Postgraduate Course: Environmental Governance (PGGE11248)
Course Outline
| School | School of Geosciences |
College | College of Science and Engineering |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | Contemporary society faces many interrelated environmental and sustainability challenges such as those surrounding issues of energy, water and food provision and access, terrestrial and marine biodiversity loss, climate change etc. State and non-state actors approach and attempt to address these challnges in many different ways across multiple levels, from local self-governance through to international agreements. The term 'Environmental Governance' refers to the approaches, norms, instruments, actors and institutions involved in attempts to address sustainability issues. The course is designed to provide an introduction to key debates in Environmental Governance and policy, drawing on academic literature and case studies of environmental governance practices to analyse these key debates from different perspectives. The course equips students to better understand policy and the often contested nature of policy processes and negotiations at different levels. It also focuses upon evaluative frameworks for policy, considering the importance of effectiveness, efficiency, equity and legitmacy. The course challenges participants to think across disciplinary boundaries as we apply and compare insights from human geography, environmental/ecological economics, environmental studies, political sciences, science and technology studies and development studies. Participants analyse Environmental Governance case studies presented by practitioners throughout the course, in order to engage in fruitful dialogue between academic insights and practitioners' real-life experience and case studies. This course is designed to deepen students' exposure to advanced level social sciences. |
| Course description |
Learning will be facilitated through interactive lectures, group discussions of literature and policy reports, class debates, experiential learning through serious games, and practitioner guest talks. The course is structured around the key debates in Environmental Governance. Each debate will be approached from different social science perspectives to enable students to reflect from an interdisciplinary perspective on each debate. For each debate some of the main policies and practices employed by different state and non-state actors, across levels, will be discussed. They key debates to be covered are: policy design and contestation; policy evaluation; environmental citizenship, collective action and activism; governing the commons; market environmentalism; green governmentality; transition management; private sector led environmental governance; adaptive governance; international environmental regimes and politics; and science-policy-practice interfaces. Three tools for analysing Environmental Governance will be discussed during the course: Institutional Analysis; Discourse Analysis and Power Analysis
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
|
Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Course Delivery Information
|
| Academic year 2018/19, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
|
Quota: 40 |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 44,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
152 )
|
| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
|
| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Coursework: 100%
1) Analyse an Environmental Governance practice initiated by a government body (at any level), civil society group or company using one of the three tools for analysis discussed in the course (75%) (2000 words)
2) Based on your analysis for assignement 1, write a short blog post for a stakeholder involved in the Environmental Governance practice, in which you convincingly set out your recommendations for the Environmental Governance practice. The stakeholder could be in favour of the EG practice or oppose it (25%) (800 words) |
| Feedback |
Participants will submit a formative assignment which is an outline for assignment 1 (see above). This will be submitted in week 5.A student led peer review process will be organised for giving and receiving feedback on the formative assignment. Peer assessment has a number of benefits, including: promoting early preparation of coursework; developing students¿ critical thinking about one another¿s and their own coursework; developing explicit attention to the grade related marking criteria; promoting a culture of peer
writing support.
General feedback from lecturers will also be provided at the peer review session.
Additionally, discussions in class sessions will allow students to gain informal, immediate feedback on their thoughts on the key debates, allowing for further personal reflection throughout the course. A Q&A session towards the end of the course will allow for students to ask specific questions.
Feedback on the summative work will be given using the marking scheme. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- To classify and compare different Environmental Governance practices employed by multiple actors across different levels
- To be able to engage in critical discussions around the key debates of Environmental Governance
- To be able to contribute to academic and policy discussions on the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals
- To develop skills in applying and integrating interdisciplinary academic insights to real-life case studies of Environmental Governance
- To conduct analyses of Environmental Governance practices
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Reading List
1) Adger, N. et al. (2003) Governance for sustainability: towards a `thick' analysis of environmental decisionmaking, Environment and Planning A 35, pp. 1095 - 1110
2) Adger, W. N. and A. Jordan (2009). Governing Sustainability. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
3) Betsill, M., Hochstetler, K., Stevis, D. (Eds) (2014) Advances in International Environmental Politics. Hampshire, Palgrave Macmillan.
4) Betsill, M. and Corell, E. (eds) (2007) NGO Diplomacy: The Influence of Nongovernmental Organizations in International Environmental Negotiations, MIT Press
5) Biermann, F., K. Abbott, S. Andresen, K. Backstrand, S. Bernstein, M. M. Betsill, H. Bulkeley, B. Cashore, J. Clapp, C. Folke, A. Gupta, J. Gupta, P. M. Haas, A. Jordan, N.
