Overview
An examination of contemporary environmental issues using concepts of scientific understanding, social, political and cultural construction and contestation, and intervention and transformation strategies.
Where do you stand on environmental issues? There are so many that it can feel overwhelming. In this paper we don't want to tell you what to think about those issues. We want to help you make sense of them by developing a way of thinking about them: what does the science tell us? What are the main social debates? And what solutions or interventions are possible? There is always more than one way to think about complex environmental issues, so we want you to be able to recognise those perspectives before deciding where you stand on things.
About this paper
| Paper title | Understanding Environmental Issues |
|---|---|
| Subject | Environment and Society |
| EFTS | 0.15 |
| Points | 18 points |
| Teaching period | Semester 1 (On campus) |
| Domestic Tuition Fees ( NZD ) | $1,243.65 |
| International Tuition Fees | Tuition Fees for international students are elsewhere on this website. |
- Prerequisite
- ENVI 111 or 108 points
- Schedule C
- Arts and Music, Science
- Eligibility
- This paper is open to students from any background, but it does require a willingness to learn and to participate in discussion.
- Contact
- Teaching staff
Course Co-ordinator: Dr Teresa Konlechner
This paper is team-taught, involving staff with expertise in the physical and social sciences, environmental policy, planning and management.
- Paper Structure
Each year three topics are selected as the core themes of the paper. Each of these topics is addressed in three ways to represent dominant academic modes of generating knowledge and developing understanding and considering solutions to environmental crises.
- First, we examine the science around each topic
- Second, we look at each topic in terms of the political, social and cultural constructions and contestations associated with them
- Finally, the key mechanisms for influencing change, or for regulation or transformation of the particular crisis, are described
Through this three-fold engagement, the forms of knowledge and the insights from different disciplines are brought into dynamic interaction around a specific problem in much the same way that students of the paper will, potentially, have to engage with these problems as graduates.
- Teaching Arrangements
One lecture per week and One 2-hour workshop per week.
- Textbooks
There is no set textbook: readings are prescribed as necessary for the various modules.
- Graduate Attributes Emphasised
- Communication, Critical thinking, Environmental literacy, Information literacy, Research, Self-motivation, Teamwork.
View more information about Otago's graduate attributes. - Learning Outcomes
On completion of the paper students should be able to:
- Engage critically with scientific and social-scientific framing of environmental issues
- Recognise the varied processes by which new knowledge and understanding about environmental issues are developed
- Understand the means by which people engage in political transformation, intervention strategies, tools for change and policy development
- Assessment details
Assessment is 40% internal (on-going during the semester) and 60% external (final examination)