Environment and Social Change

Core Modules

Year 1

• Contested Politics of Climate Change

  The aim of this module is to provide a broad overview of the debates, contestations and negotiations surrounding climate change, divided into three sections: 1) Political Economy of Climate Change -  introducing the vast changes that have occurred in the global environment in the last 200 years, outlining statistics on the Great Acceleration of human and environmental indicators and the wider history of human development. 2) Cultural Politics of Climate Change - departing from an orthodox political economy perspective, students will consider how climate change is experienced and governed at the micro-scale, examine community-scale environmental cultures, resistance and struggles, as well as the urban dimensions of climate change. 3) Critical Politics of Climate Change - introduces critical thinking about climate politics and how to interrogate and critically analyse information and policy about climate change, locating interests and examining intersections with wider political trends. 

• Physical Geography I: Atmosphere, Oceans and the Geosphere

  In this module you will develop and understanding of the factors that control the physical, biological and chemical forces which shape the Earth’s surface. You will look at oceanic and atmospheric processes, plate tectonics, hydrology and coastal processes, glaciation, and arid environments.

• Physical Geography 2: Biogeography, Ecology and Scales of Change

  In this module you will develop an understanding the complexity of the relationship between people and environment. You will examine how and why ecosystems vary spatially and the impact of human activity, such as deforestation and agriculture, on the physical environment. You will also consider the nature of environmental change, including climatology.

• Human Geography 1: Cultures, Economies, Histories

  In this module you will engage with key issues in human geography. You will consider human geography as a distinctive way to approach the world, examining key questions about globalisation, inequality, identity and the nature of place. You will look at approaches to economic, cultural and historical geography, and the development of the discipline, celebrating geographers’ active involvement in the challenges facing humanity.

• Human Geography 2: Politics, Society, Development and Environment

  This module will introduce you to human geographical perspectives on political processes, societies, development and the environment. You will develop an appreciation of the importance of scale, networks and spatial patterns, and how geographers have approached the challenges of inequality at local, national and global scales.

• Introduction to Environmental and Climate Change

  This module will introduce you to the concept of Earth System interactions, as a framework for understanding the causes and consequences of environmental and climate change. The module will cover the physical and chemical features of the Lithosphere, Atmosphere, Hydrosphere and Biosphere; the processes that link these parts of the Earth System together; and the consequences of disturbing these interlinked systems. Term 2 will introduce you to the mechanisms that drive climate change, and the tools that scientists have at their disposal to quantify past climate change.

• Understanding Individuals and Groups

  This course aims to introduce students to the basics of personality and social psychology. The course will start with an introduction to key dynamic personality theories of Freud, followed by Jung. Students will then learn about theories and research on agreession, pro-social behaviour and conformity. In addition, key fundamental topics in social psychology, attitudes and values, will be introduced, as well as cross-cultural psychology and leadership.

• Communicating for Social Change

  This module aims to explore the concepts of persuasion and public opinion on three levels: micro (psychological), mezzo (Public Relations) and macro (sociological). It will introduce students to basic concepts explaining attitude formation and change, judgment and decision making, as well as public opinion and various influences it undergoes. Communication, language and social change campaign tools will be discussed within an applied context of public communication planning.

Year 2

• Social Change Toolkit

  This module aims to equip students with the skills to communicate about climate and environmental change to a diverse range of audiences, some of which may be less open to persuasion than others. It builds on the Year 1 modules GG1040 Contested Politics of Climate Change and PS1222 which provide students with an understanding of cultural, political, organisational and social context that influences responses to environmental crises and the psychology of group behaviour and change. GG2080 Social Change Toolkit provides students with training in key methods to engage with different stakeholders to facilitate effective social change. Diverse communication methods will be introduced such as social media campaigns, policy briefings, TED-talk style presentations, news articles, and exhibitions. Visiting speakers, drawing particularly on alumni, honorary research associates and members of the School advisory board will be important contributors to this module to provide students with exposure to how communication methods are used in real-world situations. The module also includes training in developing impact plans to communicate research findings, which will feed into the final year Independent Project (GG3008).

• Applied Methodologies

  The aim of this module is to equip students with a grounding in a broad range of methodologies necessary to understand climate, environmental and societal change. Methods covered will include approaches such as qualitative, observational, experimental and correlational designs. The teaching will focus on giving students an awareness of the practicalities of developing research studies and an introduction to the analytical techniques (qualitative and statistical) used. A strong emphasis on thinking critically about research design and approaches to handling data will also be used throughout the module. Research ethics and risk assessment will also be included in the module.

