Sustainable Development: Politics and PoliciesModule Details

Rationale
This course aims to provide an understanding, through theoretical concepts and case studies, of the practice of SD in local and international development projects and programmes. Competing conceptions of sustainable development, and means of achieving measures of the relative sustainability of policy options, are introduced. This is followed by a series of contemporary case studies to examine the systems that contribute towards addressing major challenges in sustainable development and the interactions between them.

Learning outcomes
At the end of the course students will be expected to:

(i) Situate economic perspectives within the range of other disciplinary approaches to the subject.
(ii) Explain how alliances may be forged and/or conflicts may arise between different actors as sustainable development policy instruments and strategies are put into actual practice.
(iii) Classify specificities of SD practices in different economic sectors such as food, energy and (radioactive and electronic) waste management.
(iv) Identify of some of the major local and global challenges faced in achieving sustainable development, with an emphasis on developing economies.