MA Sociology / Course details

This course offers and account of ‘the environmental movement’ as a constellation of organisations, beliefs and actions that has developed at multiple scales of activity across the world since around the 1960s. Social movements are typically associated with protest, and while that is undoubtedly true for the environmental movement, it has many other forms of strategic action: from encouraging people to change the mundane practices of their everyday life, to participating in global conferences attempting to get all nations acting in concert. One purpose of this course, then, is to identify and explain the different guises under which environmental action takes place. Theoretically, the course is grounded in several approaches that are relational in character. That is, movements, as collective actors, are understood as relations among groups and individuals playing out over time. And movements’ engagements with the wider world can be traced through their interactions with other groups and individuals, within variously structured networks, fields or arenas of action. A relational approach to movement action is particularly suited to understanding the strategic elements of movement activity in pursuing social change. The course will offer empirical coverage linked to contention over the environmental impacts of human activity in a range of different issue domains. These are selected to also ensure a wide geographic reach inclusive of conflicts located in different world regions. Even those issues seen as inherently global in scope, such as climate change, are explored with an eye on the ways that impacts and possibilities for action are shaped by different global locations. We will apply the theories explored in the first part of the course to make sense of strategic interaction in relation to each of the issue domains covered across the course.

The unit aims to introduce a selection of theories of environmental movement action focused on their strategic and relational characteristics. Explore a range of issue domains in which environmental activism and advocacy have played a key role. Develop a framework for explaining social change processes relating to environmental action.

1. Identify issue domains in which environment-society relations may be studied 2. Explain and interpret environmental activism and advocacy in relation to selected issue domains covered on the course 3. Select and apply an appropriate theory for understanding environmental movement action 4. Identify and interpret high quality sources of information, relevant for the task at hand 5. Communicate complex information in a concise and clearly structured document 6. Produce empirically grounded results from library-based research in written work

Syllabus (indicative curriculum content): 1. A brief history of the global environmental movement 2. Theorising environmental movements 3. Activism and advocacy through strategic interaction 4. Conserving ‘nature’ 5. Politicising consumption 6. Resisting resource extraction 7. Producing agricultural alternatives 8. Contesting climate change 9. Pursuing environmental justice 10. Summary and assessment workshop: applying theory to cases

Lecture-workshops (20 hours total, 2 hours per week, synchronous) and seminars/tutorials (10 hours total, 1 hour per week, synchronous). Alternatively, a ‘flipped classroom’ approach may be utilised, with1-hour recorded lecture per week (asynchronous), a 1-hour workshop (synchronous), and a 1 -hour seminar (synchronous). In that case the workshop and seminar could be combined, depending on student numbers. Student participation in seminars will be based on academic readings in all sessions. In addition, students will be set information gathering tasks throughout weeks 4-9, when we will be covering different environmental issues. Students will be expected to share information sources with the class and we will discuss what kinds of sources support different kinds of analysis.

It is anticipated that students on this course will be considering either moving on towards a PhD, or else looking for graduate level careers, with the latter potentially involving work in relation to environmental policy, advocacy, reporting and so on. The substantive knowledge, both theoretical and empirical (KU1, IS1) will be valuable in either case. The course makes use of up-to-date theoretical and empirical resources that could well form an introduction to a PhD in a cognate area, as well as informing students of the various actors involved in different environment issue domains.

The more practical and transferable skills on the course (PS1 and TS1) are clearly pertinent for those going on to a PhD, but equally useful for a huge range of professional careers in which navigating, selecting, interpreting and presenting quality information is a key skill. The two options on assessment potentially allow for students to develop slightly different writing styles (i.e. a scholarly essay or a structured report) that would be relevant for different career pathways.

Cassegard, C., Soneryd, L., Thorn, H., & Wettergren, Å. (Eds.). (2017). Climate Action in a Globalizing World: Comparative Perspectives on Environmental Movements in the Global North. Routledge. Doyle, T., & MacGregor, S. (Eds.). (2013). Environmental movements around the world: Shades of green in politics and culture. ABC-CLIO. Eastwood, L. E. (2018). Negotiating the Environment: Civil Society, Globalisation and the UN. Routledge. Fligstein, N., & McAdam, D. (2012). A theory of fields. Oxford University Press. Jasper, J. M., & Duyvendak, J. W. (Eds.). (2015). Players and Arenas: The Interactive Dynamics of Protest. Amsterdam University Press. Keck, M. E., & Sikkink, K. (1998). Activists beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics. Cornell University Press. Nulman, E. (2016). Climate Change and Social Movements: Civil Society and the Development of National Climate Change Policy. Springer. Radkau, J. (2014). The age of ecology: A global history. Polity Press. Rodrigues, M. G. M. (2012). Global Environmentalism and Local Politics: Transnational Advocacy Networks in Brazil, Ecuador, and India. State University of New York Press. Rootes, C. (1999). Environmental Movements: Local, National and Global. Routledge. Sandler, R., Sandler, R. D., Sandler, R. L., & Pezzullo, P. C. (2007). Environmental Justice and Environmentalism: The Social Justice Challenge to the Environmental Movement. MIT Press. Saunders, C. (2013). Environmental Networks and Social Movement Theory. A&C Black. In addition to book-length treatments we will make use of empirical research studies published in quality interdisciplinary journals such as Social Movement Studies, Mobilization, Environmental Politics.