POLS304-25S1 (C) Semester One 2025

Environmental Politics and Policy

30 points

Details:
Start Date: Monday, 17 February 2025
End Date: Sunday, 22 June 2025
Withdrawal Dates
Last Day to withdraw from this course:
  • Without financial penalty (full fee refund): Sunday, 2 March 2025
  • Without academic penalty (including no fee refund): Sunday, 11 May 2025

Description

Has green politics come of age? Around the world we are seeing spontaneous community movements challenging four difficult and intersecting issues: dangerous environmental change, growing social inequality, weak democracy and a paradigm of growth that has contributed to resource extraction beyond the capacity of the planet. Against a background of difficult issues including climate change and the impact of colonization, this course examines the roots of environmental thinking and activism and asks- what are the implications of these ideas for how we live as citizens, communities, businesses and nations and how might we plan for just transitions towards a more equitable and sustainable future? The course involves a weekend field trip.

Has green politics come of age? Around the world from Tunisia to New York we’ve seen spontaneous movements challenging four difficult and intersecting sustainability problems: dangerous environmental change, growing social inequality, weakening democracy and a paradigm of growth that has contributed to skyrocketing youth unemployment and resource extraction beyond the capacity of the planet (Jackson, 2009; Hansen 2009; Rockstrom et al 2009, Wilkenson and Pickett, 2009; Hayward 2012).

Learning Outcomes

  • The pedagogy that drives this course is “critical hope and liberation education”, students are encouraged to see themselves as citizens who can effect change, to think about their situation and others’, and to read key texts in more depth, to spark deeper reflection (Friere 1973/2014, Barry 2018).

  • Students are also given the opportunity to apply their reading and reflection to real world case studies, to think about the potential and possibilities for a greener, socially just future. This is not an ordinary lecture series, it’s a course I hope stays with you in some way and I request you come prepared to contribute actively to class, and to read and listen to a range of view points that may differ significantly from your own – there is no point in studying merely to reinforce our prejudices and world views, the purpose of effective, higher education is new, richer insight into collective problems.
  • Students will understand and can critically evaluate green political theory and, where applicable, apply this knowledge to analysis of issues confronting a local NZ community
  • Students will become aware of and understand the nature of bi-culturalism in Aotearoa New Zealand and its relevance to debates about green political development. Introduction to issues influencing development of Māori representation, institutional representation and tikanga in environmental protection and management and policy debate
  • Students will have observed and understood a culture within a community by reflecting on their own performance and experiences within that community.
  • Students will comprehend the influence of global conditions of environmental change on the discipline of political science and will be competent in engaging with global and multi-cultural contexts.

Prerequisites

Any 30 points at 200 level from POLS, or
any 60 points at 200 level from the Schedule V of the BA, or
LAWS, GEOG, or
the Schedule V of the BCom.

Timetable 2025

Students must attend one activity from each section.

Lecture A
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Monday 13:00 - 15:00 Jack Erskine 340
17 Feb - 6 Apr
28 Apr - 1 Jun
Lecture B
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Wednesday 10:00 - 11:00 Meremere 526
17 Feb - 6 Apr
28 Apr - 1 Jun

Course Coordinator

Bronwyn Hayward

Textbooks / Resources

Recommended text:
Bronwyn Hayward (2021) Children, citizenship and environment: #SchoolStrike edition Routledge London explores many of the ideas in the course, and is available in the library or bookshop.

Indicative Fees

Domestic fee $2,023.00

International fee $8,435.00

* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.

For further information see Language, Social and Political Sciences .

All POLS304 Occurrences

  • POLS304-25S1 (C) Semester One 2025