HI6037 - Environmental disaster in modern Britain

You will learn on this module by attending a weekly seminar. The first part of each seminar will include a mini lecture, introducing that week’s subject and the themes for discussion. This will be followed by a focus on the set reading (available via the electronic reading list) and the historiographical debates related to the subject area. This will involve small group work and larger group discussion and will be structured around a pre-circulated worksheet, which will include a set of questions. Following a short break, the last part of the class with focus on primary sources. You will receive formative feedback throughout the learning process and the summative assessment will match your learning against the learning outcomes for the module.

Your academic development will be supported through your module tutor, engagement with your peers, and through the programme leader. The module tutor will be accessible within publicised Feedback and Consultation hours and via email. Your peers will provide you with a collaborative learning environment, and your programme leader will guide you through the requirements and expectations of your degree programme, of which this module is part. You will also be supported through individual engagement with the academic literature, lectures, and resources available on the eLP. Formative feedback will be on-going through seminar activities and assessment tasks.

All modules at Northumbria include a range of reading materials that students are expected to engage with. The reading list for this module can be found at: http://readinglists.northumbria.ac.uk
(Reading List service online guide for academic staff this containing contact details for the Reading List team – http://library.northumbria.ac.uk/readinglists)

Knowledge & Understanding:
1. Knowledge and understanding of how the natural environment became a source of political contention in modern Britain.
2. An appreciation of the origins of the current environmental crisis and why it is difficult to agree possible solutions

Intellectual / Professional skills & abilities:
3. Demonstrate a range of transferable skills, including the ability to make independent critical judgements, to critically evaluate sources, to summarise the research of others, and to present arguments in a cogent and persuasive way.

Personal Values Attributes (Global / Cultural awareness, Ethics, Curiosity) (PVA):
4. Awareness of and sensitivity towards different social groups and interests engaged in environmental politics.
5. Engagement with ethical questions concerning environmental justice and ‘more-than-human’ perspectives, and how they can be translated from historical to contemporary contexts.

1 x 3,000-word essay (weighted 50%)
This essay will be based on the first half of the module and written in response to one question chosen from a list provided by the module tutor.

1 x 3,000-word essay (weighted 50%).
This essay will be based on the content of the second half of the module and written in response to one question chosen from a list provided by the module tutor.

Formative feedback for each assessment will be provided in seminars. Verbal and written feedback will be given on all summative assessed work. Feedback on initial summative assessments will enable you to improve on later ones.

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This module will help you to understand the development of environmental politics in Modern Britain and the emergence of ‘more-than-human’ perspectives in historical and political writing. You will consider how the rise of consumer society and late industrial capitalism relied on the intensive exploitation of natural resources and why this generated a new kind of politics. Examining these issues will help you to understand how Britain’s natural environment has been transformed in the last 70 years, why this transformation generated significant political tensions, and the origins of the current environmental crisis, particularly climate change. By taking this module, you will therefore develop a greater understanding the difficulties inherent to reconciling public and private interests, leaving you able to make sense of some of the most pressing political challenges facing Britain today, particularly with respect to how they are linked to local and national developments and global processes.