This module introduces students to the idea of environmental geography: its theoretical bases and its objects of study. It takes students through how geographers have conceptualised the environment and its influence over the nature of place; how environmental knowledge has reorganised place and geography; how notions of the environment have become constructed; and how ideas of nature and the environment have come to be central to place-making and construction of identity. The second half of the module reviews these theories and practices in relation to current environmental challenges.

To understand the relationship between the environment and geographical thought;

• Assess the merits of different geographical theories of the environment;
• To understand the geographical bases for current environmental problems.

To be taught by a combination of traditional lectures (e.g. involving whole group survey and question/answer sessions) and workshops.

This module combines lectures, seminars and videos in order to give students a varied learning experience and also to expose them to other people’s, and indeed ‘real world’, views. Lectures are intended to describe, explain and illustrate key empirical processes and trends, and their relations to current theoretical debates, in contemporary environmental geography. However, students are actively encouraged to offer thoughts, questions and responses to issues and themes raised during lectures; a participatory model of education is sought.

1. Develop and apply critical thought to concepts of the environment and nature and their relevance to geography;
2. Preparing and presenting arguments and information in a variety of forms, e.g: written and oral.
3. Using IT in work preparation and presentation
4. Engage in small groups discussions

Assessed by unseen exam (50%), and written essay (maximum 3000 words, 50%).

• Defining environmental geography – the place of the environment in geography
• What is nature? What is the environment?
• Types and theories of nature – society relations
• Geographies of environmental knowledge
• Risk society and environmental identity
• Environmental policy and management
• Case studies of environmental conflicts

Barry, J. 2006 Environment and Social Theory. Routledge: London. 

Carter, N. 2007 The Politics of the Environment: Ideas, Activism, Policy. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.

Castree, N. 2005 Nature. Routledge: London.

Clark, J. and Murdoch, J. (1997) ‘Local knowledge and the precarious extension of scientific networks: a reflection on three case studies’. Sociologica Ruralis, vol. 37, no. 1, pp. 38-60.

Coleman, A. (1990) Utopia on Trial. (Second edition). Hillary Shipman: London.

Cronon, W. 1997 Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature. W.W. Norton.

Cronon, W. 1992 Nature’s Metropolis. W.W. Norton.

Dickens, P. (1987) ‘“Utopia on Trial”: a response to Coleman’s comment’. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 11 January.

Dickens, P. 1992 Society and Nature. Temple University Press.

Dickens, P. 1996 Reconstructing Nature: Alienation, Emancipation and the Division of Labour. Routledge: London.

Dobson, A. 2007 Green Political Thought. Routledge: London.