• Social Psychology

  In this module, you will develop an understanding of the key topics in social psychology, with a particular focus on topics that highlight over-arching debates within this area of study. You will look at how social psychology can be applied to real-world issues, examining the social psychology of relationships, the self-concept, prejudice and group conflict, attribution theory, group decision-making, situational perspectives on evil, and non-verbal behaviour and social cognition.

Year 3

• Independent Project in Environment and Social Change

  This module provides a chance to explore, in-depth and with considerable autonomy, an aspect of the course that most interests students whilst working alongside an appropriate supervisor. The module places a heavy weighting on effective communication and research impact, following the degree course’s overall aim of training students who can engage with the public and enact social change. It has an unconventional 50% weighting for the traditional research write-up, which is itself limited to a 5000-word journal article. The remaining 50% comes from three diverse assessments designed to encourage students’ to be influential, conscientious and impactful researchers. This will build on skills developed in the Year 2 GG2080 Social Change Toolkit.

Optional Modules

There are a number of optional course modules available during your degree studies. The following is a selection of optional course modules that are likely to be available. Please note that although the College will keep changes to a minimum, new modules may be offered or existing modules may be withdrawn, for example, in response to a change in staff. Applicants will be informed if any significant changes need to be made.

Year 1

• All modules are core

Year 2

• Biology in a Changing World

  In this module you will develop an understanding of how biological and ecological principles can help develop sustainable solutions to the problems encountered in the 21st Century. You will look at how ecological principles can be used to tackle conservation challenges and consider the importance of ongoing management of ecosystems which have been altered by humans. You will gain practical experience in using ecological sampling techniques and learn how to apply and interpret elementary statistical tests.

• Green Planet: Plants and Our Future

  This module will describe how plants have shaped our planet over evolutionary time, have been our helpers or targets in our own shaping of Earth, and are humanity’s best partners to allow our long term future on it possible. For this, the module will explain key aspects of plant evolution, diversity, development, function and interaction with the environment and with other organisms, including us. The module particularly aims at illustrating key concepts in relevant laboratories.

• Ecology and Conservation

  In this module you will develop an understanding of the key concepts of ecology and conservation, working up from organisms to populations and their interactions, through to communities and ecosystems. You will look at ecological patterns and processes and consider the fundamental interactions between species and their abiotic environment. You will also gain practical experience in using ecological sampling techniques, carrying out biostatistical analyses and experimental design.

• Food Security, Sustainability and Green Biotechnology

  The module emphasises the relevance of plants for the global challenge of a sustainable planet while securing food access to humanity.

  Following a general introduction on how plants can positively impact the climate and global health, the module will describe food systems, with an emphasis on food security and sustainable agricultural systems for food production in different parts of the globe. Examples of the main threats to food security, such as abiotic stresses (for instance, drought) or biotic factors (pests and pathogens) and how plants cope, will be described. Different current and future agricultural strategies, ranging from the green revolution to genome-edited plants, will be described as methods that have or will allow for plant improvement and resilience to biotic and abiotic stresses. Furthermore, this module will also describe and illustrate the importance of plants in providing solutions for biopharming, medical or biotechnology applications

• Plant Biotic Interactions and Ecological Networks

  In this module you will develop an understanding of the effects of herbivorous insects on plants and the ways in which plants defend themselves against attack. You will consider how insects can be beneficial to plants, examining their role in pollination, and how fungi mediate interactions between insects and their hosts, including pathogens, endophytes and mycorrhizas.

• Environmental Systems: Processes and Sustainability

  This module focuses on the use and management of resources, in the context of inputs and outputs to environmental systems, with an emphasis on processes and the impacts of human activities. Throughout the course, students gain hands-on experience through practical work relating to the processes, functioning and management of environmental systems in the context of sustainability. These practical elements form the basis of the formal assessment. Students develop an understanding of resource use and waste impacts at a range of levels, particularly global, regional and local, and over a range of time scales, investigating ideas of direct impact and environmental storage of materials. This material will be taught with links to physical processes, but will inevitably include links between human exploitation of environments and environmental impacts.

