GEOGG021 Sustainable Development

CORE: GEOGG021 - SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
(15 credits)

Term 1 (2011)

Staff:
Ben Page & Bec Collins

Aims:

The module aims to analyse the idea of sustainable development. It uses four theoretical entry points: public participation, ecological modernization, environmental governance and deliberative democracy. The project aims to provide students with a conceptual toolkit that can then generate a critical analysis of sustainable development in practice. The project aims to give students a sense both of the intellectual history of sustainable development and of cutting edge research in relevant critical social science. The project aims to play this conceptual apparatus and literature against a series of cases studies through field trips and relevant sectoral studies that seek to bring out the complexity and challenges of achieving sustainable development.

Content:

The module will cover: Sustainable development & ecological modernisation: Governance & Environmental governance; Deliberative democracy & public participation; Public participation in parliamentary processes; Planning for public participation; Environmental decision making and public participation in practice; Sustainability indicators; Sustainability & water management; Sustainability and forest management; Sustainable cities; River restoration in urban contexts; World Summit on Sustainable Development;

Assessment:

1 piece of coursework - 100% of the assessment. The submitted work entails writing a project proposal (as part of a national case-study) designed to achieve one target frrom Millennium Goal 7, as produced during the World Summit on Sustainable Development.

Format:

The module will consist of lectures, discussions based upon selected readings, fieldtrips and presentations by students.

Learning Outcomes:

At the end of this course students should be able to explain and use the theoretical concepts of deliberative democracy, governance and ecological modernization and should understand their relationship to debates about environmental governance and sustainable development. In addition the aim is that students will have considered the value of these concepts in the context of different scales, places and sectors and in particular they will have considered the practicalities of introducing public participation to environmental policy-making.

Personal tools

GEOGG021 Sustainable Development