DV513      Half Unit
Environmental Problems and Development Interventions

This information is for the 2020/21 session.

Teacher responsible

Prof Timothy Forsyth CON.8.05

Availability

This course is available on the MRes/PhD in International Development. This course is not available as an outside option.

Course content

This course is for students who wish to study social and political aspects of environmental change and its implications for international development. The aim is to summarise the key current debates about ‘environment and development’ from perspectives of social and political theory with special reference to institutional theory, livelihoods, and inclusive policy interventions.

The course is structured to analyse the challenges of making well-informed environmental interventions in the face of poverty and vulnerability, and then seeking practical solutions to these dilemmas. The course first considers the nature of environmental problems within a ‘development’ context, and what this means for environmental science and norms as applied in developing countries. Themes include assessing environmental science and expertise in concerning adaptation to population growth, resource scarcity, deforestation, desertification, vulnerability to ‘natural’ disasters, and risks associated with climate change, including questions of gender and environment. As the course progresses, it considers debates about policy interventions such as common property regime theory; theories of the state and environment (including resistance and social movements); community-based natural resource management and Sustainable Livelihoods; adaptation to climate change; forests; and urban environmental policy (these latter themes involve debates on multi-level, multi-actor governance involving the connections of local development and global climate change policy).

Teaching

15 hours of lectures and 15 hours of seminars in the MT.

There will be a reading week in Week 6

Formative coursework

Students will have the opportunity to produce 1 essay in MT

Indicative reading

A detailed  weekly reading list will be provided at the first course meeting. Students are not advised to buy a single textbook for this course but to read selectively and critically from various sources. The following books might be useful introductions:

  • Adams, W.M. 2019. Green Development: environment and sustainability in a developing world. 4th edition. London: Routledge.
  • Forsyth, T. 2003. Critical Political Ecology: the politics of environmental science, London, Routledge
  • Jones, S. and Carswell, G. 2004. The Earthscan reader in environment, development and rural livelihoods. London; Sterling, VA : Earthscan.
  • Kohler, P. (2019) Science Advice and Global Environmental Governance: Expert Institutions and the Implementation of International Environmental Treaties, London and New York: Anthem Press.
  • Neumann, R. 2005. Making Political Ecology, London: Hodder Arnold.
  • Nightingale, A. (ed) 2019. Environment and Sustainability in a Globalizing World, London: Routledge.
  • Ostrom, E., Stern P.C., Diet, T., Dulsak, N. and Stonich, S. (eds.) 2002 The Drama of the Commons: Understanding Common Pool Resource Management. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.
  • L Schipper and I Burton (eds) (2008) The Earthscan Reader on Adaptation to Climate Change, London: Earthscan.

Assessment

Essay (100%, 5000 words) in the LT.

Important information in response to COVID-19

Please note that during 2020/21 academic year some variation to teaching and learning activities may be required to respond to changes in public health advice and/or to account for the situation of students in attendance on campus and those studying online during the early part of the academic year. For assessment, this may involve changes to mode of delivery and/or the format or weighting of assessments. Changes will only be made if required and students will be notified about any changes to teaching or assessment plans at the earliest opportunity.

Key facts

Department: International Development

Total students 2019/20: Unavailable

Average class size 2019/20: Unavailable

Value: Half Unit

Guidelines for interpreting course guide information

Personal development skills

  • Self-management
  • Problem solving
  • Communication
  • Specialist skills