• Earth Surface Processes and Hazards

  This module focuses on two overall themes: 1) the earth surface processes responsible for shaping the physical landscape and 2) natural hazards, where extreme earth surface process events pose a societal risk. The course is centred on the following key geomorphological systems: slopes, rivers, glaciers and dunes. Key hazards covered relating to these systems include landslides, floods, glacier lake outburst floods and dust storms. The module concludes with consideration of how plate tectonics and earth surface processes operating over millions of years shape landscape evolution.

• Biogeography

  This module will provide a sound theoretical and historical background to biogeographical research and the basis of biodiversity. The main themes to be explored are: dispersal strategies of organisms; the principal factors limiting species distribution at the present day (climate drivers, vegetation, physical barriers, competition and niche-specialisation, predation and parasitism); geographical centres for origination and dispersal, including coverage of plate tectonics and land bridges; natural selection and evolution; the role of past and present ecosystems; island biogeography; the Quaternary histories of different groups of flora and vertebrate and invertebrate fauna; natural and anthropogenic threats to ecosystems; extinction and the effects of disease.

• Political Geography

  This module introduces key concepts and ideas in political geography and geopolitics promoting an appreciation of the relationship between politics and geography through a range of different theoretical lenses, a series of diverse contexts, and at a variety of scales. Each term, the lectures will be broken down into several key components beginning with an introductory lecture, tracing the emergence of political geography. Both terms 1 and 2 will then proceed with a series of ‘lens’ lectures, introducing students to a range of theoretical lenses and analytical frameworks through which to engage and analyse contemporary and historic geopolitical issues. These lenses include: objects, feminist geopolitics, popular geopolitics (taking place through an interactive workshop), infrastructures, mobilities, and technologies. The course then moves on to a series of ‘context and theme’ lectures, which will provide students with an opportunity to apply the lenses to key thematic areas and contexts within contemporary political geography. 

• Cultural Geographies of the Modern World

  This module is concerned with the character of place and culture in the modern world. It explores both the material cultural transformations wrought by processes of modernisation and how people understand and imagine the places, spaces, times and environments they inhabit. More specifically, the module addresses issues of global geographies of cultural change, especially the relationship between the local and the global; questions of place, identity and landscape, especially at the local scale; the significance of place and space in the invention of modern traditions, including places of memory (memorials, museums), symbolic national landscapes, and post-modern urban design; and nature-society relations. The module addresses ways of representing and interpreting the world; spatial relations and systems linking spaces at a variety of scales; patterns of change in the development of the modern world; the production of differences in society and place; the changing place of cultural geography within the discipline as a whole.

• Perspectives on Development

  This module develops within students concern, critical awareness and informed concern for ‘distant strangers’ and other cultures, linked to the notion of responsibility in an unequal and interconnected world. The course addresses theories, paradigms and critiques of development; the environment-development interface and sustainability, the changing international economic and political order; the roles of state and non-state actors such as NGOs and; trade and aid policies. Processes, causes and consequences are explored with reference to spatial variations, differences and inequalities, and their implications for different places and at different geographical scales, highlighting the complex nature of interdependences. Explicit attention is devoted to the historicity and contextuality of changing perspectives on development as process and problematique. This in turn provides insights into the nature and philosophies of the disciplines of geography and development studies.

• Geohazards

  In this module you will develop an understanding of the hazards associated with geological activity, their causes, and approaches to risk management. You will look at volcanoes, earthquakes, and radon, and the hazards associated with the exploitation of geological resources and associated anthropogenic activity, including asbestos, the mining industry, and contaminated land. You will examine a variety of geological and geochemical data, and learn to interpret and analyse these in order to make scientifically justified decisions as to the level of risk.

• Advanced Practical Meteorology

  This module will provide you with a working knowledge of basic meteorology. The module will begin with atmospheric basics and terminology including didactic sessions and workshops/practicals on solar radiation, thermodynamics, water vapour, stability, clouds and precipitation. It will progress into skill sessions (lectures and practicals) on radar, interpreting satellite maps and weather reports and finish with sessions (lectures and practicals) putting it all together (review and consolidation) for understanding of winds, fronts, air masses and thunderstorms. The module will finish up with lectures and practicals demonstrating how basic meteorological understanding can be applied for career useful consideration of meteorological hazards: tropical and extra tropical cyclones, regional winds boundary layers and pollutant dispersal, numerical weather prediction and atmospheric optics.

