Undergraduate Course: Ecology, Justice and Urban Futures (EFIE10010)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh Futures Institute |
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 | Cities are key locations of climate risk and socio-ecological inequality.
This course explores how we can approach cities through a lens of justice that integrates a multispecies view to redesign fairer and sustainable urban futures. |
| Course description |
This course explores justice, considered in multispecies terms, and then brings ideas down to the ground through focus on specific sustainability challenges in cities.
Students will explore global and local case studies, to understand how power, inequality and biodiversity or more-than-human life are configured in urban contexts, while also reimagining urban design for just and sustainable urban futures.
Course lectures/seminars will cover the following general themes:
- Foundations of urban sustainability;
- Power, inequality and urban environments;
- Multispecies cities;
- Methods for just and sustainable cities;
- Designing urban futures.
Lectures, seminars and a collaborative design project enhanced through a field trip will help students to develop analytical and practical skills to understand urban challenges and to reimagine cities as integrated socio-ecological systems that prioritise equity, climate resilience/sustainability and multispecies health and wellbeing.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
|
Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2026/27, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 30 |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 9,
Supervised Practical/Workshop/Studio Hours 9,
Fieldwork Hours 2,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
176 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
The course will be assessed by means of the following components:
1) Reflective Planning or Policy Paper (40%)
1,500 word critical reflection to develop planning/policy proposals around a particular aspect of sustainable urban design, with deep consideration (embedding) of justice and its relation to sustainability.
Learning Outcomes Assessed by Component: 1, 2, 3
2) Group Planning Project (60%)
Up to 1,000 words per group member (no more than 4,000 words), application of reflective planning/policy work to a particular site. This brings the critical proposals down to the ground in the site that has been chosen for them to redesign, including how proposals work or don't work (further reflection).
Students will have approached the first assessment in different ways and then come together to create a multilayered vision of the site. Students can approach this purely textually, or use a combination of the textual and visual (maps, e.g. using ArcGIS storymaps, digimap etc).
Learning Outcomes Assessed by Component: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 |
| Feedback |
Feedback on any formative assessment may be provided in various formats, for example, to include written, oral, video, face-to-face, whole class, or individual. The Course Organiser will decide which format is most appropriate in relation to the nature of the assessment.
Feedback on both formative and summative in-course assessed work will be provided in time to be of use in subsequent assessments within the course.
Feedback on the summative assessment(s) will be provided in written form via Learn, the University of Edinburgh's Virtual Learning Environment (VLE).
Formative Feedback Opportunity:
Formative feedback is ongoing feedback which monitors learning and is intended to improve performance in the same course, in future courses, and also beyond study.
One feedback session after the fieldwork session where groups present their project development work - immediate feedback to groups as well as written feedback within two weeks. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate an understanding of the concept of justice (social, environmental, climate) and its relationship to urban sustainability, to include (integrally) urban ecologies and more than human life (multispecies justice).
- Demonstrate an understanding of key challenges in urban contexts relating to climate change, biodiversity loss and inequality.
- Critically analyse urban design holistically as well as in particular projects, considering power relations, ecologies and impacts using a multispecies lens.
- Apply a justice framework in groups to specific urban contexts to redesign for sustainable urban futures.
- Critically reflect upon topics covered and the learning journey.
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Reading List
Essential Reading:
Luger, J., Kotsila, P., & Anguelovski, I. (2023). The notion of justice in funded research on urban sustainability: performing on a postpolitical stage or staging the political? Local Environment, 28(1), 8-30. https://doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2022.2113867
Broto, V. C., & Westman, L. (2019). Urban sustainability and justice: Just sustainabilities and environmental planning. Zed Books. Available from https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/58830
Haarstad, H., & Yazar, M. (2025). Urban sustainability: a spatial justice critique. Territory, Politics, Governance, 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1080/21622671.2025.2587706
Vander Meer, E. (2022). Green Infrastructure Mapping for Adaptation, Biodiversity, and Health and Wellbeing: A Tool Development Case Study in Edinburgh. In: Walker, T., Wendt, S., Goubran, S., Schwartz, T. (eds) Business and Policy Solutions to Climate Change. Palgrave Studies in Sustainable Business In Association with Future Earth. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-86803-1_3
van Vugt, J., de Ruiter, A., & Henning, C. (2025). Where to aim with multispecies climate justice? A critical realist account. Environmental Politics, 1-21. https://doi.org/10.1080/09644016.2025.2582121
Raymond, C.M., Rautio, P., Fagerholm, N. et al. Applying multispecies justice in nature-based solutions and urban sustainability planning: Tensions and prospects. npj Urban Sustain 5, 2 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42949-025-00191-2
Recommended Reading:
Gould, K., & Lewis, T. (2016). Green Gentrification: Urban sustainability and the struggle for environmental justice (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315687322
Steele, W., Mata, L., & Fünfgeld, H. (2015). Urban climate justice: Creating sustainable pathways for humans and other species. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 14, 121-126. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2015.05.004
Further Reading:
Pineda-Pinto, M., Lennon, M., Kennedy, C., O'Donnell, M., Andersson, E., Wijsman, K., & Collier, M. J. (2025). Realizing multispecies justice through a capability approach to promote nature-based solutions. npj urban sustainability, 5(1), 31. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42949-025-00205-z
Derickson, K., Walker, R., Hamann, M., Anderson, P., Adegun, O. B., Castillo, A. C., Guerry, A., Keeler, B., Llewellyn, L., Matheney, A., Mogosetsi-Gabriel, N., Mundoli, S., Pahwa-Gajjar, S., Sitas, N., & Xie, L. (2024). The intersection of justice and urban greening: Future directions and opportunities for research and practice. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 91, 128279. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2024.128279 |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Urban Sustainability,Urban Design,Sustainability,Socio-Environmental Justice,Ecology |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Ms Elizabeth Vander Meer
Tel:
Email: Elizabeth.VanderMeer@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mr Matt Bryant
Tel:
Email: Matt.Bryant@ed.ac.uk |
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