POL3013 Sustainability and Politics

Other requisites

Students are required to have access to a personal computer, e-mail capabilities and Internet access to UConnect. Current details of computer requirements can be found at http://www.usq.edu.au/ict/students/standards/default.htm.

Synopsis

Achieving sustainability requires the understanding and management of both physical problems and policy debates. This course provides students with the means to understand the origin of conflicts over contemporary environmental issues and some of the key aspects of current debates about environmental problems. In the first part of this course, students will learn about the development of modern 'environmentalism' and in the second, how environmentalism as a set of ideas is expressed in mainstream politics. This is followed by a discussion of some of the major sectoral and discursive responses to dealing with environmental problems. In particular, students will consider the divergent arguments about the type and degree of policy and systemic change that is necessary to achieve an improvement in environmental outcomes. This course will provide students with a broad understanding of the history and politics of contemporary environmentalism and current directions in environmental policy, so they have the capacity to be informed participants in debates and decision-making that relate to the environment.

Course offers