MSc Environmental Change and International Development - module descriptions

Autumn semester 

Ideas and Practice in International Development (15 credits)

This module provides students with a robust understanding of the continuing evolution of theories of international development and their translation into development policy and practice. Through a comprehensive review of changing development theories and agendas since 1945, this module critically explores how current development paradigms and aid modalities inform the everyday realities of development policies and interventions.

Research Design and Methods for Development (15 credits)

This module provides students with a detailed understanding of the complexities of completing robust and reliable research for development. Starting from a critical grounding in methodological approaches and theories, the module develops insights and understandings of the particularities and practicalities of ‘doing’ development research, including strategies for working across cultural, language and other differences.

The Science of Environmental Change (15 credits)

This module gives students a critical understanding of recent historical and contemporary environmental change in the Global South. The module draws on an interdisciplinary approach, informed by political ecology, to explore the human dimensions of global environmental change from a range of different perspectives. Students are encouraged to think critically about disciplinary perspectives that inform particular viewpoints and the ways in which they impact upon development practice.

Spring semester

International Development Fieldclass (15 credits)

The fieldclass module provides all students with practical experience of development research during a 10-day fieldclass. Destinations for this module vary but have included Kenya, Tanzania, the Galapagos Islands, India and Nepal. Building on the research skills developed during the Research Design and Methods module, the fieldclass allows students to design and conduct a small-scale research project with support and mentoring from experienced field-researchers. The cost of the fieldclass is included in the course fee.

Key Issues in Environment and Development (15 credits)

This module engages critically with the key theoretical debates that shape the environment, society and international development. By looking at current questions in development theory and their relationship to development practice in the context of environmental change, it encourages students to think critically about the ways in which interdisciplinary approaches define issues and problems, and the theoretical viewpoints that inform their actions.

Academic year

Professional Skills for Development (15 credits)

This module is co-delivered with external development practitioners and other partners to provide students with a core set of skills for employment within the development sector. This innovative module supports students in identifying areas of professional skills development – from technical to language to experiential – and provides a tailored programme of activities to support this.

Summer

Dissertation with Placement (60 credits)

All students undertake a placement-based dissertation. Working with a host organisation and academic supervisor, you design and conduct a significant research project during a 6-8 week placement with the organisation. This module provides both in-depth, hands-on research experience as well as practical experience of working within the development sector.

Autumn semester

Theory and Debates in Food Security and Food Justice (15 credits)

Food Security and Food Justice are areas of increasing importance at local, national, transnational and global scales. While various political and non-political agents at various scales have recognised that Global Hunger and Food Security (of which Food Justice is a primary component) is a key challenge requiring urgent interdisciplinary investigation and problem solving, there remains limited agreement as to how best to approach these issues and at what scale. This unit provides students with a background to the problems encompassed within the food security/food justice nexus by drawing on academic and policy debates that focus on both the macro as well as the micro grassroots impacts.

Key Issues in Global Public Health (15 credits)

This module introduces contemporary and historical public health discourses, policies and practices. The module also explores the role and actions of key global health players and discusses the social determinants of health, as well as introducing major public health challenges in the contemporary world. The module is suitable for students with broad health and health care understanding, but also for those with more limited knowledge and experience of health systems.

Urban Development in the Global South (15 credits)

In this module students will explore in detail particular challenges to urban planning and development in the global South: how are conflicting imperatives of ecological sustainability, social inclusion and economic competitiveness being balanced by practitioners, and what implications does this have for those living there?

 Spring semester

Managing Climate Change (15 credits)

This module aims to engender a detailed understanding of the development of ideas and theories of climate change, integrating the core science behind our understandings of climate change with a critical analysis of how this is interpreted and communicated. This understanding is then applied to consider the challenge of living with climate change in the Global South.

Using Policy to Strengthen Health Systems (15 credits)

This module develops critical understandings of health policy and particular health systems, and to develop ideas and proposals about how these health systems can be strengthened - and who might or might not benefit.

Cities of Diversity (15 credits)

This module focuses on diversity in the form of differing social identities (such as race and gender) but also diversity in terms of interpretations of planning and city building, some of which may appear irrational to mainstream planning frameworks. The module will focus on cities in both the developing and developed world.

Planning for Informality (15 credits)

The module aims to develop a critical understanding of informality in the cities of the Global South. Through a mixture of seminars and group work it explores the patterns and causes of informal settlement and working practices, introducing and critiquing a range of theoretical approaches, and examines the responses of planners to informality.