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EV5516: SOCIETY AND ENVIRONMENT (2017-2018)

Last modified: 27 Feb 2018 18:30


Course Overview

You will be trained in broad environmental thinking required to understand the complex nature of contemporary environmental problems. The course aim is to work towards a sufficiently deep understanding of society's relationship with the environment to appraise and start to address so-called wicked problems.

The course follows a textbook to allow immersion in the author's ways of thinking. Key aspects of human-environment relationships will be developed through lectures and subsequent discussion. Also, you will engage in the co-production of knowledge by preparing and presenting worked out case studies themselves as starting point for debate on focal 'objects of concern'.

Course Details

Study Type Postgraduate Level 5
Session Second Sub Session Credit Points 15 credits (7.5 ECTS credits)
Campus Old Aberdeen Sustained Study No
Co-ordinators
  • Dr Astley Hastings

Qualification Prerequisites

None.

What courses & programmes must have been taken before this course?

  • Any Postgraduate Programme (Studied)

What other courses must be taken with this course?

None.

What courses cannot be taken with this course?

None.

Are there a limited number of places available?

No

Course Description

In this course students develop an understanding of the diverse and complex relationships Western societies hold with their environment. The first three weeks of teaching concerns unfolding topics succinctly covered by the textbook Environment and Society (Robbins, Hintz and Moore, second edition 2014), thereby furthering their understanding and critical thinking around the key 'political ecology' dimension Population and Scarcity, Markets and Commodities, Institutions, Environmental Ethics, Risks and Hazards, Political Economy and Social Construction of Nature. During the last two weeks of teaching concerns lectures created and presented by students themselves on chosen 'Objects of Concern'. Nine of those are covered by the textbook so that all students will be able to familiarise themselves with each of them, and those students that selected a Concern working this up to provide the deeper and richer levels of understanding and generating debate around those.


Contact Teaching Time

Information on contact teaching time is available from the course guide.

Teaching Breakdown

More Information about Week Numbers


Details, including assessments, may be subject to change until 31 August 2023 for 1st half-session courses and 22 December 2023 for 2nd half-session courses.

Summative Assessments

Discussion essays (70%); presentation (30%).

Resit: similar to 1st attempt, with an opportunity to resubmit any failed elements of the continuous assessment.

Formative Assessment

There are no assessments for this course.

Feedback

Students will receive individual feedback on each assessment through MyAberdeen.

Course Learning Outcomes

None.

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