GY474 Half Unit
Politics of Environment and Development
This information is for the 2025/26 session.
Course Convenor
Dr Kasia Paprocki
Availability
This course is compulsory on the MSc in Environmental Policy, Technology and Health (Environment and Development) (LSE and Peking University). This course is available on the MPhil/PhD in Environmental Policy and Development, MSc in Culture, Justice, and Environment, MSc in Development Management (Political Economy), MSc in Development Management (Political Economy) (LSE and Sciences Po), MSc in Environment and Development, MSc in Environmental Economics and Climate Change, MSc in Environmental Policy and Regulation, MSc in Environmental Policy, Technology and Health (Environmental Economics and Climate Change) (LSE and Peking University), MSc in Environmental Policy, Technology and Health (Environmental Policy and Regulation) (LSE and Peking University) and MSc in Urbanisation and Development. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit. This course uses controlled access as part of the course selection process.
How to apply: Priority: MSc Environment and Development, MSc Environmental Policy & Regulation, Geography & Environment, International Development, then other students. Priority is typically for students enrolled in Geography and Environment programmes, or joint degree programmes, however course specific availability is indicated via the 'Availability section' on the LSE course guide webpages. Guidance on how to apply to individual controlled access courses can also be found on LSE for You in the Graduate Course Selection system.
Please note: The number of students that can be accommodated is limited. If a course is over-subscribed, places will be allocated at the Department's discretion and a waiting list may be created. It is advised to have an alternative course in mind as a back-up in case you are unable to secure your first-choice course selection.
Deadline for application: Further guidance and information on course selection for Geography and Environment courses (GY4xx) will be available on the Geography and Environment Course Selection Moodle page which will go live from Monday 8 September and will be updated with course availability information daily throughout the course selection period. This page includes information on the timeline for course selection decisions in the Geography and Environment Department as well as the individual course application processes and requirements
A list of all taught master's courses in this Department are listed on LSE's course guide webpages.
For queries contact: geog.env@lse.ac.uk
The number of students that can be accommodated is limited. If the course is over-subscribed, places will be allocated at the Department’s discretion and a waiting list may be created. For further details, please contact your relevant Programme Coordinator.
Course content
This course explores key themes at the intersection of development and environmental politics. Specifically, the course is centred on the applications of political ecology, critical development studies, and materialist human geography to topics in environment and development. In exploring the complex relationships between historical dynamics of development, inequality, and the environment, it covers a range of important natural resource and environmental issues, such as climate change, conservation, waste, and decolonizing environmental governance.
Teaching
13.5 hours of seminars and 15 hours of lectures in the Autumn Term.
This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Autumn Term.
In the Department of Geography and Environment, teaching will be delivered through a combination of classes/seminars, pre-recorded lectures, live online lectures and other supplementary interactive live activities.
Formative assessment
Students will be expected to produce 1 project in the AT.
Indicative reading
- Li, T. M. (2007). The Will to Improve: Governmentality, Development, and the Practice of Politics. Durham: Duke University Press.
- West, P (2006) Conservation is Our Government Now: The Politics of Ecology in Papua New Guinea. Durham: Duke University Press.
- Curley, A (2021) "Resources is just another word for colonialism." In M. Himley, E. Havice, & G. Valdivia (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Critical Resource Geography (pp. 79-89). London: Routledge.
- Sealey-Huggins, L (2018) "'The Climate Crisis is a Racist Crisis': Structural Racism, Inequality and Climate Change." In A. Johnson, R. Joseph-Salisbury, & B. Kamunge (Eds.), The Fire Now: Anti-Racist Scholarship in Times of Explicit Racial Violence (pp. 99-113). London: Zed Books.
- Brockway, L. (1979). Science and Colonial Expansion: The Role of the British Royal Botanic Gardens. American Ethnologist, 6(3), 449-465.
- Collins, Y. A. (2019). Colonial residue: REDD+, territorialisation and the racialized subject in Guyana and Suriname. Geoforum, 106, 38-47.
- Kashwan, P., Duffy, R., Massé, F., Asiyanbi, A. P., & Marijnen, E. (2021). From Racialized Neocolonial Global Conservation to an Inclusive and Regenerative Conservation. Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development, 63(4), 4-19.
- Táíwò, O. m. O. (2022). Reconsidering Reparations. New York: Oxford University Press.
- Whyte, K. P. (2017). Indigenous Climate Change Studies: Indigenizing Futures, Decolonizing the Anthropocene. English Language Notes, 55(1-2), 153-162.
Assessment
Assessment Pathway 1
Essay (100%, 4000 words)
Assessment Pathway 2
Essay (100%, 6000 words)
Assessment Pathway - Essay (4000 words) to be taken by MSc Level Students
Assessment Pathway - Essay (6000 words) to be taken by PhD Level Students
Key facts
Department: Geography and Environment
Course Study Period: Autumn Term
Unit value: Half unit
FHEQ Level: Level 7
CEFR Level: Null
Total students 2024/25: 67
Average class size 2024/25: 34
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