MSc Environmental Governance / Course details

Manchester is the birthplace of modern industrial capitalism where fossil fuels, economic production and urbanisation became indelibly fused together. Indeed, the carbon economy first emerged in Manchester, alongside its associated environmental consequences, most notably climate change, which, as a global society, we must continue to contend with today. Coal was transported into the city using a new canal system, which powered the factories that spun raw cotton, shipped from across the world, into finished textiles for international markets, and distributed along an expanding railway network. Industrial production also required the large-scale migration of workers into the city from surrounding rural areas, followed by inner-city housing, water supply, sewerage, waste, electricity and other networked services. The industrial revolution was characterised by the intensification of urban circulation and metabolic exchange, where infrastructural systems increasingly mediated the relationship between the city and its hinterland. Explored by geographers, environmental historians and political ecologists for decades, the concept of urban metabolism concerns the forms and flows through which cities and their human landscapes transform the ecologies that surround and underpin them, at both local and global scales.

Manchester therefore offers unique opportunities for the exploration of urban metabolism; how resource flows become embedded, locked-in and concealed in the urban form, and how these flows can in turn be visualised, problematised and reconfigured in more sustainable, equitable ways. Through lectures and a series of day field trips, this course unit will apply a ‘metabolic lens’ to Greater Manchester to understand how material flows and infrastructural systems make modern networked cities possible, which are dependent on the constant input and output of energy, matter, capital and people. There is growing interest in the making visible of resource flows that service the city, to bring them into question by exposing their hidden subterranean workings. The course unit will introduce students to what a metabolic perspective offers analytically, reconceiving the city as a process rather than a site. Different theoretical frameworks that can be applied to urban metabolism will be outlined, evaluated and contrasted to reveal how they ascribe to different principles, concepts, assumptions, worldviews and normative positions. It will be demonstrated that theoretical frameworks offer a particular way of seeing phenomena, in this case urban metabolism, which has political as well as practical implications for study.

The unit aims to:

• Trace, historically and geographically, the environmental flows that permeate and service Greater Manchester, locating them in a wider social, economic and political context.
• Examine how resource flows link the city region to a broader hinterland across multiple scales, implicating different sites, infrastructure and actors.
• Familiarise students with the Greater Manchester region through a series of day trips to locations relating to energy, water, transport, waste and green space.
• Discuss the concept of urban metabolism and how it offers a distinctive, novel way of conceiving the city as a socio-ecological process.
• Consider the ways in which theoretical frameworks shape our understanding of metabolic processes and how they are based on contrasting principles, assumptions and objectives.
• Reflect on the purpose of a theoretical framework when undertaking project work and how it relates to research design, strategy and methodology.
   

At the end of this course unit, students will have an historical geographical understanding of Manchester and the environmental consequences of the industrial revolution, a critical and rounded understanding of the concept and academic field of urban metabolism, and more broadly, what the purpose of a theoretical framework is when conducting research.

Students will gain an understanding of the importance of fieldwork in urban environmental research, and the role and viewpoints of different types of stakeholder in the environment sector, including academics, NGOs, community groups and activists.

Students will gain a range of transferable skills including critical and systems thinking, data presentation and visualisation, self-directed learning and writing, communication, and experience with engaging with primary sources (academic, policy and media) in field research.

Students are required to engage with academic (e.g. journal articles, books) and non-academic (e.g. reports, maps) digital resources for the duration of the course. Student learning is supported by online platforms through Blackboard, including session materials and digital resources pertaining to the different theoretical frameworks.

Students will use a range of digital communications media including email, online forums, databases, archives and social media, requiring the use of popular and specialist search engines followed by visualisation of data through infographics, images and other media.

• This unit introduces students to the academic field of urban metabolism through the environmental history of Manchester.
• Preparation session 1: This session outlines the aims and scope of the course, explains the assessment, discusses the readings, and what to expect from the field trip. There will be some reflection on why Manchester offers an appropriate field study site.
• Preparation session 2: This session introduces the concept and theory of urban metabolism, which refers to the study of the flow of resources, energy, and materials between an urban area and its hinterland.
• Preparation session 3: This session will provide a metabolic history of Manchester to demonstrate that resource flows, not least water and carbon, have been integral to its economy, culture and politics.
• Preparation session 4: This session will be structured around a series of mini-lectures on different metabolic flows: energy, transport, waste and nature. We will consider how these flows have been managed during the twentieth century in the context of Manchester and the UK
• Field course week: A series of daily trips in and around Greater Manchester, based on different urban metabolisms: green infrastructure, energy, waterways and sanitation.
• Post-field course session: Thinking back to the field trip and towards the final assessment, we will consider how theory directs us to ask novel and interesting research questions.

The unit is delivered through two-hour sessions in the run-up to the field trips, typically composed of a lecture and seminar / workshop component, and a series of day field trips structured around the Greater Manchester region. Trips will explore key sites for exploring metabolism in the region, including both rural and urban locations, historical and contemporary sites. Students will explore sites of key importance to understanding the socio-environmental flows that underpin the city and the region. Trips will be led by course conveners as well as local experts, activists, organisers, and community-members.

Seminar activities include discussions, debates, and practical exercises. A high level of participation is required from all students throughout the unit. Wider reading around the themes of the lectures is expected. Formative feedback will be given during lectures and seminars. The course is supported by a dedicated Blackboard site.

• Become familiar with the Greater Manchester region and its resource base and environmental issues.

• Evaluate how different theoretical frameworks shape our understanding of phenomena.

• Articulate the implications of considering Greater Manchester through the notion of urban metabolism.

• Understand the role of theory and concepts in relation to research and academic critique.

• Formulate structured and reasoned arguments.

• Relate theoretical arguments to empirical evidence.

• Interpret and evaluate academic literature in respect to urban environmental processes and issues

• Trace and delineate the hidden flows that constitute urban centres and visualise them in an engaging, revealing way.

• Make links between academic ideas and real-world social, environmental and economic issues.

• Self-direct their own learning.

• Work effectively in teams.

• Communicate clearly and concisely.

Assessment 1: Visualisation of an urban metabolic process through a combination of text and images - Verbal feedback on the field course and written feedback through Turnitin, in line with university policy.

Assessment 2: Written evaluation on how a theoretical framework can be applied to investigate the chosen metabolic process, with key concepts, proposed contribution, research strategy and potential methods outlined - Written feedback will be provided within 15 working days of submission through Turnitin, in line with university policy.

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Cronon, W. 1991. Nature’s metropolis: Chicago and the Great West. New York: W. W. Norton.

Dobraszczyk, P. and Butler, S. eds, 2020. Manchester: something rich and strange. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

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