Last modified: 20 Jun 2025 15:13
This interdisciplinary course combines the focuses of political science and anthropology as it relates to policymaking on climate change. Relying on expertise from both subject areas, the course examines international and national climate policies and brings forth case studies of how climate change is experienced at the community-level. Through this approach, the course will highlight current priorities, gaps, as well as successes, and failures, of climate policies worldwide.
| Study Type | Postgraduate | Level | 5 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Term | First Term | Credit Points | 30 credits (15 ECTS credits) |
| Campus | Aberdeen | Sustained Study | No |
| Co-ordinators |
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As climate change continues to affect every aspect of our social and environmental systems, the policies being developed to mitigate and respond to it can often exclude people and communities who are most at risk. The course will provide an overview of various international climate policies, the roles of key actors, and emerging issues facing the international policymaking community. This course will also bring forth experiences of people and communities impacted by climate change to highlight urgent as well as long-term needs, while also examining where, why, and how national and international climate policies succeed and fail in meeting them. Throughout the course, lecturers from the Politics and International Relations and Anthropology departments will demonstrate the need for climate justice to be integrated in how actors in the international system respond to real challenges on the ground. The course will help prepare students to work in public or private environmental, energy, or climate sectors or in further research.
Information on contact teaching time is available from the course guide.
| Assessment Type | Summative | Weighting | 20 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assessment Weeks | 13 | Feedback Weeks | 16 | |
| Feedback |
1,000-word Policy Brief. Students will receive feedback three weeks after submission via TurnItIn. |
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| Knowledge Level | Thinking Skill | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Conceptual | Analyse | Analyse why and how climate policies can differ from lived experiences and needs of frontline communities. |
| Factual | Understand | Identify key international policies, actors, and events critical in mitigating or exacerbating climate change. |
| Procedural | Apply | Draw on academic literature to produce documentation that could be applied and understood beyond academia e.g. by practitioners and policy makers. |
| Procedural | Create | Create original work related to climate change themes and work out how to research and use case studies to understand the relationship between climate policies and realities on the ground. |
| Assessment Type | Summative | Weighting | 40 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assessment Weeks | 19 | Feedback Weeks | 23 | |
| Feedback |
2,500-word individual project. Students will receive feedback three weeks after submission via TurnItIn. |
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| Knowledge Level | Thinking Skill | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Conceptual | Analyse | Analyse why and how climate policies can differ from lived experiences and needs of frontline communities. |
| Factual | Understand | Identify key international policies, actors, and events critical in mitigating or exacerbating climate change. |
| Procedural | Apply | Draw on academic literature to produce documentation that could be applied and understood beyond academia e.g. by practitioners and policy makers. |
| Procedural | Create | Create original work related to climate change themes and work out how to research and use case studies to understand the relationship between climate policies and realities on the ground. |
| Assessment Type | Summative | Weighting | 40 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assessment Weeks | 16 | Feedback Weeks | 19 | |
| Feedback |
2,500-word Essay. Students will receive feedback three weeks after submission via TurnItIn. |
Word Count | 2500 | |
| Knowledge Level | Thinking Skill | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Conceptual | Analyse | Analyse why and how climate policies can differ from lived experiences and needs of frontline communities. |
| Factual | Understand | Identify key international policies, actors, and events critical in mitigating or exacerbating climate change. |
| Procedural | Create | Create original work related to climate change themes and work out how to research and use case studies to understand the relationship between climate policies and realities on the ground. |
There are no assessments for this course.
| Assessment Type | Summative | Weighting | 100 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assessment Weeks | Feedback Weeks | |||
| Feedback | ||||
| Knowledge Level | Thinking Skill | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
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| Knowledge Level | Thinking Skill | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Factual | Understand | Identify key international policies, actors, and events critical in mitigating or exacerbating climate change. |
| Conceptual | Analyse | Analyse why and how climate policies can differ from lived experiences and needs of frontline communities. |
| Procedural | Create | Create original work related to climate change themes and work out how to research and use case studies to understand the relationship between climate policies and realities on the ground. |
| Procedural | Apply | Draw on academic literature to produce documentation that could be applied and understood beyond academia e.g. by practitioners and policy makers. |
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