Climate change, biodiversity loss, water scarcity, waste accumulation and resource supply scarcities are converging at an unprecedented speed and scale while at the same time the development needs of large parts of the world’s population are not yet satisfied. To achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and to align social, economic and environmental objectives will require a fundamental change in production, consumption and infrastructure delivery. We explore how a better understanding of institutions and governance can inform well-designed policies that facilitate sustainable consumption and production.
In this course we explore the complex interrelationships between social, economic and political processes and the environment. We consider economic processes (consumption and production), social processes (in which economic processes are embedded) and decision-making processes and institutional arrangements including issues of participation and the potential for adaptive responses to environmental change. We review society-nature interactions in history, look at the role of population, demography and consumption in environmental change and touch upon urbanization and new middle class consumers.

The course takes a social-ecological perspective on environmental change and analyses the role of important social subsystems – the economy, the legal system, the political system and science – for steering society nature interactions.

We are interested to explore how the social relationship with nature is shaped, maintained and can be transformed. This allows us to investigate how the agency of social actors is constrained and enabled by natural and social conditions that we can address in both material and symbolic terms to inform policies and business practices that may contribute to sustainable development.

In particular, the course will address such questions as: what is the capacity of modern society to manage natural resources sustainably and to reduce emissions? What enables and constrains sustainability solutions? How can social choices to sustainability be informed by scientific knowledge? What is the role of individuals and agency? What are the key structural problems in society that need be addressed to achieve sustainable development?

Honours Pathway Option (HPO)

Subject to the approval of the course convenor; HPO students will be required to demonstrate greater depth of understanding of the content of the course. HPO students will undertake a program of advanced reading and will be required to prepare and facilitate a tutorial (equivalent to a minimum of 15% of overall assessment).  All other assessment requirements remain the same.