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Environmental Governance

Module description

The world today is confronted with unprecedented and interconnected environmental challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, environmental degradation, and resource depletion. These challenges also pose serious threats that everyone, from governments to businesses and individuals, should address. New attempts are required to increase stewardship of natural resources, implement innovative solutions, and contribute to sustainable development. Undoubtedly, environmental problems can't be neatly separated from social concerns. They influence public opinion, spark debates, and require collective action. But it's a two-way street: society also shapes how we understand and tackle environmental issues. Where and when an issue emerges, along with the social and political context, influences its characteristics. In other words, environmental problems are not just about physical changes, they're also shaped by a nexus of domestic and external drivers, such as international and national events alongside political, societal, and economic forces. This module delves into environmental governance issues, analyzing aspects of environmentalism, institutions, policy tools and instruments, green strategies, the mobilisation of green actors and their impact on policymaking, how environmental concerns play out at international, national, and local levels, and what leads to a more sustainable society. The course provides students with a thorough overview of environmental ideas, governance, and policy issues including the green agenda. Students will have the opportunity to engage with contemporary debates within environmental politics and to critique the latest policy developments at the international level. There are no prerequisites for the course, but it is recommended that students have a good background in politics, international relations, and/or human geography to ensure successful completion.

Module aims - intentions of the module

This module aims to delve into environmental governance, analyzing aspects of environmentalism, institutions, policy tools, and instruments, green strategies, the mobilisation of green actors and their impact on policymaking, how environmental concerns play out at international, national, and local levels, and what leads to a more sustainable society. The course provides students with a thorough overview of environmental ideas, governance, and policy issues including the green agenda. Students will have the opportunity to engage with contemporary debates within environmental politics and to critique the latest policy developments at the international level. There are no prerequisites for the course, but it is recommended that students have a good background in politics, international relations, and/or human geography to ensure successful completion.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

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

• 1. Evaluate critically and assess environmental governance, policy, and public initiatives to tackle environmental problems
• 2. Display knowledge of the complexities of addressing environmental policy across policy sectors and governance scales

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

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

• 3. Think critically, analyse debates, and present coherent arguments around environmental policy and governance
• 4. Understand processes of political contestation in the modern public sphere via public engagement and policy formation

ILO: Personal and key skills

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

• 5. Evaluate ideas and debates
• 6. Present written material in a coherent and accessible manner

Syllabus plan

Whilst the module’s precise content may vary from year to year, it is envisaged that the syllabus will cover some or all of the following topics:

• The environment as a policy problem
• Governing the environment
• Environmental Philosophy - Green Political Thought
• Participation and Politics, Collective Action Problem
• Institutions, Rules, Actors
• Networks
• Party Politics - Green Parties
• Environmental Groups (NGOs)
• Policy and Market Instruments and Implementation
• Green Growth, Sustainable Development, Ecological Modernisation, Circular Economy
• Global Governance and International Regimes

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 redo the assessment(s) as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

• Bäckstrand, K., Khan, J., Kronsell, A., & Lovbrand, E. (2010). The promise of new modes of environmental governance. In Environmental politics and deliberative democracy. Edward Elgar Publishing.
• Bridge, G., & Perreault, T. (2009). Environmental governance. A companion to environmental geography, 475-497.
• Bulkeley, H., & Mol, A. P. (2003). Participation and environmental governance: consensus, ambivalence and debate. Environmental values, 12(2), 143-154.
• Carter, N. (2018). The politics of the environment: Ideas, activism, policy. Cambridge University Press.
• Chang, C. P., Wen, J., & Zheng, M. (2022). Environmental governance and innovation: An overview. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 1-2.
• Chasek, P., Downie, D. L., & Welsh Brown, J. (2010). Global environmental politics. Pamela Chasek, David Downie and Janet Welsh Brown, Global Environmental Politics, 5th Edition. Boulder: Westview Press, 2010.
• Davidson, D. J., & Frickel, S. (2004). Understanding environmental governance: a critical review. Organization & Environment, 17(4), 471-492.
• Death, C. (Ed.). (2013). Critical environmental politics. Routledge.
• Duit, A., Feindt, P. H., & Meadowcroft, J. (2016). Greening Leviathan: the rise of the environmental state?. Environmental politics, 25(1), 1-23.
• Evans, J. P. (2012). Environmental governance. Routledge.
• Hogl, K., Kvarda, E., Nordbeck, R., & Pregernig, M. (Eds.). (2012). Environmental governance: the challenge of legitimacy and effectiveness. Edward Elgar Publishing.
• Jänicke, M., & Jörgens, H. (2020). New approaches to environmental governance. In The ecological modernisation reader (pp. 156-189). Routledge.
• Puppim de Oliveira, J. A., & Qian, H. (2023). Perspectives in global environmental governance. Global Public Policy and Governance, 1-7.
• Vatn, A. (2015). Environmental governance: institutions, policies and actions. Edward Elgar Publishing.

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• ELE – Faculty to provide hyperlink to appropriate pages

Key words search

Environmental Governance