Socio-Ecological Politics: Climate, Energy and Sustainability Transformations

Overview

‘Socio-Ecological Politics: Climate, Environment and Sustainability’ is an interdisciplinary, cross-Faculty AHSS module that introduces students to the critical study of society-environment relations and multi-level transformation. The ‘Triple Planetary Crisis’ of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution (United Nations, 2024) reveals the unsustainability of dominant political economy paths and prompts us to consider alternative ways of being, living, and interacting with each other and our natural world.



Making the Global-Local and demonstrating how ‘the personal is political’, the module comprises three distinct sections:
1. Section one introduces students to the module and establishes the context for a critical study of society, climate, environment and sustainability in the context of the Anthropocene;
2. Section two focuses on pressing political economy issues such as societal dependencies on fossil fuels, associated socio-ecological politics and conflicts; and
3. The third section concentrates on pathways to genuine sustainability, using complex systems thinking to examine phenomena like ‘Just Transitions’, ‘sustainable development’, and ‘post-growth economics’, and help integrate students’ appreciation of the contributions of diverse disciplines.



In doing so, this module introduces students to some of the most significant socio-ecological problems facing our world and offers alternative individual, collective and institutional pathways to a fairer, healthier and more sustainable future.

Learning Objectives

By the end of the module, students will be able to:

-Understand key concepts such as the ‘Anthropocene’/ the ‘Capitalocene’, socio-ecological politics, climate mitigation, adaptation and resilience, socio-technical transitions, just transition, environmental and climate justice, energy democracy;
-Articulate key socio-ecological issues such as enclosure of common natural resources, carbon lock-in, extractivism, sustainability policy formation;
-Analyse society-environment interactions in the context of unequal resource distribution and inequality in both a global and national context;
-Offer a cultural political economy analysis of anthropogenic climate change and just energy transitions;
-Critically evaluate the concept of sustainability/sustainable development;
-Confidently integrate a variety of disciplinary perspectives and bodies of knowledge within the arts, humanities and social sciences and between the latter and natural science and technological studies;  
-Formulate their own conceptualisation of desirable and realisable low and post-carbon energy futures;
-Utilise learning technologies to deepen their learning process.

Skills

Ability to work with other people;

Ability to work across and integrate different disciplinary perspectives on the same issue;

Managing & Prioritising Knowledge: identify relevant and subject-specific knowledge, sources and data; manage such information in an independent manner

Analytical Thinking: identify, understand, interpret and evaluate relevant subject-specific arguments made by others; construct independent arguments

Critical & Independent Thinking: ability to think critically and in creative and innovative ways and construct one’s own position in relation to existing and ongoing debates in the fields of study

Communication Skills: ability to communicate clearly with others, both orally and in writing  Teamwork: ability to work with others in a team, negotiate conflicts and recognize different ways of learning 

Diversity: ability to acknowledge and be sensitive to the range of cultural differences present in the learning environment 

Self-Reflexivity: ability to reflect on one’s own progress and identify and act upon own development needs with respect to life-long learning and career development

Time Management: ability to negotiate diverse and competing pressures; cope with stress; and achieve a work / life balance Technical and practical skills

Information Technology: demonstrate the knowledge and ability to use contemporary and relevant ICT Organizational skills

Efficient and effective work practice: demonstrate ability to work efficiently to deadlines 

Clear organisation of information: show efficiency in the organisation of large amounts of complex information and the ability to identify, describe and analyse the key features of the information

Organisation and communication: demonstrate ability to use evidence to develop logical and clear arguments; show aptitude for the effective use of information in a direct and appropriate way 

Enterprising thinking: Demonstrate ability to think and argue in novel and enterprising ways, to display originality.

Assessment