MA Political Economy (Standard Route) / Course details

This unit introduces students to the concept of environmental governance, and the main current debates around the environment. It will consider ‘governance’ in the broadest sense, including how the environment is controlled, manipulated, and regulated (and the contestation of these processes) by a range of actors and institutions, and the cognitive and normative ideas that underpin this process. The unit will explore a broad range of approaches that span the political spectrum from left to right, in addition to considering more contemporary debates within the field. Abstract theoretical and conceptual material is intended to complement case studies of real world issues and applied policy examples from other course units, and to prepare students intellectually for future research.

The course considers specific approaches to governing the relations between society and the environment.  Influential critiques are put into play against these dominant approaches in order to encourage students to critically reflect upon contemporary approaches to environmental governance.  The unit will equip students with the necessary grounding to appreciate how different political and philosophical systems can be used to organise environmental regulation. The over-riding rationale of the unit is to provide students with the ability to recognise and critique the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to environmental governance. The unit is delivered primarily through structured seminars, student presentations, and debates in order to facilitate student engagement with ideas and concepts.

The unit is compulsory and core for EG students, but can be taken as an option by others up to a ceiling of 30 students overall.

• Understand the dominant approaches to environmental governance.
• Interrogate and apply the main critiques of dominant approaches to environmental governance.
• Link contemporary environmental debates to academic theories and frameworks.

At the end of this course unit, students will have an understanding of the field of environmental governance and a familiarity with key debates within the field.

Students will gain an understanding of 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 module introduces students to key debates and conversations in the field of environmental governance. The specific weeks/subjects are subject to change. Below is an indicative curriculum content, though this may change.  

WEEK 1: Introducing environmental governance 
WEEK 2: Debating the tragedy of the commons
WEEK 3: From Government to Governance: New actors and new stakeholders 
WEEK 4: Who owns the grid: Privatization, Municipalization, and Infrastructural Governance
WEEK 5: The promise of participation
WEEK 6: Reading Week
WEEK 7: Pricing Nature, Global Inequality, and Governing Climate Change 
WEEK 8: Urbanising environmental governance 
WEEK 9: The nature of scale: From the Local to the Global 
WEEK 10: Ecology and the politics of environmental knowledge: Environmental Governance in the Post-Truth Age? 
WEEK 11: Can Technology save us? Growth, Degrowth, and Geoengineering
WEEK 12: Concluding Discussion

The unit will be delivered through seminars and students readings of key debates. All material is available on the VLE. The schedule is fairly challenging in order to cover the wide range of theories, and all students will be expected to read and to prepare prior to each session. Each week will involve students presenting and responding to questions, offering information or ideas emerging out of the set reading. Following the presentations, we will debate the topic and distil the key points as a class. The reading for each week is selected to be representative of the most important current environmental debates, and will raise key questions. The required reading will be supplemented by further readings which give a deeper insight into some of the key issues. The texts that you will be required to read are available on Blackboard.

• Understand the main tenets of environmental governance.
• Be conversant with the major approaches to environmental governance in the modern world.
• Evaluate different approaches and critique them in relation to one another.
• Be aware of key contemporary debates and challenges.
• Understand the strengths and weaknesses of communicating academic ideas through a seminar or during a public debate.

• Think critically and independently.
• Analyse and evaluate different kinds of argumentation.
• Make connections between theoretical arguments and real-world cases.
• Assess the merits of contrasting theories and their policy implications.
• Read advanced academic literature.
• Write and present clearly and without bias for a public audience.

• Develop, articulate and sustain logical, structured and reasoned arguments in both written and oral contexts.
• Build skills in public presentations and public debating.

• Inter-personal communication.
• Motivated and self-directed learning.
• Critical thinking and argumentation.

Assessment 1: In-class Group Presentation

15 Minute Presentation plus 5 minute Q&A - max equivalent 1000 words per students - Verbal formative feedback on presentation and written summative feedback through Turnitin, in line with university policy - 30%.

Assessment 2: Coursework Essay

2000 words - Written feedback will be provided within 15 working days of submission through Turnitin, in line with university policy - 70%.
 

• Adger, N. and Jordan A. (2009) (Eds) Governing sustainability (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). 
• Bulkeley, H., Broto, V. and Edwards, G. (2015) An urban politics of climate change: Experimentation and the governing of socio-technical transitions. (London: Routledge)
• Büscher, B., Dressler, W., and Fletcher, R. (2014) Nature Inc: Environmental conservation in the neoliberal age. (Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press)
• Carter, N. and Mol, A. (2007) Environmental governance in China (London: Routledge).
• Evans, J. (2010) Environmental governance (London: Routledge)
• Evans, J., Karvonen, A, and Raven, R. (2016) (Eds) The experimental city: New modes and prospects of urban transformation. (Routledge, London). 
• Forsyth, T. (2003) Critical political ecology. (London: Routledge).
• Goria, A. et al. (eds) (2010) Governance for the environment: a comparative analysis of environmental policy integration (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar).
• Green, J. (2014) Rethinking private authority (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press)
• Held, D. et al. (eds) (2011) The governance of climate change (Cambridge: Polity)
• Heynen, N., McCarthy, M., Prudham, S, and Robbins, P. (2007) Neoliberal natures: False promises and unnatural consequences. (London: Routledge)
• Jasanoff, S. and Martello, M. (2004) Earthly Politics: Local and Global in Environmental Governance (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press)
• Kütting, G. and Lipschutz, R. (2009) Environmental governance: power and knowledge in a local-global world (London: Routledge)
• Newell, P. (2005) The business of global environmental governance (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press)
• Newell, P. and Paterson, M. (2010) Climate Capitalism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
• Peet, R., Robbins, P. and Watts, M. (2009) Global political ecology (London: Routledge).
• Scoones, I., Leach, M. and Newell, P. (2015) (eds) The politics of green transformations. (London: Routledge).
• Spaargaren, G., Mol, A., and Buttel, F. (2006) Governing environmental flows: Global challenges to social theory (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press)
• Speth, J. and Haas, P. (2006) Global environmental governance (Island Press, Washington). 
• Vogler, J. (2000) The global commons: Environmental and technological governance. (Chicester: Wiley)
• Young, O. (2002) The institutional dimensions of environmental change: Fit, interplay and scale (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press)
• Young, O. (2013) On environmental governance: Sustainability, efficiency, and equity (London: Routledge).
• Wurzel, R. et al. (2012) Environmental governance in Europe (Edward Elgar).

This course unit will support EDI through using and providing students with resources from a diverse range of authors and contexts. Students can choose to focus their projects on issues they are most comfortable with undertaking, and they will receive support in selecting appropriate case studies. DASS students will be supported through discussing field expectations, offering appropriate services (e.g. counselling), and having alternative options made available if they are unable to attend any part. Assessment has been designed not to disadvantage any student.