Environmental Politics BA(Hons)

Year 1 

In your first year, you will study five modules that introduce you to the subject area. Option modules are a chance for you to choose a subject that interests you – the choice includes politics, activism and environmental issues.

Modules

Core modules

• Environmental Politics: Institutions, Actors, Animals and Movements

  This module introduces the key institutions, protocols and movements central to understanding the contested global spaces of global environmental politics. You'll consider the wide range of organisations that contest these institutional orders, putting into question the very idea of an institution. These range from organisations with a long history such as Greenpeace through to more recent protest movements including Extinction Rebellion and La Via Campesina.

• Foundations in World Politics

  This module will introduce you to a critical historical perspective on the modern international political system. You will examine how the peoples and governments of the world came to be linked through an imperial system by exploring major world events and processes of global history. By taking a long view of modern politics, the module is an opportunity for you to place world politics in its historical context. The key topics you will explore include the origins of the international political system, slavery, imperial and colonial expansion, anti-colonial resistance and liberation, global governance, controversy and historiography.

• Introduction to Environmental Politics: Climate Catastrophe, Animal Instinction

  This module introduces key issues, concepts and theories relating to environmental politics. You will learn about key theoretical debates, including environmental justice, ecological modernisation, fossil capitalism and environmental ethics, as well as contemporary environmental issues such as extinction, climate crisis, resource politics and climate migration.

• Introduction to the  Global Challenges Lab

  Supported by a tutor, you'll design and conduct a research project that addresses one of the global challenges identified by the UN’s sustainable development goals. You'll learn how to create blogs, podcasts and short films to communicate your research and ideas to a non-academic audience.

• Politics in Practice

  This module introduces ideas about how politics is practiced by state and non-state actors at local, national, and international levels. You'll take part in field trips, Q+As with political actors and engagement with political communications. You'll also be introduced to methods of data collection, as well as forms of qualitative and quantitative analysis.

Options*

• Democracy

  This module introduces you to the histories and contexts within which the concept and practice of democracy developed. You will study classical, republican, liberal, anarchist, Marxist, communitarian and global conceptualisations of democracy, in each case examining their relevance to our current political circumstances. You will explore the cultural preconditions for democratic freedoms and the representation of democratic values in different social and political movements.

• Global Environmental Challenges

  This module introduces pressing global environmental challenges which you'll explore through natural science and social science case studies. The module focuses on scientific, social, economic and political aspects of current and past environmental issues and examines how some of the issues may be addressed through interdisciplinary management and mitigation.

• Globalisation, Conflict and the Environment

  This module introduces key concepts, theories and questions in international relations and global studies. You will interrogate and evaluate the political implications of different approaches for the study of key aspects of our contemporary world. You will explore how concepts and theories are applied to contested global issues, such as environmental sustainability and war/conflict. 

• Sex and Politics: Defining Contemporary Issues

  This module develops your understanding of sexuality and gender as central aspects of the struggle for social justice. Drawing on a range of approaches, you'll explore how inequalities related to sexuality and gender are inscribed and mobilised in national and global contexts related to citizenship, including law and policy. In addition to identifying problems, you will examine perspectives that theorise how gender and sexual inequality might be further challenged and reduced.

*Option modules are indicative and may change, depending on timetabling and staff availability.

Year 2

In year two of your Environmental Politics degree you build your knowledge of the subject, exploring British politics and theories of government and policy, and focusing on sustainable development and debates around the climate crisis. You'll begin to specialise in the subjects that interest you most through choosing an option module.

The global challenges module is an opportunity to undertake a placement with a local environmental or policy group. You'll gain practical work experience while contributing to the wider community.

Modules

• UK Politics
• We, the People
• Gender, Race and Environment
• Global Challenges Lab: Policy Solutions
• Genres of Environmental Writing

Options*

Choose one from:

• The Politics of Critique
• Global Challenges Lab: Research Communication
• Community Engagement
• Authority, Democracy and Justice
• Colonialism in the Contemporary Global Order

*Option modules are indicative and may change, depending on timetabling and staff availability.

Final year

In your final year you will further develop your knowledge and skills, exploring global environmental politics and political ecology. You'll work on local environmental issues, developing a campaign and building a portfolio of your research, proposals and engagement with local organisations.

You also come up with the idea for, and write, a dissertation. This year-long module is an opportunity for you to demonstrate your research, critical thinking, organisational and writing skills.

Modules

• Social Change Project
• Dissertation
• Activism and Social Change
• Colonialism, Capitalism and Climate Crisis

Options*

Choose one from:

• Global Environmental Politics
• Political Ecology: Contested Environments

Choose one from:

• Territory, Power and Security
• Sexual Utopias
• Human Rights and Humanitarian Intervention

*Option modules are indicative and may change, depending on timetabling and staff availability.

International requirements and visas

We can help you meet our English language or academic entry requirements.

Visas and immigration advice

Course fees

The fees listed here are for full-time courses beginning in the academic year 2023–24.

Further tuition fees are payable for each subsequent year of study and are subject to an annual increase of no more than 5% or RPI (whichever is the greater). The annual increase for UK students, who are subject to regulated fees, will increase no more than the statutory maximum fee.

You can find out more about our fees in the university's student contract and tuition fee policy (pdf).

The tuition fee you have to pay depends on a number of factors including the kind of course you take, and whether you study full-time or part-time. If you are studying part-time you will normally be charged on a pro rata basis depending on the number of modules you take.

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