HANDBOOK 2012-2013
Course Aims and Objectives2
Course Overview3
Course Regulations and Procedures4
Time and Place4
Contact detail5
Course team biographies6
Assessment and deadlines6
Examination8
Background Readings and Resources10
Lectures in detail11
Tutorial Topics27
Essay Topics31
Appendix One: A Guide to Referencing35
Appendix Two: Electronic Essay Submission37
Appendix Three: Essay Assessment Form39
Appendix Four: Guide to Using LEARN for Online Tutorial Sign-Up40
Appendix Five: SSPS Common Essay Marking Descriptors41
How much should a person consume? Is there a connection between development, consumption and the environment? Are those of us in the ‘developed’ world ‘living beyond our means’ by consuming the Earth’s resources faster than they can be renewed? Or are those in the ‘developing’ world pursuing industrialisation at the cost of ecological conservation? Who is responsible for climate change and the degradation of resources? What is the role of diamond mining, or the fossil fuel industry, or the fashion industry in all this? What role does science and technology have in addressing climate change?Who should bear the immediate costs of action to improve the prospects of a secure and prosperous future for all life on the planet? Or, who gets to decide what is ‘sustainable’ and is there one model of ‘sustainable development’ that can fit all contexts? Would equitable distribution of the scarcely available resources solve the problem? Would decreasing waste and increasing substitutes solve the problem? Would a smaller global population solve the problem? Or, does the solution lie in changing our appetites for consumption? What do research scholars, policy makers, donors and development practitioners, social movement activists and ordinary populations have to say about all of this? While we cannot promise any easy answers to these questions, we will engage you in systematic and informed argument, and enable you to understand the stakes and the options, and evaluate your role in contributing some answers.
Introducing Sustainable Development addresses the central problems facing us in the twenty-first century, which concern equitable access to water, food, energy, shelter and a peaceful coexistence, in the context of a destabilising climate and degradation of environmental resources. The course debates principles, concepts, contexts, issues and applications of sustainable development from interdisciplinary perspectives. Open to all students, the course starts with a short history of the principles and background to the concept of ‘sustainable development’, and proceeds to draw on insights from politics and international relations, gender studies and demography, human geography, economic sociology, and social anthropology to unravel the multiple issues and interpretations of sustainability, its politics, and its relevance. Students will learn to think critically about what sustainability means and how it can be applied. It will encourage students to examine from the lens of sustainability the challenges that contemporary societies are being confronted with from global to local levels. It will also enable them to evaluate the changes that industrial development and technological advancement have brought about to living patterns and the environment.
Course Aims and Objectives
Aims
This introductory course has three broad aims and four objectives:
1.It will give an introduction to the key issues, debates and challenges that our society and environment face.
2.It will encourage and allow students to think about how we might best understand and engage with these issues, debates and challenges.
3.It will examine the meanings and applications of sustainable development from a range of perspectives, understanding what these can offer and how they might be integrated together.
Objectives
By the end of the course, students should be able to:
- Understand the history of the concept of ‘sustainable development’, and the key principles upon which the concept is built.
- Understand from the lens of sustainability the challenges that contemporary societies are being confronted with.
- Critically appraisethe ways in which sustainable development is applied, assessed and measured.
- Appreciate the key insights and contributions from a range of disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives on sustainable development.
- Use basic analytical and presentation skills, through guided research in preparation for assessment and tutorial presentations.
