Unit name | Environmental Policy and Politics |
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Unit code | GEOGM1409 |
Credit points | 20 |
Level of study | M/7 |
Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
Unit director | Professor. Fairbrother |
Open unit status | Not open |
Pre-requisites |
All core Term 1 units for the MSc in Environmental Policy and Management |
Co-requisites |
All core Term 2 units for the MSc in Environmental Policy and Management |
School/department | School of Geographical Sciences |
Faculty | Faculty of Science |
This unit provides an advanced introduction to the kinds of decisions that governments and other public authorities make with respect to the environment (governance), and conflicts over those decisions and/or over who has the authority to make them (politics). The unit will consider administrative/political scales ranging from the local to the global, and actors ranging from individuals to international organisations. The unit aims:
On completion of this unit students should be able to:
The unit will be centred on a weekly two-hour seminar. Each week, the instructor will provide an initial informal lecture. After that, the instructor will organise structured small-group, problem-oriented discussions among the seminar participants. At some point during the term, the instructor will arrange for a guest speaker from the environmental governance field to visit the seminar and describe his/her work
(1) One Negotiations Analysis (worth 30%; maximum 1000 words), due in Week 8, where students provide a brief statement of their objectives for the negotiation, and why they are pursuing those objectives.
(2) One 3500 word essay (worth 70%) completed at the end of the unit, describing and analysing an issue in environmental policy and politics, of the student’s choice. The first two pages of the essay will consist of a Policy Memo, summarising the issue for a hypothetical policymaker audience.
Boyce, James K. 2007. “Inequality and Environmental Protection.” Pp. 314-348 in Jean-Marie Baland, Pranab Bardhan, and Samuel Bowles (eds.) Inequality, Cooperation, and Environmental Sustainability. New York: Russell Sage. Dasgupta, Susmita, Benoit Laplante, Hua Wang, and David Wheeler. 2002. "Confronting the Environmental Kuznets Curve." Journal of Economic Perspectives 16[1]: 147-68. Endres, Alfred. 2011. Environmental Economics: Theory and Policy. New York: Cambridge University Press. Ferraro, Paul J. 2009. "Counterfactual Thinking and Impact Evaluation in Environmental Policy." New Directions for Evaluation 122: 75–84. Harrison, Kathryn. 2010. “The Comparative Politics of Carbon Taxation.” Annual Review of Law and Social Science 6: 507–29. OECD 2011a: "Environmental Taxation: A Guide for Policy Makers." September.