MSc Environmental Governance / Course details

This course creates a space for students to explore how politics and knowledge about climate relate. Drawing upon multidisciplinary insights - including those from climate science, human geography, and political philosophy - we will explore who does and does not get to produce knowledge and future imaginaries relating to the climate, their respective social standings, and examine why this is the case. Against the spectre of climate denialism and post-truth, we will question whether and how we can strive for inclusive, plural approaches to the construction of climate change knowledge. We will ask whether knowledge around climate change has become depoliticised, what repoliticisation might mean and require, and if this is desirable. Along the way, we will explore the overlaps between expertise, colonialism, and the ‘power of numbers’, and the potential role that decolonial perspectives and artistic approaches could play in realising more socially inclusive futures. The course will draw upon a range of global case studies but will also draw heavily from the local context, where Manchester has committed to becoming a zero-carbon city by 2038.

The course will be divided into two parts. In the first half, we will investigate whose knowledge is included and excluded from contemporary discourse on climate change, examining the cultural and political status of experts such as accountants, standard setters, and scientists alongside the likes of lay knowledge, citizen science, artistic knowledge, and indigenous knowledge. In the second half, we will consider what, if anything, should be done about the inequalities surrounding the production and consumption of climate change knowledge. This will include exploring: what role experts should play in shaping politics around climate change, whether there is a boundary between ‘hard factual’ and ‘contestable’ forms of expertise, and key questions surrounding participation, co-option, and disagreement in the production of climate knowledge.

This is a core unit for students on MSc Climate Change: Science, Society and Solutions, but it can be taken as an option by others.

The unit aims to:

• Explore how politics and knowledge about the climate relate to each other.
• Understand who gets to produce knowledge around the climate and why.
• Consider what, if anything, should be done about inequalities surrounding the production of climate change knowledge.
• Explore multidisciplinary approaches to understanding the social construction and reach of climate knowledge

The unit is delivered through weekly two-hour sessions typically composed of a one-hour lecture and one-hour seminar. 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.

• Identify alternative knowledges and imaginaries on climate change.
• Examine why some knowledges around climate change become dominant over others.
• Debate the challenges and opportunities to respond to social and environmental challenges in more inclusive ways.
• Evaluate whether and how can we strive for more inclusive approaches to the construction of climate change knowledge.

• Formulate structured and reasoned arguments.
• Relate theoretical arguments to empirical evidence.
• Interpret and evaluate academic literature.

• Design ways of communicating knowledge around social and environmental processes that are accessible and engaging.
• Interpret and critique policy and other arguments made around the climate.
• Make links between philosophy, theory, science, policy, and culture.

• Determine, and be mindful of, the social and political processes that shape quantification and other forms of expertise.
• Assess whether modes of policymaking or knowledge construction are inclusive or exclusive.
• Critically reflect on social science, climate science, policy, and other arguments around the climate.
• Self-direct their own learning.

• Formative discussions in class ahead of the assignment
• Peer feedback in class ahead of the assignment
• In office hours (3 hours available per week)
• Written feedback will be provided within 15 working days of submission through Turnitin

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