Course Overview
Week / Date / Lecture number / Title / Staff member(s) / TutorialsINTRODUCTION
1 / Tues 18th Sept / 1 / Introductions / Radhika Govinda & Liliana Riga
Fri 21st Sept / 2 / What is Sustainable Development? / Roger Jeffery
POLITICS OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
2 / Tues 25th Sept / 3 / International Governance and Sustainable Development: Concepts and Contexts / Elizabeth Bomberg / Tutorial 1
Fri 28th Sept / 4 / International Governance and Sustainable Development: Actors and Debates / Elizabeth Bomberg
3 / Tues 2nd Oct / 5 / Who Decides Whose Future? The Politics of Sustaining the Commons / Radhika Govinda / Tutorial 2
Fri 5th Oct / 6 / ‘Side-stream’/ ‘Mainstream’? Gender Politics of Sustainable Development / Radhika Govinda
ISSUES OF CONFLICT AND JUSTICE IN SUSTAINING RESOURCES AND LIVELIHOODS
4 / Tues 9th Oct / 7 / Ethnic Conflict, Sustainable Livelihoods and the Environment / Liliana Riga / Tutorial 3
Fri 12th Oct / 8 / Moral Geographies, Genocide and Resource Scarcity / Liliana Riga
5 / Tues 16th Oct / 9 / Indigenous Livelihoods, Landscapes and Resources / Liliana Riga / Tutorial 4
Fri 19th Oct / 10 / Environmental Justice: Local International and Intergenerational / Liz Cripps
6 / Tues 23rd Oct / 11 / Environmental Justice: Beyond the Human / Liz Cripps / Tutorial 5
DEVELOPMENT GOALS, EXPERIMENTS AND ASSESSMENTS: WHITHER SUSTAINABILITY?
Fri 26th Oct / 12 / Development Goals and Global Social Experiments / Neil Thin
7 / Tues 30th Oct / 13 / The Uses of Science and Technology in the Green/Sustainable Movement / Meritxell Ramírez-Ollé / Tutorial 6
Fri 2nd Nov / 14 / Assessing Social Development / Neil Thin
SUSTAINING LIVES/ LIFESTYLES? ISSUES OF POPULATION AND CONSUMPTION
8 / Tues 6th Nov / 15 / Sustainable Population: A Bigger Pie, Fewer Forks or Better Manners? / Roger Jeffery / Tutorial 7
Fri 9th Nov / 16 / Growth, Globalisation and Rise in Consumption / Claire Haggett
9 / Tues 13th Nov / 17 / Food, Fashion and the X Factor: Current Trends in Consumption / Claire Haggett / Tutorial 8
Fri 16th Nov / 18 / Carry on Consuming? Alternatives for the Future / Claire Haggett
CONCLUSION
10 / Tues 20thNov / 19 / The Different Sides of Darwin’s Nightmare: Screening, Discussion and Course Review / Radhika Govinda / Tutorial 9
Fri 23rd Nov / 20 / Course Review and Wrap Up / Radhika Govinda & Liliana Riga
Course Regulations and Procedures
This course isconvened by the School of Social and Political Science. You must read this current booklet in conjunction with the Social and Political Science Years 1 & 2 Student Handbook as all the regulations detailed there apply to this course. Here we outline either aspects that are specific to this course or matters that are so essential that they deserve to be repeated. We shall expect you to know what this Handbook contains.
Time and Place
Lectures:Tuesday, 9.00-9.50,Meadows Lecture Theatre, Medical School,
and Friday, 9.00-9.50, Teviot Lecture Theatre, Medical School.
NB: lectures will start promptly at 9.00 so please be seated by that time.
Tutorials: Tutorials will be weekly in weeks 2-10. Week 11 is for revision.
Tutorial attendance and prompt submission of coursework are requirements for all students. Please note that pressure of work or problems of time management are not considered an acceptable reason for non-attendance at tutorials or for late submission of work. Tutors will keep an attendance record and must be informed in advance of any absence and the reason for absence.
Tutorial sign-up is online, using LEARN. Full instructions on how to do this are available in Appendix 4 of this booklet.You must sign up for a tutorial by Friday 21 September (the end of Week 1) or you will be randomly assigned to a group.
Contact details
During the course of the year, all important information for the class will be announced in lectures. Information and,where available, course materials will be posted on the Introducing Sustainable Development LEARN page. You should also check your university and LEARN email accounts regularly as this is the main way that you will be contacted about the course. Please consult thisbefore addressing queries to members of the course team, whom you can contact byemail, telephone or in person during office hours as per the details below. The Senior Tutor, Meritxell Ramírez-Ollé, should act as a first point of contact for student queries.