• Business and the Natural Environment

  In this module you will develop an understanding of environmental sustainability in relation to business and management. You will look at local, regional, national and global issues for various aspects of the natural environment that business activities may have an impact on, including climate change, soil, air, and water pollution. You will consider the implications of these environmental issues on business functions, such as strategy, logistics, production, and marketing, and the legal frameworks surrounding them. You will also examine sustainable management practices and the role of environmental regulations.

• Business, Politics and Corporate Governance

  In this module you will develop an understanding of the role of business within a moral and social context. You will look at corporate social responsibility and business ethics within key functional areas such as marketing, human resource management, and accounting, and how these relate to sustainability. You will consider the key theoretical and practical perspectives surrounding the complexities of business in society, and compare and contrast different approaches taken to ethical issues. You will also examine environmental issues and how they affect business, including regulations and emissions tariffs.

• Personality and Individual Differences

  In this module you will examine theory and research in key areas of personality and individual differences. You will explore the difference between these two areas of study, and become equipped with methods of evaluating theories of personality. You will review key topics in personality and individual differences, with consideration for the relations between them in order to develop your integrative understanding of personality.

Year 3

• Conservation Science

  This module covers the biological basis of the great threats to biodiversity – habitat loss and fragmentation, intensive agriculture, natural resource exploitation, disease and global climate change – and the approaches developed by conservation scientists to overcome these threats at local and global scales. The potential for subjectivity in conservation decision-making and the crucial importance of science-based conservation is stressed. Practical work is part of the assessment and involves writing a management plan for a critically endangered species.

• Population and Community Ecology

  In this module you will develop an understanding of the principles of population and community ecology, focussing on the forces which structure communities of animals and plants. You will look at population growth, inter- and intra-specific competition, trophic relations and the factors which regulate populations, and will examine the ecological processes that contribute to community organisation, such as food web structure, body size, succession and natural disturbances. You will also consider the role of population and community ecology in the maintenance of biodiversity.

• Climate Change - Plants and the Environment

  In this module you will develop an understanding of the effects of climate change on the interaction between plants and the environment. You will critically evaluate the application of novel technologies to crop improvement and assess the relationship between growth and responses to the environment. You will also consider issues surrounding human uses of plants and conservation.

• Coast and Estuarine Management

  This module reflects the changing face of coastal and shoreline management, linking coastal functioning with the impacts of human activity on the coast. It is suitable for both physical geographers, and human geographers with an interest in the interface between human activity and the physical environment.

• Global Warming

  This module aims to provide a detailed discussion of the science behind global warming. In particular, we will focus on three main themes. Firstly, how do we know that global warming is really occurring and how do we know that it is down to us? The first part is, therefore, a series of debates that address the main issues that are proposed by climate sceptics and present the scientific arguments that may refute them. These lectures cover issues such as; 1) how do we distinguish between “natural” and “human” climate changes, 2) when did humans start to influence the climate system and how do we know, and 3) how are key global warming datasets, such as the “Hockey Stick curve” generated and what are the assumptions that it is based upon. The second part will look at the prediction of climate change. What are the current predictions for future warming? What are they based upon and how robust are they? Finally, we will deal with the impacts of this global warming on different components of the Earth system, namely the cryosphere (ice sheet collapse and sea level change), extreme weather events (such as hurricanes), ecosystems (desertification etc) and the response of different parts of Europe to changing temperature and rainfall regimes.

• Wetland Environments: Process and Policy

  In this module, we use peatlands to explore how scientific knowledge of an environmental system can contribute to policy, management and conservation decisions.

  Peatlands are globally important ecosystems because of their environmental and social value. Because they are large carbon reservoirs (storing twice as much carbon as all the world’s forests) there is growing interest in how peatlands function, so that their behaviour and carbon-sink strength under a changing climate and different land uses can be understood. Peatlands also support biodiversity; supply water, food and fuel; and provide valuable environmental and archaeological archives. However, peatlands are vulnerable to over-exploitation and many peatlands have been degraded due to human use, poor management and impacts of climate change.

  This module takes a holistic view of peatlands and explores the scientific basis of the human and environmental impacts on an ecosystem and how conflicts between different ecosystem users can be managed.

• Managing River Environments

  This module covers the range of human impacts on the river environment and the range of strategies which have been developed to manage contemporary river channel change. Principles of flood hazard evaluation, flood forecasting and flood defence are also a major theme. The evolution of river channel management in recent years has been radical. The ‘techno-fix’ hard engineering approach has been seen to involve unforeseen channel changes involving progressive impacts upstream and downstream. Such changes have then required unsustainable further management interventions. The problem has been that engineering interventions have often not been in sympathy with the natural balance of river processes. Recently therefore, geomorphologists and river managers have explored strategies of ‘working with the river’. This has led to the increasing importance of ‘river restoration’. The module will cover this debate and the principles of river restoration using seminars and case studies.

