Module SGIA3731: Global Politics in the Anthropocene: Securing the Environment

Department: Government and International Affairs

SGIA3731: Global Politics in the Anthropocene: Securing the Environment

Prerequisites

• To take this module students are required to have taken a Level 2 SGIA module and advised to have taken a Level 1 and 2 International Relations module.

Corequisites

• None.

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None.

Aims

• The aim of this module is to explore the following inter-related concerns:
• The conceptual and empirical bases for understanding human impacts on the Earth;
• The contested politics of the idea of the Anthropocene and its provocation to re-interpret and re-imagine relationships between humans, non-humans and Earth system processes;
• The impacts the Anthropocene has on the study of global politics and the disciplinary foundations of International Relations;
• The nature and limits of historical and contemporary forms of global governance for managing global environmental issues.

Content

• Human impacts upon the Earth are so significant that they have led to a proposed new geologic epoch – the Anthropocene. The course will focus on how the Anthropocene and global environmental change challenges global order, institutions and political imaginations. The module begins by considering the historical and contemporary forms of human impacts on the environment. It then discusses the empirical, conceptual, and political basis of the Anthropocene concept. Following this, a range of international relations (IR) perspectives will be examined that seek to respond to and/or contest the Anthropocene concept as a marker of global political and environmental change. Students will engage with a wide variety of perspectives and theories from within IR, which may include critical security studies, complexity systems thinking, posthumanism, new materialism, and feminist, decolonial and “global IR”. The module concludes with discussions on how new forms of security and governance are emerging, or could yet emerge, in response to the Anthropocene.

Learning Outcomes

• Through the module students will gain detailed knowledge and understanding of:
• The main scientific and political arguments for declaring and dating the Anthropocene;
• The relationships between global political forces and environmental change;
• How global institutions have responded to global environmental change;
• How forms of ecological thought challenge conventional wisdom about international relations including the role of nonhumans, the interplay between science and politics, the promise of security in the midst of existential threats, and how to respond to “deep-time” problems.
• Certain key debates about the politics of the Anthropocene. This might include: whether to amend or abandon existing institutions (i.e. the United Nations); how to use western or non-western sciences to link human and geologic history; whether to reject the Anthropocene as reinforcing rather than challenging, North-South and/or indigenous-settler relations; replace the emphasis on human impacts with a focus on the drivers of environmental and social inequality.

• Students will also develop some subject specific skills, such as:
• Advanced ability to identify and engage with conceptualisations and/or theorisations of major elements of Anthropocene thought;
• Utilising a range of resources to understand the complex politics of human-planet interactions;
• Advanced ability to apply appropriate methods of analysis to global environmental problems to advocate solutions, new understandings, or (re)engagements with previously marginalised knowledge traditions;
• Ability to apply Anthropocene concepts to cases and using cases (hypotheticals / historical examples) to build and develop ecological, ethical and international political theory.

• Students engaging with the course will enhance key skills including:
• Self-critical and independent approaches to learning;
• The use of inter-disciplinary research to support conceptual and empirical arguments;
• Conceptual and analytic communication skills in written form;
• Structuring and refining complex research topics and issues into a clear and actionable project;
• Advanced essay-writing skills and the ability to work to a deadline;
• The ability to reflect critically on their own work and the work of their peers.

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

• The teaching and assessment methods of the module are intended to provide the framework for the required understanding of the diversity of thought and empirical material related to the global politics in the Anthropocene while promoting the required subject-specific and key skills.
• Teaching and learning are through a series of 1-hour lectures and an associated series of 1-hour seminars.
• The lectures will provide formal instruction and will draw attention to scholarship on the Anthropocene and its global political dynamics. They provide the framework and the overarching narrative for the weekly topic and serve as a guide for students’ readings and preparation towards the seminars.
• Seminars allow students to engage in in-depth exploration of scholarly debates on the global politics of the Anthropocene.
• Students are required to submit two summative essays. The first is a review essay of 1500 words, where students are expected to present a critical review pertaining to the theme of the module. Students will be provided with a special list of material to choose from. This review essay enables the student to develop critical thinking while enhancing their understanding of the existing debates within the relevant scholarship. The second assessment is a 3,000-word essay to be submitted at the end of the module. This essay enables them to demonstrate achievement that they have acquired sufficient subject knowledge and have achieved the subject skills as well as key skills.
• Students are required to submit a formative essay. This enables them to practice their essay-writing skills, to assess their own progress, and to receive feedback on whether they are achieving at the appropriate level, whether they are sufficiently informed, and they are expressing themselves appropriately.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

Students will be required to write an essay (1500 words) by the end of the Michaelmas term.

■ 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