Masters Module
A masters module on environmental justice is available at Lancaster University that can be taken as part of a range of postgraduate courses within the programme of the Lancaster Environment Centre and also of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. The module can also be taken as part of PhD programmes or for stand alone study. See http://www.lec.lancs.ac.uk/postgraduate/masters/index.php
Geog415 Environmental Justice (15 credits)
Geog420 Environmental Justice (20 credits)
Aims and scope
This module critically examines environmental justice as a new agenda and discourse for environmental policy and politics. It considers how the environment and the practices of environmental management have equity and justice implications for different social groups and the research, policy debates and political action that have focused on questions of both distributive and procedural justice. The module is international in scope considering experience in the US, UK and Europe and environmental and risk issues that operate across local to global scales. You will be encouraged to think critically and creatively about questions at the forefront of current political, policy and academic agenda.
Indicative Content
1. Introduction and Themes
2. Environmental Justice: from the US to the UK
3. Environmental Justice, Equity and Inequality: Ideas and Meanings
4. Distributive Justice and Environmental Inequality: evidence, complexity and causation
5. Case Studies (student presentations)
6. Case Studies (student presentations)
7. Who decides?: Participation, Exclusion and Procedural Justice
8. Siting Conflicts and the Politics of Environmental Justice
9. Environmental Justice in Policy and Environmental Management
10. Environmental Justice and Global Sustainability
Learning objectives
By the end of this module you will have:
- An understanding of core principles and concepts of environmental justice
- An understanding of the evolution of environmental justice discourse, politics and policy making in the US, UK and Europe
- An ability to critically evaluate evidence of patterns of distributional environmental inequality and their causation and claims made for environmental (in)justice at local through to global scales
- An understanding of theoretical and practical issues of procedural (in)justice in the context of public participation in environmental decision-making
Page last updated: 4th December 2007