• Mammals in a Changing World

  This module encompasses a range of topics relating to Pleistocene and modern mammals, their adaptations to changing environmental conditions, and their interactions with humans on a range of spatial and temporal scales. The module is suitable for both physical and human geographers who have an interest in the interplay between biogeography, (palaeo) ecology, Quaternary environmental change and archaeology.

• Post-Capitalist Cities

  As more of the planet’s population becomes urban, so too does the focus of global capital. Cities of the twenty-first century therefore are increasingly characterised by neoliberal strategies that creates as many problems as it does advantages. Increased security, the reduction of public spaces, increased privatisation, homogenous urban policies and a push toward hyper-mobility are some of the processes which characterise the contemporary Global City. But many of these processes which represent the logic of capitalism are being resisted by a variety of urban people, communities, institutions and even government procedures; creating a tension that is rife throughout cities all over the world. Are these practices of resistance, subversion and protest forging a post-capitalist urban landscape, or are they pockets of anti-capitalism that are destined to fail? Do they empower ordinary citizens to affect urban change or are they problems for urban governments to rectify? This module will outline how these activities are creating post-capitalist cities, and explore what these cities look like.

• Geopolitics of Media and Communications

  This module examines the relationship and interaction between geopolitics (and geopolitical knowledge), the media and communications technologies. In particular, this module combines an interest in both (i) the role of ‘the media’ (film, radio, television and journalistic output) in communicating real-life events and ‘geopolitical imaginaries’ to audiences, and (ii) the emergence of the media and communications technologies as official devices of geopolitics and ‘statecraft’.

• Atmosphere: Art, Science, Politics

  What is an atmosphere? How can we feel, sense, and know atmospheres? Why do atmospheres matter for geography? These questions are increasingly important in the context of rapid climatic change, global aerial mobility, the rise of cloud computing and shifts in atmospheric law and politics. Starting from the assumption that the atmosphere is an increasingly important (indeed an urgent) realm of thinking, working and acting for geographers, this module explores several currents of research and practice engaged with the atmosphere. In this way, the module traces an alter-geography of air and atmosphere as they fold and shape Earthly geographies. Given the liminality, ephemerality and invisibility of atmospheric matters, concepts and imaginaries are important points of reference. The module therefore enrols both humanistic and physical geographical themes in identifying how artists, scientists and geographers have tapped into concerns with the atmosphere, with wide-ranging implications for changing geographical relationships to our planet and its gaseous shell.

• Modern Climate Change

  This course has two main aims:

  1) To introduce you to the evidence for and mechanisms of modern climate change – what climate change is, how the climate change is manifested, what physical mechanisms are driving it, and what its future status might be.

  2) Methods of research in multi-disciplinary topics, report writing, and communication of complex ideas for policy makers using Earth Science as a subject matter.

• Responsible Entrepreneurship and Innovation

  In this module you will develop an understanding of responsibility in the context of entrepreneurship. You will look at the entrepreneurial process and consider the inherent ambivalence of both new ideas and their unintended consequences. You will examine the concepts of social entrepreneurship, sustainable entrepreneurship, and minority entrepreneurship, and evaluate how new organisations emerge, grow, and approach responsibility challenges.

• Marketing, People and the Planet

  In this module you will develop an understanding of the scope and nature of marketing ethics. You will look at the complexity and interconnectedness of moral dilemmas in marketing practice and consider potential responses by stakeholders, such as consumers, businesses and governmental actors, to ethical marketing issues.

• Health Psychology and Wellbeing

  This module develops understanding of how to identify research papers relevant to a health psychology topic, techniques to summarise and evaluate published evidence, relating to a health psychology, how to apply health psychology theory to a practical problem and how to describe and think critically about a number of health psychology theories, models and concepts.

• Social Psychology in the Real World

  This advanced-level social psychology module explores the application of social psychology to a range of real-world issues, including driver behaviour, persuasion and propaganda, religiosity, cyber-behaviour and the effects of media violence and pornography. Key theoretical themes drawn upon are attitudes, group behaviour and identity, and some topics are addressed using a multi-disciplinary approach encompassing anthropology, political science and sociology, as well as social psychology.