2023/24 Taught Postgraduate Module Catalogue

SOEE5870M Social and Political Dimensions of the Climate Challenge

30 creditsClass Size: 100

Module manager: Olaf Corry
Email: T.O.Corry@leeds.ac.uk

Taught: Semester 1 (Sep to Jan) View Timetable

Year running 2023/24

Pre-requisite qualifications

Bachelor-level degree of any kind, normal prerequisite for Masters study.

This module is not approved as an Elective

Module summary

Introducing climate change as a multidimensional problem, this module equips students to understand the competing interests and diverse forms of knowledge involved in understanding and acting upon climate change. It introduces and evaluates dominant and alternative approaches to social and technological transformation including: vulnerability, governance, adaptation and mitigation. developing social analytical tools to navigate this complexity.

Objectives

Learners will gain a deeper understanding of the multiple facets of climate change as not just a physical Earth system process but a societal challenge which is subject to competing and conflicting ideas, knowledges, interests, actors and solutions. The module will introduce how discourses and concepts how climate problems and strategies to tackle them are conceived and acted upon.

The module examines how climate science as well as other forms of knowledge are mobilised to ‘understand’ and ‘do’ climate change in particular ways, and in particular how science and politics affect each other. The key categories currently used in key policy fora such as mitigation, adaptation, governance, vulnerability and resilience will be taught and critiqued, while strategies relating to adaptation, vulnerability and governance will be explored to give an understanding of how societies are, or could be, responding differently to the effects of climate change.

Teaching will be a mixture of online recorded mini-lecture segments, live lectures, student readings and presentations, as well as group seminars discussing cases and linking these to taught theories and concepts. Knowledge and skills will also be introduced and practiced during a residential and during day field visits (see Capstone Project). A mock climate negotiation will also support students to explore the complex dynamics of power and influence within climate change governance, with reflections on this used to further explore issues of positionality, discourse and competing interests.

Learning outcomes
1. Describe the complexity of climate change as a wicked problem where multiple aims compete and collide. 

2. Critically analyse how key concepts have evolved within climate change discourse, such as mitigation, adaptation, vulnerability and resilience, loss and damage, and transition and transformation. 

3. Explain how different kinds of climate knowledge, perspectives, policy, and practice interact with each other and are influenced by power and competing interests. 

4. Evaluate the changing governance arrangements and the roles states, markets and civil society play in shaping the abilities of a range of actors to exert influence 

5. Appraise how adequately different forms of climate knowledge and solutions pursue different climate objectives such as risk management, security, development, and justice

Skills outcomes
1. Critical thinking and analysis.   

2. Ability to perform critical analysis of a text (e.g discourse analysis). 

3. Evaluation and synthesis of evidence and perspectives.  

4. Teamwork and collaboration.  

5. Communication skills.  

Syllabus

This module begins by unpacking the many different problem-framings hiding under the umbrella concept ‘climate change’ to identify and understand it as an inherently complex societal and political – not simply physical – challenge. Having uncovered different problem-definitions of climate change and how they matter (‘wickedness’ of climate change), the key framings or discourses of climate change and the key concepts that structure responses to climate change are identified, (including risk, security, development and justice that give form to Semester 2 modules). The main contending discourses (e.g. eco-modernism, radical transformation or catastrophism) are presented. As invariably climate challenges are also a product of different kinds of knowledge (e.g. engineering, economics, physics, International Relations etc.) the module gives some grounding in the politics of knowledge including how categories and quantification matter to social and political dynamics around climate change. Key policy actors and institutions at global, national and local level, and climate policy forums, including the United National Framework Convention (UNFCCC) and the link between science and politics are covered. How human societies deal with vulnerability and strategise for resilience and adaptation is taught, before collective drivers and factors behind procrastination/delay in dealing with climate change are summarised and examined.

Teaching methods

Delivery type	Number	Length hours	Student hours
Supervision	2	1.00	2.00
Lecture	5	1.00	5.00
Lecture	11	1.00	11.00
Practical	2	6.00	12.00
Seminar	14	1.00	14.00
Independent online learning hours			156.00
Private study hours			100.00
Total Contact hours			44.00
Total hours (100hr per 10 credits)			300.00

Opportunities for Formative Feedback

We will run one x 1-hour drop-in support supervision before each assignment (2 x 1-hour drop-in total) for students to ask questions and get feedback on their ideas.

Methods of assessment

Coursework

Assessment type	Notes	% of formal assessment
Critique	Analyse a climate text (from selected list) drawing on various discursive tools and social science approaches (eg. Critical Discourse Analysis) [2000 words, individual submission]	50.00
Essay	After participating in a group-based in-class mock climate negotiation involving a diverse range of ‘stakeholders’, explain how different perspectives, institutions, kinds of power and influence affect climate change decision-making. [2000 words, individual submission, 50%]	50.00
Total percentage (Assessment Coursework)		100.00

Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated

Reading list

The reading list is available from the Library website

Last updated: 29/09/2023

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