Environmental Studies

The history of climate and environment are rapidly evolving fields of study that aim to reconstruct environmental and climate conditions over past centuries and millennia, and to understand how societies perceived and responded to changing environmental conditions and events such as natural disasters and extreme weather. These aims can be best achieved by combining evidence from both natural and human archives. In this course, students examine how natural archives such as tree-rings and sediment cores can be used to reveal climate and environmental variations in the past. They examine how this information can be combined with evidence from human archives, including written and archaeological records, to understand the social impacts of environmental change. In doing so, they draw upon case studies from the ancient, medieval, and early modern eras. The case studies range from ancient Egypt and Babylonia to the ancient American Southwest, and from there to Medieval Ireland, and into the oceanic realm. In these places students examine the role of pre-modern societies in transforming the face of the earth, and how humans perceived and coped with a changing environment.

This course consists of two parts: 1) experimental design and 2) data analysis. The experimental design part of the course largely follows a textbook (Ruxton and Colegrave 2016). The main theme of the data analysis part is the method of maximum likelihood although other approaches are also discussed. Computer simulations will be used to understand the concepts of various statistical methods, but no prior experience in programming is required. Although the course title contains the word ecology, this is a general course on experimental design and data analysis. Students of any fields (social science, political science, physical science, biological science, business, engineering, etc.) can take the course. No knowledge of ecology is required. On the other hand, students are expected to have the basic knowledge of statistics (e.g., one semester of an introductory statistics course).

Full course description

Interest in the concept of social and sustainable entrepreneurship has been sparked over the last two decades due to frustration with inefficient, ineffective and failed action of government and philanthropic bodies, as well as the socially destructive behaviour of many businesses. An explicit and central social/sustainable mission, innovation, creativity and a strong market orientation are the distinguishing features of social and sustainable entrepreneurship. Social and sustainable entrepreneurs are committed to furthering a social and/or sustainable mission, and rank social, environmental or cultural impact on a par with, or above, profit. At the intersection of business, government and not-for-profit organisations, these social and sustainable entrepreneurs are now visible and having an impact on a global scale.

This course will provide you the opportunity to learn how you can apply your knowledge and skills to address complex sustainability problems. This course is structured around experiential problem-based learning, providing you the opportunity to synthesise theory and practice as you develop an idea for your own social/sustainable enterprises. Topics will include: critically reviewing concepts; user centred-design of social and sustainable enterprises; frameworks for understanding and strategizing; understanding and reporting social and environmental impact; and cross-sector collaboration.

Course objectives

On the successful completion of this course you should be able to:

• Critically reflect on social and sustainable entrepreneurship theory and practice
• Identify and evaluate social and sustainable entrepreneurship opportunities
• Develop a strategy for a social/ sustainable enterprise
• Conduct primary research and analyse primary and secondary data in the field of social and sustainable entrepreneurship
• Prepare and present documentation to pitch a novel enterprise idea
• Learn to cope with the chaos and complexity of doing social and sustainable entrepreneurship in the real world.

Prerequisites

You need to have completed at least ONE of the following course: SSC2055 Entrepreneurship; SSC2036 Introduction to Business Administration OR SCI1016 Sustainable Development

This course introduces conceptual approaches for understanding the myriad relationships between human societies and their biophysical environments. It addresses three key questions. First, how are nature and society interconnected? Second, what theoretical and methodological approaches can be used to study nature-society relationships? Third, how can societal relationships with nature be improved in ways that are sustainable and just? These questions will be explored using different social theories, particularly from the interdisciplinary field of political ecology, which will be applied to contemporary environmental issues. Students will learn how to critically think, discuss, and write about complex nature-society interactions.

This course teaches students to think critically about human beings' interactions with and responsibility towards the broader global environment in the modern world. It contextualizes the moral and political questions arising out of this inquiry within the broader philosophical tradition, including its numerous critical discussions of the role of humankind in the natural world.