Overview

The course offers an opportunity for students to explore the aspects of societies that have had an adverse impact on the environment and climate, which in turn can adversely and unfairly impact particular groups. Simultaneously this course offers an opportunity for students to appreciate the capacity of societal regeneration to address environmental issues including climate change, and in turn to contribute to climate justice. The aim of the course is to develop students’ ability to apply critical and innovative thinking to the relationship between society and environment, and to equip them with a basis in research, analysis, problem solving, and communication skills so that they may contribute to solutions in this area.

Requisites

Teaching periods
Location
Start and end dates
Last self-enrolment date
Census date
Last withdraw without fail date
Results released date
Semester 1
Location
Hawthorn
Start and end dates
03-March-2025
01-June-2025
Last self-enrolment date
16-March-2025
Census date
31-March-2025
Last withdraw without fail date
24-April-2025
Results released date
08-July-2025

Learning outcomes

Students who successfully complete this unit will be able to:

  • Apply relevant theories, concepts, research methodology, and evidence to debates about the environment.
  • Critically review, analyse, and summarise scholarship on the social aspects of environmental problems and solutions including research using quantitative and qualitative data.
  • Develop informed arguments about the relationship between the society that we live in and the environment we experience by using evidence, evaluating competing explanations, and drawing conclusions.
  • Communicate ideas, principles, and knowledge informed by academic literature regarding the relationship between society and the environment.
  • Develop innovative ideas that are solutions focused for addressing environmental problems.
  • Reflect on the environmental implications of their own way of life.

Teaching methods

Hawthorn

Type Hours per week Number of weeks Total (number of hours)
On-campus
Lecture
1.00 12 weeks 12
On-campus
Class
2.00 12 weeks 24
Specified Activities
Various
2.00 12 weeks 24
Unspecified Activities
Various
7.50 12 weeks 90
TOTAL150

Assessment

Type Task Weighting ULO's
Major EssayIndividual 48% 1,2,3,4,5,6 
Reflective EssayIndividual 16% 4,5,6 
Research ReportIndividual 36% 2,3,4 

Content

  • Introduction
  • Nature and society
  • How we know about environmental problems
  • Globalisation
  • How we organise our economy
  • Population dynamics
  • How we have transformed our environment: Industrialisation and urbanisation
  • How we live: consumption and waste
  • Environmental justice and environmental inequality
  • The Environmental movement
  • Ecological citizenship
  • Nature Based Solutions

Study resources

Reading materials

A list of reading materials and/or required textbooks will be available in the Unit Outline on Canvas.