MTMCW02-Climate Change: Values, Ethics and Justice

Module Provider: Meteorology
Number of credits: 10 [5 ECTS credits]
Level:7
Terms in which taught: Spring term module
Pre-requisites:
Non-modular pre-requisites:
Co-requisites:
Modules excluded:
Current from: 2023/4

Module Convenor: Prof Rosalind Cornforth
Email: r.j.cornforth@reading.ac.uk

Module Co-convenor: Dr Grady Walker
Email: g.walker@reading.ac.uk

Type of module:

Summary module description:

In this module students will explore climate change, and responses to climate change, through the lenses of values and ethics, and draw connections to broader struggles for justice.  By reviewing historical and contemporary debates, students will analyse how the drivers of climate change, as well as mitigation and adaptation responses, are shaped by history, power, and knowledge.

Aims:

To encourage and foster in students the ability and confidence to:

• Develop informed critiques of key theories and conceptual frameworks that scaffold global responses to climate change.


• Critically appraise how climate justice concerns are understood across a range of settings in both the Majority World and the Global North. 


• Examine the roles that different actors, institutions, and stakeholders have played in addressing climate justice.


• Formulate and defend subjective positions on key historical and contemporary debates related to climate change. 


• Develop a perspective that recognizes equity and intersectionality in climate change scenarios


• Effectively communicate climate justice principles and anchor them in ethics and values.

Assessable learning outcomes:

By the end of this module, the student should be able to:

• Identify, evaluate, and synthesize knowledge drawn from a range of interdisciplinary perspectives.


• Make distinctions between the different interests held by diverse stakeholder groups and understand their subjective positionality vis-à-vis contemporary climate justice debates, including those driven by post-colonialism, anti-imperialism, and the quantification of loss and damage.


• Generate critical perspectives on the distinction between individual ethics and values related to climate change and the environment, and the global responses needed.  


• Articulate a way forward that captures the countervailing perspectives, positions, and debates surrounding climate change responses in the Global North and the Majority World and positions them within a framework of values and ethics.

Additional outcomes:

Students will gain experience engaging in critical discussion of other people’s ideas and arguments. They will participate in group work, thereby fostering communication skills and peer-to-peer learning techniques. Furthermore, epistemology (theories of knowledge, its validity, and its scope) is central to this module, which emphasizes that there are many different “ways of knowing”; therefore, students will have the opportunity to develop creative outputs such as artwork, drama, and visual media, among others. Students will also develop good academic social science practice by conducting a literature review and developing a bibliography for their essay, in which they will use citations and references to support their arguments.

Outline content:

• The critical political economy


• Climate justice – contemporary and historical debates


• The dominant philosophical origins of values and ethics and their role in Global North hegemony


• The tragedy of the commons: arguments and critiques


• Alternative conceptualizations of values and ethics drawn from the Majority World


• The role of youth and the Fridays for Future movement


• International environmental law, the UNFCCC, and mainstream institutional responses to climate change


• Grassroots responses to climate change


• The role of capitalism, the Washington Consensus, and neoliberalism 


• Greenwashing and maladaptations

Brief description of teaching and learning methods:

Lectures and case study-based practicals. The course material will be taught based on one lecture per week with a select group of guest lecturers facilitating the learning related to the above content.  Students will review a range of case studies and real-life scenarios that reveal divergent ethical and value-based understandings of climate change and society’s responses. There will be two major assignments: an individual academic essay and a creative output submitted by a group.& nbsp; The creative output will incorporate peer-to-peer assessment as well as formal assessment.

Contact hours:

	Autumn	Spring	Summer
Lectures		10
Practicals classes and workshops		20
Guided independent study:
Wider reading (directed)		10
Preparation for presentations		5
Group study tasks		20
Carry-out research project		15
Essay preparation		15
Reflection		5
Total hours by term	0	100	0
Total hours for module	100

Summative Assessment Methods:

Method	Percentage
Written assignment including essay	35
Project output other than dissertation	55
Oral assessment and presentation	10

Summative assessment- Examinations:

Summative assessment- Coursework and in-class tests:

Individual academic essay (65%)

Group creative output (35%)

Formative assessment methods:

Unassessed problem sheets on each section of material, in the practical sessions.

Penalties for late submission:

The below information applies to students on taught programmes except those on Postgraduate Flexible programmes. Penalties for late submission, and the associated procedures, which apply to Postgraduate Flexible programmes are specified in the policy 'Penalties for late submission for Postgraduate Flexible programmes', which can be found here: https://www.reading.ac.uk/cqsd/-/media/project/functions/cqsd/documents/cqsd-old-site-documents/penaltiesforlatesubmissionpgflexible.pdf
The Support Centres will apply the following penalties for work submitted late:

• where the piece of work is submitted after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline): 10% of the total marks available for that piece of work will be deducted from the mark for each working day (or part thereof) following the deadline up to a total of five working days;
• where the piece of work is submitted more than five working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline): a mark of zero will be recorded.

The University policy statement on penalties for late submission can be found at: https://www.reading.ac.uk/cqsd/-/media/project/functions/cqsd/documents/cqsd-old-site-documents/penaltiesforlatesubmission.pdf
You are strongly advised to ensure that coursework is submitted by the relevant deadline. You should note that it is advisable to submit work in an unfinished state rather than to fail to submit any work.

Assessment requirements for a pass:

50%

Reassessment arrangements:

Completion of new assignment equivalent to the missed summative assignments.

Additional Costs (specified where applicable):

1) Required text books: 

2) Specialist equipment or materials: 

3) Specialist clothing, footwear or headgear: 

4) Printing and binding: 

5) Computers and devices with a particular specification: 

6) Travel, accommodation and subsistence: 

Last updated: 17 April 2023