Postgraduate - UnitAPG5627 - Research in political ecology

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2015 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

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6 points, SCA Band 2, 0.125 EFTSL

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered.

Level	Postgraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Arts
Organisational Unit	Sustainability Environment and Society
Offered	Clayton First semester 2015 (Day)
Coordinator(s)	Dr Craig Thorburn

Synopsis

This unit introduces student to principles and analytical methods of political ecology, and its application to analysing sustainable development and natural resources management. The first part of the unit introduces the theoretical foundations for the political ecology approach and explores its application to the issue of sustainable development. The second part of the unit uses the political ecology approach from an international comparative perspective for analysing development conflicts in a range of environmental sectors in international and Australian contexts, including farming and pastoralism, water, mining, fisheries and forests.

Outcomes

On completion of the unit students will be able to:

understand the theoretical underpinnings of political ecology;
employ a range of analytical frameworks for understanding the links between political economy of development and ecological change;
understand a wide range of problems and conflicts associated with natural resources management and sustainability;
research and analyse development projects using political ecology and comparative frameworks;
analyse local development problems in their regional contexts and their links to global processes and institutions;
understand and have a critical appreciation of alternative approaches to sustainable development.

Assessment

Within semester assessment: 100%

Workload requirements

Minimum total expected workload to achieve the learning outcomes for this unit is 144 hours per semester typically comprising a mixture of scheduled learning activities and independent study. A unit requires on average three/four hours of scheduled activities per week. Scheduled activities may include a combination of teacher directed learning, peer directed learning and online engagement.

Chief examiner(s)

Dr Craig Thorburn

This unit applies to the following area(s) of study

Environmental management and sustainability
International development

Prohibitions

APG4627