Prof Cheryl Schonhardt-Bailey

This course is available on the MSc in Political Science (Conflict Studies and Comparative Politics), MSc in Political Science (Political Behaviour), MSc in Political Science (Political Science and Political Economy), MSc in Public Policy and Administration and MSc in Regulation. 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. For information on controlled access courses, including eligibility, application processes, deadlines, and departmental contact details, please refer to the Controlled Access Courses webpage.

How to apply: to apply for a place on this course, please write a short statement of 200 words (max) outlining the specific reasons for applying and how the course will benefit your academic/career goals. Priority will be given to students on the programmes listed in the ‘availability’ section of the course guide. You should check that you meet any pre-requisites in the course guide before applying (where applicable). Places on capped courses cannot be guaranteed.  

Deadline for application: The deadline for applications is 12:00 noon on Friday 25 September 2026. You can expect to be informed of the outcome of your application by 12:00 noon on Monday 28 September 2026. Any places remaining after this date will be allocated based on priority and written statement - up until course selection closes.

For queries contact: gov.msc@lse.ac.uk.

This course seeks to analyse wilderness areas and rural public lands more broadly, from the perspective of the underlying political conflicts surrounding usage and access. Clearly land as a resource (national parks, wilderness areas, conservation areas, forests, wildlife refuges, recreation areas, areas of scientific interest, and so on) has always been a source of conflict, but recent trends in labour (WFH), lifestyle choices, and broader population growth, have heightened these conflicts. This course uses the unifying framework of the 3 I’s (interests, institutions and ideas) to explore lands in a variety of global settings. These may include the American West, the Scottish Highlands, Australia and the Arctic.

With respect to interests, it examines conflicts between and among property developers, mining industries, recreationists, homeowners, and other interested parties such as indigenous peoples.

The course also looks at the relevant institutional framework in each regional case, and how the governing institutions manage (or fail to manage) competing claims. 

The ideas component of the course explores cultural norms (e.g., rural/urban), values (traditional/modern), identity, and even psychological/emotive attachments to certain lands, to understand these more intangible sources of conflict.

15 hours of lectures and 15 hours of seminars in the Autumn Term.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Autumn Term.

Essay (1500 words).

Students are expected to produce an essay of 1,500 words in the AT.

• Nash, R. F. (1967, 2014). Wilderness and the American Mind, Fifth Edition. Yale University Press. 
• Justin Farrell, Billionaire Wilderness: The Ultra-Wealthy and the Remaking of the American West (Princeton University Press, 2021).
• Cary, E., & Wartmann, F. M. (2024). "Rewilding in the British policy landscape. A qualitative analysis of policy documents related to rewilding". Scottish Geographical Journal, 1–26.  
• Owen, J.R., Kemp, D., Lechner, A.M. et al. (2023). “Energy transition minerals and their intersection with land-connected peoples.” Nat Sustain 6, 203–211. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-022-00994-6.
• Ksenija Hanaček, et al, “On thin ice – The Arctic commodity extraction frontier and environmental conflicts,” Ecological Economics, Volume 191 (2022), 107247, 1-15. 
• Sowards, A. M. (2022). Making America’s Public Lands: The Contested History of Conservation on Federal Lands. Rowman and Littlefield.
• Robert MacFarlane, Is a River Alive? (W.W. Norton, 2025).

Exam (80%), duration: 120 Minutes in the January exam period.

Presentation (20%).

The presentation is an individual assessed presentation in the AT. Students will be provided information at the beginning of the course to guide them on what is expected in a presentation. Both content and delivery will be assessed.