APG5627 Political ecology: Critical explanations of socio-environmental problems

This Unit introduces students to the field of political ecology, which considers the relevance of power and politics for shaping relationships between humans and their environments. The Unit explores the principles and analytical approaches of political ecology, particularly as applied to diverse real-world cases. Students engage with seminal and contemporary contributions in political ecology, exploring those contributions in relation to real-world case studies. The Unit introduces students to the key concepts of political ecology, conceptualising human-environment relations through society, nature, and capitalism. By introducing some fundamental tools for political ecology research and analysis, the Unit explores critical chains of explanation for contemporary socio-environmental problems. Through engaged learning processes, the Unit explores the utility of political ecological analysis in variety of fields, with students conducting research to analyse cases through a variety of key political ecological lenses. The Unit ends with reflections on the role of political ecologists in contemporary contexts of environmental change.