Last modified: 01 Jul 2025 12:46
The causes of climate change cannot be reduced to carbon emissions alone. Rather, we must start examining climate change as a consequence of dominant and extractive social and political systems. The course examines how the environment has been historically conceptualised and materialised to further colonial aims, and ultimately how this has led to our rapidly climate changing planet.
| Study Type | Undergraduate | Level | 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Term | Second Term | Credit Points | 30 credits (15 ECTS credits) |
| Campus | Aberdeen | Sustained Study | No |
| Co-ordinators |
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One or more of these courses have a limited number of places. Priority access will be given to students for whom this course is compulsory. Please refer to the Frequently Asked Questions for more details on this process.
This course offers a critical perspective on our relationship with our planet. Through the lens of political ecology, we will examine how Western knowledge systems have resulted in a particular set of ecological relations and ethics and ultimately how these relations have produced the ongoing climate crisis. Relying on critical theory, the course will unpack how colonialism has historically relied on conceptualisations of the environment to displace peoples around the world, and how colonialism continues to manifest through neoliberal environmental governance, using words like ‘green’ and ‘sustainable’ to moralise a new era of colonial practice. We will also examine a wide variety of issues representing the nexus of climate, the environment, and colonialism, including: historical case studies of displacement and how it manifests; the connection between land dispossession and cultural violence; alternative ecologies and justice-based movements; environmental racism and the construction of wasteland geographies; as well as the extractivism and colonial practices of academia and how we can be more ‘sustainable’ scholars. The course will also centre on addressing practical ways forward and how we can begin envisioning a more just relationship with the world surrounding us.
Information on contact teaching time is available from the course guide.
| Assessment Type | Summative | Weighting | 50 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assessment Weeks | Feedback Weeks | |||
| Feedback |
This will be a weekly journal that students will need to submit by the end of the course; feedback will be given in written form. |
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| Knowledge Level | Thinking Skill | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Reflection | Analyse | To reflect on personal ecological understandings and relationships with the world and their political consequences. |
| Assessment Type | Summative | Weighting | 50 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assessment Weeks | Feedback Weeks | |||
| Feedback |
2,000-word essay that examines dominant and alternative ecological framings; feedback will be in a written form provided via TurnItIn. |
Word Count | 2000 | |
| Knowledge Level | Thinking Skill | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Conceptual | Evaluate | To critically examine dominant and alternative ecological frameworks and the futures that they offer for the planet. |
| Conceptual | Understand | To understand how framings of the environment and of climate crisis can contribute to everyday power hierarchies. |
| Assessment Type | Formative | Weighting | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assessment Weeks | Feedback Weeks | |||
| Feedback |
Students will produce a written creative work that communicates a key takeaway from the course that will be collected in the form of a course ‘zine’; the works will be submitted via MyAberdeen and will be given in a written form. |
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| Knowledge Level | Thinking Skill | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Conceptual | Evaluate | To critically examine dominant and alternative ecological frameworks and the futures that they offer for the planet. |
| Conceptual | Understand | To understand how framings of the environment and of climate crisis can contribute to everyday power hierarchies. |
| Reflection | Analyse | To reflect on personal ecological understandings and relationships with the world and their political consequences. |
| Assessment Type | Summative | Weighting | 50 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assessment Weeks | Feedback Weeks | |||
| Feedback |
3,000-word Essay (resit for Essay). The work will be submitted via MyAberdeen and will be given written feedback. |
Word Count | 3000 | |
| Knowledge Level | Thinking Skill | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
|
|
||
| Assessment Type | Summative | Weighting | 50 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assessment Weeks | Feedback Weeks | |||
| Feedback |
3,000-word essay (resit for Reflective Report). The work will be submitted via MyAberdeen and will be given written feedback. |
Word Count | 3000 | |
| Knowledge Level | Thinking Skill | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
|
|
||
| Knowledge Level | Thinking Skill | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Conceptual | Understand | To understand how framings of the environment and of climate crisis can contribute to everyday power hierarchies. |
| Reflection | Analyse | To reflect on personal ecological understandings and relationships with the world and their political consequences. |
| Conceptual | Evaluate | To critically examine dominant and alternative ecological frameworks and the futures that they offer for the planet. |
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