• Home
• Study
• Study Information
• Modules
• Module Information

The Environment and Everyday Life in Modern Britain

Module description

This module, arranged across six weeks per term across two terms, explores the experience of the environment in everyday life in modern Britain. It asks you to investigate how ordinary British people encountered nature, ecology, and environmental change in the later-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and what their experiences tell us about the changing relationship to nature in that period. It is a research-based module assessing both your understanding of supplied materials and your own research. You will be encouraged to break away from the constraints academic expression to find your own writing voice.

Module aims - intentions of the module

This module explores the experience of the environment in everyday life in modern Britain. It asks how ordinary British people encountered nature, ecology, and environmental change in the later-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This is a primary source-based module. You will approach this topic mainly through case studies and explorations of original materials, including printed works, oral histories, literary representations, and film. Using these sources, and others we gather in a closely supported research process, you will be asked to explore for yourselves how the ‘environment’ came to be a ‘matter of concern’ in modern Britain, and ultimately to write their own long research paper exploring this problem. The approach to teaching will be based on workshop-learning, with discussions of both primary sources and how these fit with existing secondary literature in the field. You will engage with the convenor’s ongoing research in this field and be asked to think about how you can make their own contributions to the field, as well as its relevance for thinking about environmental problems today. You will be encouraged to write, and express your own ideas, in a scholarly but also engaging and creative way.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Show a thorough understanding of the environmental history of modern Britain
• 2. Use primary sources in a sophisticated way to tell your own story about nature and everyday life in modern Britain

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 3. Be able to write in an engaging and creative way about historical change
• 4. Demonstrate a very good understanding of the relationship between environmental contexts and historical change

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 5. Demonstrate an ability to synthesize a complex literature in an effective and comprehensible way for a general audience
• 6. Demonstrate an ability to use primary sources in an effective way to tell engaging stories for a general audience

Syllabus plan

The syllabus is likely to include at least some of the following topics:

Coastal Environments

Post-industrial Landscapes

Waste and Everyday Life

Animals and Everyday Environments

Extreme Weather, Floods and Hurricanes

Energy Infrastructures

Pollution

Environmental Literatures

Popular Environmentalism

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

• J. Parr, Sensing Changes, Technologies, Environment and the Everyday, 1953-2003 (2010)
• J. Sheail, An Environmental History of Modern Britain (2007)
• M. Veldman, Fantasy, The Bomb, and the Greening of Britain (1994)

Key words search

Nature, Environmental History, British History, Modern