GEOG2142 Environment, Economy and Culture

Environmental problems are ever-present as news stories, on government policy agendas, and at the forefront of activist campaigns. Climate change and the accumulation of waste on land and in seas and oceans are two prime examples. This topic encourages you to think about connections between humans and contemporary environmental problems at a range of scales (from local to global) and levels of responsibility (from individual/household to government). It explores environmental challenges from different social, cultural, political, and economic perspectives to help understand why and how interactions between people and the environment shape individual and collective decisions affecting the use of natural resources. Finding solutions to environmental problems is a key theme. Students are invited to explore spaces where change is happening at different scales and in different places.

This topic aims to provide students with:

• The background necesary to understand the inter-connected and complex relationships between the environment, the economy, and society
• A theoretical grounding for various ‘ways of knowing’ that shape cultural perspectives of human and non-human worlds
• Opportunities to: debate contemporary approaches to environmental management, and propose solutions to contemporary human-environment challenges
• Activities and resources to practice a range of transferrable skills including data analysis, oral presentation, and critical reading

1. Integrate knowledge to explain the complexity of environmental decision-making and contemporary debates about human use of natural resources
2. Investigate environmental decision-making at a range of different scales and from various perspectives
3. Analyse relevant data to explain human-environment interactions
4. Effectively communicate in accordance with good scholarly practice using oral, written, and graphical formats