Unit name | Environment and Society |
---|---|
Unit code | SOCI20049 |
Credit points | 20 |
Level of study | I/5 |
Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
Unit director | Dr. Downer |
Open unit status | Not open |
Pre-requisites |
None |
Co-requisites |
None |
School/department | School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies |
Faculty | Faculty of Social Sciences and Law |
The unit explores the interaction between individuals/collectivities and environments, as these are mediated by culture/ideology. Via an historical consideration of social beliefs and attitudes to nature and people’s place in it, the unit examines the way the way that environment has been conceptualised by social theorists, as a basis from which to explore some key aspects of the interconnection between society and nature, including issues of environmental justice, transport, gender, animals, food and bodies.
Aims:
1. to critically examine societal attitudes to issues such as: the natural world; wild and domestic animals; environmental resources; and the cultivation of 'nature', including the human body
2. to articulate the complex interaction between people and nature, and the extent to which modes of social production and consumption are implicated in contemporary environmental crises
3. to outline the various ways in which historical and contemporary social theory has conceptualised 'environment'
4. to explore the development of environmentalism as political ideology.
1 hour of lecture and 2 hours of seminars.