Name / Email / Telephone / RoomCourse secretary
Miss Roisin O’Fee / / 0131 6509975 / Undergraduate Teaching Office, CMB
Course Co-conveners
Dr Radhika Govinda / / 01316503906 / 6.21 CMB
Dr Liliana Riga / / 0131 651 1853 / 6.24 CMB
Senior Tutor
Ms Meritxell Ramírez-Ollé /
Other lecturers
Prof Roger Jeffery / / 0131 650 3976 / 2.06
8 Buccleuch Place
Prof Elizabeth Bomberg / / 0131 650 4248 / 3.06 CMB
DrNeil Thin / / 0131 650 3880 / 5.27 CMB
DrElizabeth Cripps / / 013 651 1948 / 3.07CMB
DrClaire Haggett / / 0131 650 3916 / 5.07 CMB
Tutors
Ms Liita-Iyaloo Naukushu /
Ms Margarida Ramires-Paulos / / 6.14 CMB
Course team biographies
ProfElizabeth Bomberg is Senior Lecturer; and Senior Personal Tutor for Politics & International Relations. Her current research interests include comparative environmental politics and policy, climate change, sustainable development and US and European Union politics. More:
DrElizabeth Cripps is Research Fellow and currently working on a project about the moral challenges of climate change. More:
Dr Radhika Govinda is Lecturer in Sociology. Her interests lie at the intersection of political sociology, gender, and development, with an area focus on South Asia. More: govinda
DrClaire Haggett is Lecturer in Sociology and her interests are in sustainability; renewable energy systems and environmental sociology.More:
Prof Roger Jeffery is Professor of Sociology of South Asia andhas conducted a variety of research projects in India since 1972. More:
Ms Liita-Iyaloo Naukushu is a PhD Candidate in the Global Public Health Unit and her research explores the impacts of Global Health Initiatives (GHIs) on thehealth systems of developing countries.
Ms Meritxell Ramírez-Olléis a PhD Candidate in Science and Technology Studies. Her doctoral investigation analyses a particular controversial episode within climate change science (the 'climategate' email hacking). More:
Ms Margarida Ramires-Paulos is a PhD Candidate in Sociology and her doctoral investigation researches the sustainable schools initiative in the UK. More:
DrLiliana Riga is Lecturer in Sociology and her academic interests are in political sociology, race/ethnicity, and ethnic cleansing and genocide. More:
Dr Neil Thin is Senior Lecturer in Social Anthropology and his interests are in areas related to social development; happiness and well-being. More:
Assessment and deadlines
Please visit the following page for detailed clarification on all coursework and assessment regulations:
One essay and a two-hour degree examination constitute the course assessment.In order to pass Introduction to Sustainable Development you must achieve an overall mark of at least 40%. This mark is based on a weighted combination of essay and exam marks – see below. You must also achieve a mark of at least 40% in the exam.
This course uses the University’s extended common marking scheme (see Appendix 5). Marks for essays and examinations are totalled separately.
Your final mark will be made up as follows: your essay contributes 40% and the Degree Examination contributes the remaining 60%.
The essay and examination script of any candidate falling on a margin (e.g. between passing and failing, or at a merit border) will be seen additionally by the external examiner before the final mark is awarded at the examiners' meeting in late May 2013. There is no fixed percentage of passes or of merits.
The most common cause of failure is that students do not complete the course-work or do not attend the examination. All students who fail the course must take the re-sit examination in August 2013. Visit the following site for details:
Essay
You must submit one essay for this course. See page 31 for essay topics, and readings. Your essay must be no more than 1500 words. Essays which are over-length will be penalised (please see SSPS Years 1 & 2 Student Handbookfor further details).
You mustupload an electronic copy of your essay onto LEARN, as well as submitting ONE hard copy to the essay dropbox by 12 noon on the day of deadline. See Appendix 2 at the back of this booklet for further information.
There are formal procedures for requesting an extension and penalties applyfor late essays submitted without formal approval. The penalty will be a reduction offive marks per working day (i.e. excluding weekends) for up to five days. Please note that the daily boundary is 12 noon as per the deadline. For work handed in more than five days late a mark of zero will be recorded.Check here for full details on electronic submission penalties:
If you have good reason for not meeting a coursework deadline, you may request an extension before the deadline, either from your tutor (for extensions up to five working days) or one of the course conveners (for extensions of six or more working days), before the deadline. The tutor or course convenersmust support the request in writing (email) to the course secretary, and extensions over five working days may require supporting evidence.If you think you will need a longer extension or your reasons are particularly complicated or of a personal nature, you should discuss the matter with the Student Support Officer or your Personal Tutor. We may ask him/her to confirm that you have done so before granting an extension. In fairness to other students, permission to submit an essay more than two weeks after the due date will be very rare, and will only be agreed where compelling mitigating circumstances are provided via your Personal Tutor.
