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SP50333: [The politics and practice of] sustainability and wellbeing

Follow this link for further information on academic years Academic Year: 2018/9
Further information on owning departmentsOwning Department/School: Department of Social & Policy Sciences
Further information on credits Credits: 12      [equivalent to 24 CATS credits]
Further information on notional study hours Notional Study Hours: 240
Further information on unit levels Level: Masters UG & PG (FHEQ level 7)
Further information on teaching periods Period:
Semester 2
Further information on unit assessment Assessment Summary: CW 100%
Further information on unit assessment Assessment Detail:
  • Team Project (CW 65%)
  • Individual Project Diary (CW 35%)
Further information on supplementary assessment Supplementary Assessment:
Like-for-like reassessment (where allowed by programme regulations)
Further information on requisites Requisites:
Further information on descriptions Description: Aims:

* To generate critical awareness of the ideological and practical politics of sustainability and wellbeing
* To equip students to undertake critical enquiry in the political economy and social analysis of sustainability and wellbeing
* To enable students to interrogate effectively evidence claims regarding the achievement of sustainability and wellbeing
* To enable students to operate in a cross-disciplinary context, to understand interconnections between human and environmental issues at a range of scales and to be able to communicate these effectively

Learning Outcomes:
By the end of the unit students will:
* Demonstrate critical understanding of the politics of different framings of wellbeing and sustainability at global to local levels;
* Be able to discuss critically key conceptual approaches, analytical debates, and methodological issues concerning the politics and practice of wellbeing and sustainability;
* Be able to interrogate effectively different forms of evidence claims
* Be able to apply this knowledge to the empirical analysis of specific contexts and issues
* Be able to work effectively in a team and present research in a visual form.

Skills:

* Ability to read and discuss critically key texts (Taught/Facilitated)
* Ability to integrate theory and apply this in discussion of practical cases (T/F/A)
* Ability to manage one's own and others' work effectively as part of a team (T/F)
* Ability to reflect critically on one's own experience and learning (T/F)
* Effective oral and visual communication (poster presentations) (T/F/A)
* Ability to select, summarise & synthesise information across different disciplines(T/F/A)

Content:
This unit critically explores the ideological and practical politics of sustainability and wellbeing. We will interrogate their relations to each other - at times complementary, at other times in tension or contradictory. We will explore the range of methods used to advance evidence about wellbeing and sustainability. We will probe issues related to the political economy of production and consumption, and the power and the politics of evidence.
Indicative content:
* Complementarities and tensions between sustainability and wellbeing
* Varieties of wellbeing
* Responsibility for wellbeing
* Measuring wellbeing
* Wellbeing, identity and culture
* Sustainability and wellbeing as national political project
* Varieties of environmentalism
* States and international organisations
* NGOs and transnational environmental activism
* Business power and sustainability governance

Assessment - Class presentation of team project plans; Class presentation of team project posters (two weeks)

Issues covered may include: roads and infrastructure, energy, GMOs, climate change, mining and extractive industries, forest rights, green transitions, conservation and development, community based resource management, ethical consumption, and corporate social responsibility.

Learning approach
The unit will take an active learning approach, involving work in pairs and small groups, participatory activities and a team project. Team work will be supported by team-based tutorials with course convenors.
Further information on programme availabilityProgramme availability:

SP50333 is a Designated Essential Unit on the following programmes:

Department of Social & Policy Sciences
  • THSP-AFM22 : MSc International Development, Social Justice and Sustainability
  • THSP-AWM22 : MSc International Development, Social Justice and Sustainability
  • THSP-APM22 : MSc International Development, Social Justice and Sustainability

SP50333 is Optional on the following programmes:

Department of Social & Policy Sciences

Notes: