
(15 credits)
Term 1 (2011)
Staff:
Sam Randalls
Aims:
The module has three aims:
1) To enable students to critically evaluate the current practices of environmental management
2) To analyse the rationales for and place of people, markets and science in this management
3) To be able to apply these debates to subjects outside of the directly-taught course material
Content:
The course will examine theories and practices of environmental management by examining the relationships between science, markets and people. It draws upon examples to develop ways of critically understanding and interpreting contemporary environmental issues.
The course has the following foci:
1) Environmental science and politics
2) ‘Selling nature to save it’ through economic approaches
3) The role of people in management
Examples of biodiversity conservation, climate change and forestry to tie the three sections together.
Assessment:
There are three forms of assessment:
1) Brochure for a new nature conservation project - produced in group projects (3-4 students per group) and submitted as a group assignment, 1000 words - 25%
2) Description and critical appraisal of process of doing the project (individual), 1000 words - 25%
3) Essay analyzing the extent to which the project will enhance nature conservation (individual), 2,000 words - 50%
Format:
Part of the course is lecture based with moodle used as a repository for lecture-based material and information. Another part of the course will be seminar based with informal discussions of core readings in each of the taught areas. The final part is based upon independent research and will culminate in student presentations of their research.
Learning Outcomes:
On completion of the module learners will be able to:
1) Demonstrate understanding of key debates in contemporary environmental management
2) Be able to assess the relative merits of scientifi, market and people-oriented approaches in environmental management
3) Critically reflect upon environmental management practices
4) Be able to apply these understandings to examples
5) Design innovative solutions to problems
6) Interact with other learners in groupwork
7) Formulate a reasoned argument about environmental management practice
Initial Readings:
Adams, W.M. and Mulligan, M. (eds) 2003 Decolonizing nature: strategies for conservation in a post-colonial era, Earthscan, 240pp.
Agrawal, A. 2005. Environmentality: Technologies of Government and the making of subjects, Duke University Press, Durham, 325pp.
Brockington, D. 2008. Nature Unbound: Conservation, Capitalism and the Future of Protected Areas, Earthscan, 240pp.
Daily, G.C. and Ellison, K. 2002. The New Economy of Nature: The Quest to make Conservation Profitable, Island Press, Washington, 258pp.
Forsyth, T. 2003. Critical political ecology: the politics of environmental science, Routledge, London, 320pp.
Zerner, C. (ed) 2000. People, Plants, and Justice: The Politics of Nature Conservation, Columbia University Press, 449pp.
