Political Ecology and Environmental Justice (013IDS)

30 credits, Level 6

Spring teaching

In the first part of this module we'll

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

The second section of the module will provide you with the methodological and practical training required for your assignments. The third section of the course will consist of a series of case studies drawing on current issues of political ecological concern (for example, meat consumption, Green New Deals, lithium mining). 

Your assessments for this course will encourage you to approach political ecology as a ‘public facing’ discipline that engages with social movements. You'll submit a short group-produced podcast highlighting an environmental justice concern, drawing on your emerging understanding of political ecology analysis. These could be global or local in scope (for example, fracking, environmental racism and air pollution, carbon offsetting, pipeline developments on indigenous territories). The final assessment will be a long-form blog submission designed to enhance public understanding of a contemporary environmental justice concern.

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.