This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2016 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.

APG5425 - Perspectives on environment and sustainability

6 points, SCA Band 2, 0.125 EFTSL

Postgraduate - Unit

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

Faculty

Organisational Unit

Coordinator(s)

Offered

First semester 2016 (Evening)

Synopsis

People's approaches to environmental issues (what they see as problems and what they see as solutions) vary widely based on worldviews, assumptions, and value systems. This unit develops students' capacity to critically evaluate differing ideological, philosophical, and disciplinary approaches to environment and sustainability, such as positivistic science, technology, systems theory, social ecology, indigenous worldviews, deep ecology, bioregionalism, poststructuralism, neoliberalism, and sustainability science. Throughout, it will explore the implications of these approaches for policymaking, disciplinary research, environmental management, and political processes and action.

Outcomes

Students successfully completing this unit will be expected to demonstrate:

A thorough grasp of the ideas and assumptions behind a range of key perspectives on the environment and sustainability.
An ability to recognize and analyse different philosophical and ideological perspectives on the environment in use (in writing, in speech, in political positions',...).
A capacity to understand the perspectives of different disciplines within an interdisciplinary context.
Skills in analysing the implications of differing environmental perspectives on practical courses of action and policy-making.
Skills in constructing critical and analytical arguments, in oral and written form, relevant to discussions of environmental worldviews and philosophies.
An in-depth understanding of the historical roots and current debates within one perspective.

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 Megan Farrelly

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

Corporate environmental and sustainability management
Environment and governance
International sustainable tourism management

Prohibitions

APG4425