Postgraduate Course: Envisioning Sustainable Lands and Cities (EFIE11548)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh Futures Institute |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | *Programme Core Course: Sustainable Lands and Cities (MSc)*
Please Note:
This course is only available to students enrolled on the Sustainable Lands and Cities (MSc) degree programme.
What do sustainable lands and cities look and feel like? This course explores lands and cities through the work of foundational thinkers and policy makers in the field. Drawing on these intellectual foundations, you will be invited to design plans to improve sustainability in lands and cities, in rural and urban contexts.
You will interrogate case studies of real-world examples of sustainability interventions (such as zero-waste towns and community-supported agriculture) and hear from experts in the field, before working with partners to design sustainability interventions for a place or context that matters to you. |
| Course description |
Sustainability is a widely used term but is often difficult to define with clarity. It operates across a multitude of disciplines and can be interpreted in countless ways. Rather than promoting a particular ideological path, this course provides students with a moment to learn, reflect, contextualise and develop an understanding of 'sustainability'.
This course introduces students to key thinkers in the field to surface the key trends, themes and limitations of current debates and approaches. Students will be invited to apply and critique these approaches to develop sustainability-challenge case studies, and to design plans to integrate issues of socio-spatial justice, equality and quality of life.
The course integrates the historical evolution of sustainable and ecological thought with contemporary approaches and analyses of sustainability. Students will be introduced to the wide range of stakeholders tackling sustainability, and the tools and approaches that they use. We will look at how sustainable discourses are represented in text and image, and how this acts both as a call to action and as a realisation of what sustainable environments could be like. Students will also be invited to explore some of the underlying fundamental questions as to our relationship with nature and with each other.
Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI) - Hybrid Course Delivery Information:
The Edinburgh Futures Institute delivers many of its courses in hybrid mode. This means that you may have some online students joining sessions for this course. To enable this, the course will use technologies to record and live-stream student and staff participation during their teaching and learning activities.
Students should be aware that:
- Classrooms used in this course will have additional technology in place: in some cases, students might not be able to sit in areas away from microphones or outside the field of view of all cameras.
- All presentations, and whole class discussions will be recorded (see the Lecture Recording and Virtual Classroom policies for more details).
You will need access to a personal computing device for this course. Most activities will take place in a web browser, unless otherwise stated. We recommend using a device with a screen, a physical keyboard, and internet access.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2026/27, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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Quota: None |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 4,
Supervised Practical/Workshop/Studio Hours 14,
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 %
|
| Additional Information (Assessment) |
The course will be assessed by means of the following components:
1) Group Presentation (25%)
2) 1000 Word Sustainability Plan: Portfolio and Written Commentary (75%)
A concise sustainability plan in the form of a portfolio with an accompanying written commentary no greater than 1000 words. The portfolio may consist of image, video, text or audio recording. It will document an approach to sustainability and record the processes and outcomes of the teaching. The portfolio will address all of the learning outcomes for this course. |
| 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.
Formative feedback will be given throughout the course.
During the teaching blocks, peer feedback will be offered on presentations. Academic staff will also offer formative feedback on a draft portfolio submission. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate a critical understanding of the key theories and narratives in discourses in sustainable lands and cities.
- Apply knowledge, skills and understanding to effectively engage with emerging challenges affecting sustainability in land and cities.
- Deal with complex issues and engage creatively and develop a cogent intellectual and ethical position in relation to sustainable lands and cities.
- Communicate effectively using a range of techniques accessible to non-expert audiences.
- Operate effectively in collaborative environments that reflects on own and others' ethical positions.
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Reading List
Essential Reading:
Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common Future. 1987. 'The Brundtland Report'. https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/5987our-common-future.pdf
IPCC Report 2022; https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg2/
Javier Martinez, Claudia Andrea Mikkelsen, & Rhonda Phillips. 2021. Handbook of Quality of Life and Sustainability. Springer. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-50540-0
Recommended Reading:
Laura Watts. 2019. Energy at the End of the World. MIT Press.
Cal Flynn. 2022. Islands of Abandonment. William Collins Press.
Ellie Harrison. 2019. The Glasgow Effect. Luath Press.
James Rebanks. 2021. English Pastoral: An Inheritance. Penguin Press.
George Monbiot. 2014. Feral: Rewilding the Land, Sea and Human Life.
Rachel Carson. 1962. Silent Spring. Penguin (republished).
Conor Mark Jameson. 2013. Silent Spring Revisited. A&C Black.
Welter and Lawson (eds). 2000. The City After Patrick Geddes. Verlag Peter Lang pubs.
Robert Stephens. 2022. Ahmedabad Walls: A circumambulation with Patrick Geddes. Altrim Pubs.
Caroline Criado Perez. 2020. Invisible Women. Vintage pubs.
Greta Thunberg. 2019. No One is Too Small to Make a Difference. Penguin.
John Seed et al. 2007. Thinking Like A Mountain: Towards a Council of All Beings. New Catalyst Books.
Walter Stephen. 2015. Think Global Act Local: Life and Legacy of Patrick Geddes. Luath Press. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | EFI,Level 11,PG,Sustainability,Sustainable Lands and Cities |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Kirsteen Shields
Tel:
Email: Kirsteen.Shields@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Yasmine Lewis
Tel:
Email: yasmine.lewis@ed.ac.uk |
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