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Description
The course explores the diverse ways that climate change is framed as a problem with the coursework focusing on how these different framings lead to different interpretations of what would constitute a successful solution.
The course aims are as follows:
- To explore the ways in which different people frame climate change as an issue
- To examine the politics of these debates
- To critically assess proposed solutions to climate change
The course focuses upon the different ways in which climate change is framed as an issue. With political rows about climate policy and justice, regular interventions from activist scientists and skeptics, and the various analyses by economists and environmentalists, climate change encompasses far more issues than carbon dioxide science and policy. This course questions whether climate change is a singular issue to be solved.
Most weeks of the course are devoted to a different approach to climate change, exploring for example economic, ethical, political, technological and behavioural framings amongst others. This is not defined in advance but is chosen via discussion at the start of the module. The focus is on the central arguments within each of these discourses, considering how climate change is considered a problem and the significant implications for the types of solutions envisaged or preferred within that discourse.
Students will conduct secondary-source research projects on proposed or existing responses to climate change (where responses are defined broadly to include mitigation, adaptation and scientific or political solutions). A critical assessment of the researched response, drawing upon social science debates, forms the assessment for the course.
By the end of the course students should be able to:
- Appreciate the diversity of perspectives on climate change
- Critically assess the academic debates and politics of climate change
- Apply this understanding to a practical example
- Engage in discussions about and individual evaluation of social science literatures on climate change.
This module will enhance careers skills on critical thinking, while also facilitating cultural awareness and interpersonal skills through the in-class small group discussions.
Module deliveries for 2024/25 academic year
Last updated
This module description was last updated on 8th April 2024.
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