Undergraduate Module Descriptor

SOC3117: Environments in Public

This module descriptor refers to the 2021/2 academic year.

Overview

NQF Level 6
Credits 15 ECTS Value 7.5
Term(s) and duration

This module ran during term 1 (11 weeks)

Academic staff

Dr Angela Cassidy (Convenor)

Pre-requisites

none

Co-requisites

none

Available via distance learning

No

Environmental issues are a key – and fiercely contested – area of social and political debate in contemporary society, as concerns widen over the severity and speed of environmental change due to human activities. In this module, we will learn about the complex social processes involved in public debates about our changing environment since the invention of the ‘the environment’ during the 1960s; and over what individuals, institutions, and society can - and should - do about it.

We will explore this theme through a series of key concepts including environmental communication, mass media and the wider public sphere; environmental publics and governance; environmental pasts and futures; environmental philosophies; environmental social and political movements; and scale, expertise and experience.  You will investigate how environmental  issues are brought to light, contested and decided about in today’s fast moving mass media and wider public sphere.  In so doing, you will learn how to critically interrogate claims and counter claims about environmental change and governance made in media coverage; and to communicate clearly about these debates using multiple media formats.  

There are no formal pre-requisites for the course.

Module createdLast revised

10/12/2021