Module POL3255 for 2021/2
- Overview
- Aims and Learning Outcomes
- Module Content
- Indicative Reading List
- Assessment
Undergraduate Module Descriptor
POL3255: Deliberating the Environmental Emergency: The Citizens' Assembly
This module descriptor refers to the 2021/2 academic year.
Module Aims
This module will equip you with the latest scientific knowledge on the major causes and consequences of climate change and biodiversity loss. You will learn about policy solutions to these problems, on the key sectors contributing to them, such as energy, transport, infrastructure, food and consumption. Understanding and awareness of these issues is critical for the next generation of politics graduates who will be challenged to find solutions to these issues in a range of employment, community and policy contexts.
The environmental crisis is a cross-cutting issue that requires knowledge and input from more than one sector and discipline. The course will thus be enriched with a series of guest speakers, including academics providing expertise based on their own and others’ research, and stakeholders and practitioners sharing their experience.
You will learn about the role of deliberative public engagement in the policy process through first-hand experience of engaging in a Citizens’ Assembly run as a key component of the module. You will also acquire key transferable skills through the moderation of, and participation in, group deliberations. With its applied focus, the module will also provide you with an opportunity to get involved in devising policy solutions to achieve sustainability in the national context.
| On successfully completing the programme you will be able to: | |
|---|---|
| Module-Specific Skills | 1. Demonstrate in-depth knowledge about the design and conduct of Citizens Assemblies 2. Understanding the environmental emergency from a trans-disciplinary perspective |
| Discipline-Specific Skills | 3. Demonstrate detailed and comprehensive knowledge of environmental policies related to climate change and the protection of biodiversity, as well as the challenges associated to implementing these policies 4. Understand the role, potential and limitations of citizen deliberation in developing policy recommendations |
| Personal and Key Skills | 5. Moderate and facilitate group deliberations 6. Use lessons from research to inform policy development |
Module Content
Syllabus Plan
Whilst the module’s precise content may vary from year to year, it is envisaged that the syllabus will cover some or all of the following topics.
In Term 1 students will be provided with the necessary background to participate in the Citizens’ Assembly, which will be run in Term 2.
Term 1
Lectures in Term 1 will be delivered in part by the module convenors and in part by other academics as well as policy practitioners and/ or stakeholders across a range of different disciplines and sectors (e.g. responsible investing organisations, agricultural policy experts, farmers, activists). Topics covered will include:
Part 1 (weeks 1-6): Framing the environmental crisis:
- The science of climate change: mechanisms, causes & consequences
- Biodiversity loss: mechanisms, causes & consequences
- Unpacking systemic causes: The economic foundations of the environmental crisis
- Levels of action and obstacles to change: A framework of analysis
- The environmental policy process/ policy instruments for addressing the environmental crisis
Part 2 (weeks 7-11): Sector specific issues – 1 hour guest lectures followed by seminar style discussion
- Energy and its uses
- Transport
- Food
- Infrastructure and building
- Consumption and production
Term 2
In Term 2, the first few sessions will explore the contribution that Democratic Innovations and Citizen Assemblies especially can make to the environmental emergency debate. Students will participate in such an Assembly over five weeks of class in the second half of term and make policy recommendations to handle the environmental emergency in specific sectors building on the knowledge acquired in Term 1. Sessions will include:
Part 3 (weeks 1-4): The politics of the environmental emergency
- Building political momentum: The emergence of a climate agenda
- The theory and practice of deliberation: Contribution and limits
- Democratic innovations in practice: The role of citizen assemblies in the climate emergency
Part 4 (weeks 5-11): Running the Citizens Assembly
- Recap and weekly deliberation on each of the sector specific topics introduced in term 1
- Synthesis and recommendations, voting for policy options
- Evaluation and reflection on the process
Learning and Teaching
This table provides an overview of how your hours of study for this module are allocated:
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | Guided independent study | Placement / study abroad |
|---|---|---|
| 44 | 256 |
...and this table provides a more detailed breakdown of the hours allocated to various study activities:
| Category | Hours of study time | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | 44 | 22 x 2 hours per week, which includes lectures, seminars and Citizens Assembly participation |
| Guided independent study | 136 | Reading |
| Guided independent study | 50 | Writing the essay outline and essay |
| Guided independent study | 20 | Reflective Log writing |
| Guided independent study | 50 | Citizens Assembly Analytical Report |
Online Resources
This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).
