Course Title: Environmental Theory

Part A: Course Overview

Course Title: Environmental Theory

Credit Points: 12.00

Terms

Course Code	Campus	Career	School	Learning Mode	Teaching Period(s)
ENVI1129	City Campus	Postgraduate	365H Global, Urban and Social Studies	Face-to-Face	Sem 1 2007, Sem 1 2014
ENVI1129	City Campus	Postgraduate	365H Global, Urban and Social Studies	Face-to-Face or Internet	Sem 1 2012

Course Coordinator: Ben Cooke

Course Coordinator Phone: +61 3 9925 9943

Course Coordinator Email: ben.cooke@rmit.edu.au

Course Coordinator Location: 15.3.5

Pre-requisite Courses and Assumed Knowledge and Capabilities

None

Course Description

This subject will critically examine the ways in which conceptions and attitudes about the environment have emerged over time internationally and in Australia to identify important schools of thought, reflecting a diversity of worldviews or philosophies. It will explore the influences of such schools of thought and worldviews on contemporary debates about environmental sustainability. Indeed it will address the question: ‘Why has the world entered a deep crisis of unsustainability?’

The course will relate schools of environmental thought to broader social and cultural movements in history and consider the ways in which these schools of thought might, or might not, help us to grapple with the specific challenges of environmental sustainability in the Australian context. Students taking this subject will be encouraged to examine their personal values and attitudes regarding the environment and the challenges of environmental sustainability in the contemporary world.

Objectives/Learning Outcomes/Capability Development

Students taking this subject will be encouraged to examine their personal values and attitudes regarding the environment and the challenges of environmental sustainability in the contemporary world.

Students undertaking this subject will:

• Become familiar with significant schools of environmental thought and their emergence historically
• Develop a framework for understanding personal and social environmental values
• Assess contemporary issues of environmental sustainability from the perspective of different schools of environmental thought and their related values systems
• Develop research and writing skills related to questions of environmental sustainability

Overview of Learning Activities

This subject requires attendance at a weekly lecture/seminar.

Overview of Learning Resources

A reading pack will be provided.

Overview of Assessment

There will be three specific assessment tasks:

1) A journal related to readings and participation in seminars (around 1000 words)

2) A book review (around 1000 words)

3) A research essay on a topic arising from the seminar topics covered in Weeks 4-12 (around 3000 words)