Essay Deadline – 12 Noon, Wednesday 24 October 2012
(Week 6)
Essays must be put into the essay dropbox OUTSIDE the UTO (G.04/05), Chrystal Macmillan Building before the 12 noon deadline. A School coursework cover sheet which will be provided outside the UTO and on Learn should also be attached.
We aim to give you your provisional result with appropriate comments within three weeks of submission, if handed in on time.
Avoiding Plagiarism
Material you submit for assessment, such as your essays, must be your own work. You can and should draw upon published work, ideas from lectures and class discussions, and (if appropriate) even upon discussions with other students, but you must always make clear that you are doing so. Passing off anyone else’s work (including another student’s work or material from the Web or a published author) as your own is plagiarism and will be punished severely. You will be asked to sign a declaration attached to the front sheet of the essay stating that the work is your own and the electronic copy of your essay will be submitted to ‘Turnitin’, our plagiarism detection software. Assessed work that contains plagiarised material will be awarded a mark of zero, and serious cases of plagiarism will also be reported to the University's Discipline Committee. In either case, the actions taken will be noted permanently on the student's record. For further details on plagiarism see the School of Social and Political Science Years 1 & 2 Student Handbook or the School Website.
Choosing Appropriate Language
The language we use to write about social life can hide some very problematic assumptions. You should never use male nouns and pronouns when you are referring to people of both sexes (use a plural ‘they’, ‘their’ or think of a different way to phrase your argument; or use ‘s/he’, ‘his/her’). You should also never use language which suggests that human races exist with distinct biologies, nor language which suggests that people disabled in some way are less than full members of society. You should also check the geographical dimension: for example, is your source based on data from Britain, or only from England and Wales?
Referencing
Adequate referencing is an important academic skill that we want all our students to learn. Your essays MUST include a list of references at the end. If in doubt, consult your tutor. Points may be deducted for essays where the referencing is not well done. See Appendix 1 for further information about referencing.
Examination
- There are no “class examinations” in Introducing Sustainable Development and there are no exemption arrangements.
- ‘Introducing Sustainable Development’ will have a two-hour examination in December. You will be required to answer two questions.
- You must pass the examination (with a grade of 40% or above) to pass the course.
- The examination marks contribute 60% of the overall assessment.
Background Readings and Resources
Beckerman, Wilfred(1994) ‘Sustainable development: is it a useful concept?’ Environmental Values 3, 3:191-209 (e-journal)
Beckerman, Wilfred, and Joanna Pasek (2001) Justice, Posterity, and the Environment. Oxford: Oxford University Press (esp ch.5 'Sustainable development') (e-reserve)
Dresner, S. (2008) The Principles of Sustainability London: Earthscan. (hub reserve)
Drexhage, J. and D. Murphy (2010) ‘Sustainable Development: From Brundtland to Rio 2012’, Background Paper, New York: United Nations. Available (and downloadable) at:
Global Biodiversity Outlook
Houghton, J. (2004) Global Warming: the Complete Briefing. Cambridge University Press. (hub reserve)
Jackson, T.(2010)Prosperity Without Growth London: Earthscan. (e-book)
Or original SDC report online from:
Moffatt, I., Hanley, N. and Wilson, M.D. (2001). Measuring and Modelling Sustainable Development. Parthenon Publishing Group, New York. (hub reserve)
OECD Sustainable Development Glossary. Available at:
Rio +20 Dictionary [a glossary of commonly used terms pertaining to Sustainable Development]. Available (and downloadable) at:
UK Sustainable Development Commission (The SDC was set up by UK government in 2000, to help decision makers and advisers embed sustainable development in the four Governments of the UK. As of 31 March 2011 the UK Conservative-Lib Dem Coalition government has withdrawn funding.
“Top 50 Sustainability Books” that Cambridge academics compiled for The Guardian.
Lectures in detail