Kanie, T. Kluvankova-Oravska, L. Lebel, D. Liverman, J. Meadowcroft, R. B. Mitchell, P. Newell, S. Oberthur, L. Olsson, P. Pattberg, R. Sanchez-Rodriguez, H. Schroeder,
A. Underdal, S. C. Vieira, C. Vogel, O. R. Young, A. Brock and R. Zondervan (2012). "Navigating the Anthropocene: Improving Earth System Governance." Science 335(6074): 1306-1307.
6) Biermann, F, Pattberg, P. and Zelli, F. (eds). (2010). Global Climate Governance Beyond 2012: Architecture, Agency and Adaptation, Cambridge University Press.
7) Blaikie, P. (1995) Changing environments or changing views? A political ecology for developing countries, Geography 80 pp.203
8) Bulkeley, H. and Newell, P. (2015) Governing Climate Change. Second Edition. Routledge, London.
9) Death, C., & Gabay, C., (2015) Doing Biopolitics Differently? Radical Potential in the Post-2015 MDG and SDG Debates, Globalizations 12 (4) pp. 597-612.
10) Dryzek, J. (2005) The Politics of the Earth: Environmental Discourse. Oxford: Oxford University Press
11) Evans, J. P. (2011) Environmental Governance. Routledge, London
12) Folke, C., Hahn, T., Olsson, P. & Norberg, J. (2005) Adaptive Governance of Social-ecological systems, Annual Review of Environmental Resources 30
13) Glasbergen, P., Bierman, F., Mol, A. (eds) (2007) Partnerships, Governance and Sustainable Development: Reflections on Theory and Practice Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing.
14) Griggs, D., Stafford-Smith, M., Gaffney, O., Rockström, J., Öhman, M.C., Shyamsundar, P., Steffen, W., Glaser, G., Kanie, N., & Noble, N., (2013) Policy: Sustainable development goals for people and planet, Nature 495 pp. 305-307
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v495/n7441/full/495305a.html
15) Jorgensen, M.W., Phillips, L.J. (2002) Discourse Analysis as Theory and Method. SAGE
Keeley, J., Scoones, I. (2003) Understanding Environmental Policy Processes: Cases from Africa Earthscan, London.
16) Kütting, G. and Lipschutz, R. (Eds.) (2009) Environmental Governance: Power and Knowledge in a Local-Global World. Routledge, London.
17) Lange, P., Driessen, P.J., Sauer, A., Bornemann, B., Burger, P. (2013) Governing Towards Sustainability¿Conceptualizing Modes of Governance, Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning 15(3), p403-425
18) Leach, M., I. Scoones and A. Stirling (2010). Dynamic Sustainabilities: Technology, Environment, Social Justice, Earthscan. London
19) Lemos, M. and Agrawal, A. (2006). Environmental governance. Annual Review of Environmental Resources 31: 297-325
20) Loorbach, D., Frantzeskaki, F. & Avelino, F. (2017) Sustainability Transitions Research: Transforming Science and Practice for Societal Change, Annual Review of Environment and Resources 42 pp. 599-626
21) Meadowcroft, J., Langhelle, O., Ruud, A. (2012) Governance, Democracy and Sustainable Development: Moving Beyond the Impasse. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing.
22) Ostrom, E. (1990) Governing the Commons: The evolution of institutions for collective action. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
23) Peet, R., Robbins, P. & Watts, M. (2011) Global Political Ecology. New York: Routledge
Robbins, P. (2012) Political Ecology: A critical introduction (2nd edition) Chichester, UK: Wiley- Blackwell (read Part 1: 1 Political versus Apolitical Ecologies (p11))
24) Rotmans, J. & Loorbach, D. (2009) Complexity and Transition Management, Journal of Industrial Ecology 13 (2) pp. 184-196
25) Wunder, S. (2015) Revisiting the concept of payments for environmental services, Ecological Economics 117: 234- 243
26) Young, O. R. (2002). "Evaluating the success of international environmental regimes: where are we now?" Global Environmental Change 12(1): 73-77 |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
The course creates space for students to develop their skills in confidently articulating complex ideas and insights on Environmental Governance. These skills are developed through class debates and discussions, group presentations and engaging in peer feedback. Professional skills in writing for different audiences will be developed through the assignments where both an academic paper and a blog post will be written. Through guest lectures, students will be exposed to practitioners, their organisations and work, thus providing employability orientation and increasing their professional network. Personal skills in working independently, planning time successfully and working in groups will be developed through class activities, and the assignments. Confidence in speaking in public, listening to others' views, reflecting on personal views and providing feedback to others will be encouraged through group exercises, debates and peer feedback. |
| Keywords | Environmental Governanace |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Ms Clare Barnes
Tel: (0131 6)50 2287
Email: C.Barnes@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mrs Faten Adam
Tel: (0131 6)50 5850
Email: Faten.Adam@ed.ac.uk |
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