DV413 Half Unit
Environmental Problems and Development Interventions
This information is for the 2025/26 session.
Course Convenor
Prof Timothy Forsyth
Availability
This course is available on the MSc in Accounting, Organisations and Institutions, MSc in Anthropology and Development, MSc in China in Comparative Perspective, MSc in Development Management (Political Economy), MSc in Development Management (Political Economy) (LSE and Sciences Po), MSc in Development Studies, MSc in Economic Policy for International Development, MSc in Health and International Development, MSc in International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies, MSc in Political Economy of Late Development, MSc in Political Science (Global Politics), MSc in Public Policy and Administration, MSc in Regulation and MSc in Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship. This course is freely available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit. It does not require permission. This course uses controlled access as part of the course selection process.
How to apply: Places will be allocated with priority to ID and joint-degree students. If there are more ID and joint-degree students than can be accommodated, these places will be allocated randomly. Non-ID/Joint Degree students will be allocated to spare places by random selection with the preference given first to those degrees where the regulations permit this option.
Deadline for application: You should make your request to take ID courses by 12 noon Friday 26 September 2025.
You will be informed of the outcome by 12 noon Monday 29 September 2025.
Students do not need to write a statement to apply for this course.
Also available to students taking MSc International Relations or MSc International Political Economy as part of the LSE-Sciences Po Double Degree in Affairés Internationales programme.
Course content
This course is for MSc 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; community-based natural resource management and Sustainable Livelihoods; adaptation to climate change; governing forests; and forms of multi-level, multi-actor governance connecting local development with global climate change and biodiversity policy. While many parts of the course can be used in urban contexts, the main focus of the course will be rural environmental problems.
Teaching
10 hours of seminars and 15 hours of lectures in the Autumn Term.
This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Autumn Term.
Formative assessment
Essay
Students will have the opportunity to produce 1 essay in AT.
Indicative reading
A detailed weekly reading list will be provided via Moodle. 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 offer 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
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%)
Type of assessment: essay (take-home) (100%) in January.
(2 questions from a choice of 7, essays should be up to 2,000 words each).
Key facts
Department: International Development
Course Study Period: Autumn Term
Unit value: Half unit
FHEQ Level: Level 7
CEFR Level: Null
Total students 2024/25: 71
Average class size 2024/25: 14
Controlled access 2024/25: YesCourse selection videos
Some departments have produced short videos to introduce their courses. Please refer to the course selection videos index page for further information.
Personal development skills
- Self-management
- Problem solving
- Communication
- Specialist skills