Module Identifier |
GG27910 |
Module Title |
GEOGRAPHICAL PERSPECTIVES ON THE SUSTAINABLE SOCIETY |
Academic Year |
2007/2008 |
Co-ordinator |
Carol A Richards |
Semester |
Semester 2 |
Other staff |
Mr Kelvin John Mason |
Pre-Requisite |
GG10210, DA10210, GG10310, GG10110 and DA10110 |
Course delivery |
Lecture | 20 Hours. 10 x 2 hr lecture |
Assessment |
Assessment Type | Assessment Length/Details | Proportion |
Semester Exam | 2 Hours Unseen examination - Answer 2 questions | 100% |
Supplementary Exam | 2 Hours | 100% |
|
Learning outcomes
This module allows students to acquire a critical understanding of the social, economic and environmental processes, which have given rise to the discourses and practices associated with sustainable development. Students will be able to specify clearly the goals and policy aims of sustainable development and exhibit an awareness of the limitations of sustainability as a societal model. In addition students will gain an awareness of the geographical factors which influence the emergence of different sustainable development strategies within different national contexts. On completion of the module, students should be able to:
a) Describe and evaluate the principles of sustainable development.
b) Specify clearly the kinds of national and international factors which have given rise to the emergence of sustainable development as a political objective.
c) Exemplify the different forms of sustainable society, which have emerged within the developed, developing and post-socialist worlds.
d) Discuss and evaluate using specific examples, the limitations of sustainability as both an international policy discourse and a set of social and economic practices.
e) Show in their written examination evidence of the development of transferable skills through the depth of their reading and use of other sources, their interpretation, evaluation and critical synthesis of a range of material and the marshalling of an argument in written form.
Aims
This module considers the ways in which the discourses and practices associated with sustainable development are emerging as key political considerations at a national and international level. Of particular concern within this module are the geographical contexts and scales at which sustainable development is being implemented and contested. Ultimately the module seeks to introduce students to the main social, economic and environmental concepts associated with sustainability and to enable students to question and critically analyze the assumptions upon which it is based.
Content
This module explores the emergence of sustainable development as a national and international policy goal, analyses the different ways in which sustainability has been implemented and contested within different geographical contexts and at different geographical scales, and develops a critical perspective on many of the social, economic and environmental assumptions upon which notions of sustainable development are based:
PART 1 - SPACES OF SUSTAINABILITY
1. The geographies of the sustainable society
2. Ecological modernisation in the West: making business sense out of sustainability
3. Sustainable development in the post-socialist world
4. The pollution of poverty : sustainability in the developing world
PART 2 - SCALES OF SUSTAINABILITY
5. Sustainability in a global era
6. The sustainable region
7. Sustainable cities
8. Localising the sustainable society: between citizenship & community
9. Reflections on actually existing sustainabilities
10. Course review
Reading Lists
Books
** Recommended Text
Whitehead, M. (2007) Spaces of Sustainability: Geographical Perspectives on the Sustainable Society
London, Routledge
** Consult For Futher Information
Adams, W (1992) Green Development: Environment and Sustainability in the Third World
London: Routledge 0415080509
Beck, U (1992) The Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity
London: Sage 0803983468
Dobson, A (1990) Green Political Thought
London: Routledge 0044452454
Dresner, S. The Principles of Sustainability
Earthscan 0185383411
Hajer, M (1997) The Politics of Environmental Discourse
Oxford: Clarendon Press 0198279698
International Commission on International Development Issues (1981) North-South: A programme for survival
Pan Books 0330261401
Johnson, P (1992) The Earth Summit: the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development
(UNCED) London: Graham & Trotman 1853337846
Pepper, D (1984) The Roots of Contemporary Environmentalism
London: Croom Helm 0414057442
World Commission on Environment and Development (1989) Our Common Future
Oxford: Oxford University Press 019282080X
Notes
This module is at CQFW Level 5