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Semester 1

Environmental Politics (PLIT10136)

Subject

Politics

College

CAHSS

Credits

20

Normal Year Taken

3

Delivery Session Year

2023/2024

Pre-requisites

Visiting students must have completed 4 Politics courses at grade B or above. We will only consider University/College level courses, and we cannot consider interdisciplinary courses or courses without sufficient Politics/Government/International Relations focus. **Please see Additional Restrictions below**

Course Summary

This course examines environmental politics from a comparative and international perspective. Following an introduction to the debates and concepts central to understanding environmental politics, the course explores the key actors and dynamics shaping environmental policy and politics within and across states. We'll pay particular attention to these actors: government institutions, parties, NGOs, business firms, experts and the media. Key dynamics studied will be: power, justice, mobilization, capitalism and collective action. The knowledge of national environmental politics will be the base from which to study the broader dynamics and challenges of regional and global environmental politics. Throughout our course we will focus on a range of environmental issues with particular emphasis on climate change, biodiversity and sustainable development.

Course Description

Beginning with an examination of green political thought, this course will provide a conceptually grounded, comparative analysis of contemporary environmental politics. An introduction to core debates and concepts will be followed by an analysis of key actors within and across states, including governments, business firms, NGOs and movements, media and experts. Our geographic focus will be wide ranging, covering politics at the local, state, regional and global level. Core substantive environmental issues we'll cover include climate change and biodiversity, and sustainable development. Some of the questions well address include: what makes environmental politics so contested? Who does and who should make environmental decisions? What makes international agreement on environmental issues more or less likely? Can capitalism be harnessed to address climate change?

Assessment Information

Written Exam 55%, Coursework 35%, Practical Exam 10%

Additional Restrictions

Unless you are nominated on a Politics exchange agreement, visiting students are only permitted to enrol in one Politics course each, per semester, before the start of the relevant semester’s welcome period – and spaces on each course are limited so cannot be guaranteed for any student. Enrolment in a second Politics course will depend on whether there are still spaces available in the September Welcome Period, and cannot be guaranteed. It is NOT appropriate for students to contact staff within this subject area to ask for an exception to be made; all enquiries to enrol in these courses must be made through the CAHSS Visiting Student Office. This is due to the limited number of spaces available in this very popular subject area.

view the timetable and further details for this course