Undergraduate Course: Care and Sustainability (STIS10019)
Course Outline
| School | School of Social and Political Science |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course examines some of the key theoretical and practical problems and opportunities which arise when the ethical-political position of care is applied to issues around environment and sustainability. The first half of the course will focus on theoretical topics, such as: i) Gillard's 'different voice' contribution to moral psychology and feminism; (ii) the challenge which relationality and interdependence presents to ethics and politics; and iii) how ethics of care offers an additional perspective on justice linking people-animals, and present-future generations.
The second half of the course will explore a number of empirical cases in areas like renewable energy (nuclear power, wind farms, community renewables etc); landscape management (eco-system services, rewilding, species reintroduction etc); and sustainable food production (allotments, regenerative agriculture, GM crops etc). It will also explore home and community, and cultures and communities around the world which link people and planet in different ways. |
| Course description |
What does it mean to say that we are all caring people, with capacity to care? How might an ethical and political engagement with care shift our understanding of and action towards environmental issues? What might a caring sustainability involve? This course will introduce students to theoretical and applied insights into care, enabling an engagement with these questions and more. We will begin with foundational literature on care ethics before moving on to applying these to current environmental and sustainability issues.
In addition to our focus on care ethics as it pertains to environment and sustainability, students will also learn about and apply autoethnographic data collection and analysis in their final assignment. To prepare students for this final assignment, the course will include a lecture and workshop on autoethnographic methodologies.
The student learning experience entails a weekly 2-hour session that combine lectures and seminars. Some weeks' students will be expected to view films before the course meetings. In preparation for the final assignment, students will also be required to engage in some unsupervised fieldwork and keep a research diary.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2024/25, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 20 |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 10,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 11,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
175 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Short essay - 30% - max 1000 words
Long essay - 70% - max 3000 words
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| Feedback |
Feedback on the first assessment will be received before submission of final essay. An in-class session workshopping research questions, autoethnographic methods and analysis will take place prior to the final assessment.
Feedback on all assessed work shall normally be returned within three weeks of submission. Where this is not possible, students shall be given clear expectations regarding the timing and methods of feedback. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Examine and critically appraise a range of approaches to the ethics and politics of care.
- Engage with ongoing and applied debates about care.
- Apply insights from ethics and politics of care to environmental and sustainability issues.
- Understand, apply and critically appraise autoethnographic data collection and analysis methods.
- Communicate clearly and effectively their understanding of care ethics and its relevance to a range of environmental and sustainability issues.
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Reading List
Bauhardt, C. and Harcourt, W. (2019) (eds) Feminist Political Ecology and the Economics of Care: In Search of Economic Alternatives, London: Routledge.
Murphy, J. and Parry, S. (2021) 'Gender, households and sustainability: Disentangling and re-entangling with the help of 'work' and 'care'', Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, 4, 3, 1099-1120.
Plumwood, Val (2002) Environmental Culture: The Ecological Crisis of Reason. Abingdon: Routledge.
Puig de la Bellacasa, M. (2017) Matters of Care: Speculative Ethics in More Than Human Worlds, London, University of Minnesota Press.
Tronto, J. (2013) Caring Democracy: Markets, Equality and Justice, New York University, New York. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Communicative Skills: writing
Evaluation and critical analysis
Applying conceptual frameworks to empirical case studies |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Sarah Parry
Tel: (0131 6)50 6389
Email: Sarah.Parry@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mr Ewen Miller
Tel: (0131 6)50 3925
Email: Ewen.Miller@ed.ac.uk |
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