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IP201 Sustainability

Module leader: Dr Lauren Bird
  • Core module
  • Terms 1-3, 22 weeks
  • 30 CATS
  • 20 workshops
  • Not available to students outside the School for Cross-faculty Studies

Moodle Platform

This module complements its sister Year Two core module in Consumption, with each exploring a major organizing concept of contemporary society from different intellectual perspectives. Where Consumption draws on cultural interventions and sociological and historical theoretical frameworks, Sustainability instead focusses on contemporary ecological, economic, and regulatory challenges and the development of effective evidence-based policy.

The module aims to provide you with in-depth and holistic study of the topical issue of Sustainability using a multi-disciplinary Problem-Based Learning approach. You'll examine a number of dimensions of sustainability, viewed from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, and acquire a detailed evidence-based understanding of current controversies, debates and theories.

In addition to an understanding of the factors inherent in a broad definition of sustainability, you'll be encouraged to explore feasible policy approaches to address the most pressing issues, and to have an awareness of the barriers to effective policymaking in the sustainability sphere.

The problems explored throughout this module revolve around questions of defining and understanding sustainability, the challenges of measuring and assessing it, opportunities and limitations in individual action, issues in business and globalisation, and the sustainability of population and society.

  Please note: Module availability and staffing may change year on year depending on availability and other operational factors. The School for Cross-faculty Studies makes no guarantee that any modules will be offered in a particular year, or that they will necessarily be taught by the staff listed on these pages.