MSc Environmental Governance / Course details

The course is delivered through a combination of key expert led lectures and interactive student-led discussion seminars. Each session will cover a different core component of the SUM paradigm and students will be encourage to explore their own positionality in relation to these topics and they issues they raise in terms of transport and urban planning and operations.

 The module is designed to encourage students to engage with the principles and core concepts of sustainable urban develop within the transport domain.  Students will attend a one-hour lecture by the course leader or an invited guest followed by a one-hour an interactive student-led discussion session to more deeply engage and interact with the topics presented in the lecture.  Students will be expected to read around core sustainable urban mobilities concepts and their governance challenges, as well as the related expertise of the presenting scholars each week.

The unit aims to:

• Introduce students to the principles and practices of sustainable urban mobilities (SUM) and its interdisciplinary and intersectional challenges in the context of environmental governance.
• Reflect upon key issues associated with SUM for the economy, environment and society.
• Explore different case studies to exemplify the challenges of SUM in the context of global north and global south cities and for different urban geographies and demographies.

Students will learn key concepts of SUM and be able to articulate them in class and through their written assignments this will develop their transferable communication and written skills.

They will learn the skills of critical reflection on the key underpinning theories of sustainable urban mobilities and the challenges to its delivery, which will allow them to self-evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of different policy approaches.

They will be provided with different case study examples of transport projects from the global north and south which will allow them to apply their taught knowledge to the real world context.

Through the formative assessment task students will develop presentational skills  and , along with the blog assessment, will also have opportunities to practice collaboration and team work.

Digital skill development through e-library searches and online image extraction and use of PowerPoint.

Syllabus (indicative curriculum content):

It covers 8 core lecture topics:

1. Introduction to key concepts for sustainable urban mobilities
2. Transport planning in the UK context and historical perspectives
3. Environmental Challenges to SUM
4. Health and active travel
5. Transport planning in global south cities
6. Transport and social exclusion 
7. SUM in the Chinese context
8. Walking and cycling in global south cities

Seminars are organised around set reading and discussions around these lecture topics.

Student-led presentations happen in Week 4/5 based on city case study examples from students own experiences.

• Lectures = 11 hours,
• Group discussions = 8 hours,
• Class debates = 2 hours
• Group presentation = 3.5 hour (including preparation)
• Readings = 24 hours self-learning
• Blog exercise = 6 hours self-learning assignment
• Course essay = 10 hours self-learning

• Identify the core components of the sustainable urban mobilities debate and its core governance challenges.
• Articulate the ways in which sustainable urban mobilities interact with the economic, environmental and social functioning of contemporary cities and their citizens.
• Understand the key challenges in the delivery of sustainable urban mobilities.

• Critically assess the theories, methods, outcomes and wider significance of sustainable urban mobilities ‘research into practice’. 
• Evaluate different approaches to framing and presenting key SUM challenges in different global north and south urban contexts.
• Communicate ideas through open discussion and structured debates.

• Develop and articulate clear, structured and reasoned arguments in both written and oral contexts.
• Disseminate academic ideas to non-academic audiences through the reflective blog and report writing assignments.

• Inter-personal communication. 
• Self-motivation and direction.
• Group working.

Formative Assessment

Student presentations (group work)
5 minute presentation and Q&A per group.
Equivalent max 500 words per student.
Feedback in class in Weeks 4/5.
Expected outcome - Increased understanding of key issues and debates.

Assessment task 1

Blog exercise
600 words
Feedback via Turnitin
30% weighting

Assessment task 2

Critical essay
2400 words
Feedback via Turnitin
70% weighting

Key readings

Banister, D. (2005) Unsustainable Transport: City Transport in the New Century, Routledge, Abingdon, UK Chapter 1

Cairns, S., Sloman, L., Newson, C., Anable, J., Kirkbridge, A. and Goodwin, P. 2004. Smarter Choices: Changing the Way We Travel. Department for Transport, London.

Lucas, K., Mattioli, G., Verlinghieri, E., and Guzman, A. (2016) ‘Transport poverty and its adverse social consequences’ Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers. Transport 169:6: 353-365

Porter, G., Hampshire, K., Abane, A., Munthali, A., Robson, E., Tanle, A., Owusu, S., de Lannoy,A., and Bango, A. (2018) Connecting with home, keeping in touch: physical and virtual mobility across stretched families in sub-Saharan Africa Africa 88:2; 404-424

Wider readings

Adey, P. ‘Mobilites: politics, practices, places’ Chapter 52 in Goodwin, M., Crang, P., Cloke, P. J. (2014) Introducing Human Geographies Abingdon

Crompton, T. 2016. Chapter Eleven: Values and public expressions of concern, in Beyond Behaviour Change, ed by F. Spotswood. Policy Press, Bristol.  

Schwanen, T. and Lucas, K. (2011) ‘Understanding Auto Motives’ Chapter 1 in Lucas, K., Blumenberg, E. and Weinberger, R. Auto Motives: Understanding Car Use Behaviours

Sheller M., and Urry, J. (2006) ‘The New Mobilities Paradigm’ Environment and Planning A 38:2 207-226

Shove, E. 2010. ‘Beyond the ABC: Climate change policy and theories of social change’, Environmental Planning A, 42, pp. 1273-1285.

Uteng, T. P. and Lucas, K., (2017) Urban Mobilities in the Global South Routledge. 

Topic specific reading lists are also provided for each lecture.

Contact hours: 22
Independent study: 128 hours

Lectures include diverse geographical contexts from around the globe. The course directly includes lectures on social inequalities and social exclusion related to SUM. Texts by women, BAME and non-European authors and non-written resources are used. Students are expected to critically engage with issues of knowledge and power relations therein.