Module GEOG41430: Social Dimensions of Risk and Resilience

Department: Geography

GEOG41430: Social Dimensions of Risk and Resilience

Prerequisites

• NONE

Corequisites

• NONE

Excluded Combination of Modules

• NONE

Aims

• This module aims to provide advanced training in topics relevant to understanding the social dimensions of risk and resilience with a particular emphasis on environmental hazard and security. The module aims to provide a strong foundation in concepts and techniques essential to carry out research in these aspects of the social dimensions of risk. The perspective is broadly interdisciplinary, drawing on work in human geography, public health geography, security studies, the sociology of risk, science and technology studies, as well as legal and commercial risk imaginaries

Content

• Indicative module content includes:
• Risk and security
• The ethics and politics of uncertainty
• Social determinants of health, disability and well-being
• Human dimensions of environmental change, including hazards and climate change
• Social, political and cultural dimensions of resilience
• Theories of risk and resilience
• Social capital
• Risk and public policy
• Methodological strategies and techniques
• Impact assessment

Learning Outcomes

• Advanced understanding and critical analysis of risk and resilience.
• Advanced interpretation and evaluation of different approaches to the problem of risk and resilience in relation to a number of specific cases.
• Advanced understanding of methodological strategies and techniques required to understand risk and resilience.

• Demonstrable understanding of the historical and context specificity of the problem of risk and resilience.
• Application of module concepts with a view to analyzing problems, including security, health and hazard, that are approached via risk techniques.
• Presentation in both oral and written formats present of the findings of specific analyses.
• Acquisition of specific skills required to explore comparisons of relative risks for different populations.

• The ability to debate ideas, while recognizing and respecting the viewpoints of others
• Verbal presentation
• Written communication
• Advanced individual learning and study.
• Team work in a workshop format.
• Analysis of text, visual and media materials.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• The module is divided into two parts. Part I addresses issues relating to risk, security and society. Part II addresses issues relating to risk, resilience and the environment.
• Part I – Risk, Security and Society Through a combination of seminars, workshops and tutorials, Part I provides students with an opportunity to develop an in-depth appreciation of the emergence and deployment of risk techniques as a means of securing the uncertain future. The seminars are organised to allow students to reflect on, debate, and diagnose various dimension of risk and security with specific emphasis on security and society in the early 21st century. Part I offers advanced understanding of the geographies of security, particularly the ways in which security challenges are governed increasingly through the prism of risk. It responds to the growing realisation that many risks are being created through social processes bound to questions of security, including the ways that risk techniques are emerging and being employed as a means of securing uncertain futures. The workshops are designed to allow students to present their own independent research and thinking on a relevant topic of their own choice. Tutorials offer an opportunity for students to consolidate their thinking in smaller group session. On completion of the module, students will have substantive theoretical and empirical knowledge of the specific societal emergence of the problem of security and different responses to the problem of security.
• Part II – Social Dimensions of Risk, Resilience and the Environment Part II provides students with a series of learning activities aimed at developing their analytical and interpretive skills in respect of the social, economic, political and cultural dimension of risk, resilience and the environment. The seminars provide students the opportunity to discuss and debate issues pertinent to risk, resilience and the environment, including climate change and environmental and social hazards. Each seminar is organised around a different theme. The workshops are used to allow to present their independent research on a topic of their choice and to receive peer and staff feedback. The tutorials allow students to consolidate their thinking in smaller group sessions.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

Term 1 Students will present their research questions for the research at a workshop. They will receive formative feedback from their colleagues (spoken comments following presentation) and from the tutor (written comments following presentation). They may incorporate this feedback into the editing of the written report before final submission. NB: formative work is a compulsory part of this module. Term 2 Students will present an illustrative report on an aspect of the social dimensions of risk and resilience at a workshop. They will receive formative feedback from their colleagues (spoken comments following presentation) and from the tutor (written comments following presentation). The feedback will be designed to develop their skills and understanding, relevant to production of the written research report for their summative assessment. NB: formative work is a compulsory part of this module

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University