University of St Andrews

Key information

SCOTCAT credits : 30

ECTS credits : 15

Level : SCQF level 10

Semester: 2

Planned timetable: Wed 10am-1pm

The module aims to introduce SD honours students to resource extraction, as a conflictive arena for determining trajectories of sustainability and as inextricably tied to dynamics of colonialism, knowledge, development and citizenship. With a primary focus on fossil fuels and energy resources, this module will use theories and debates from political ecology, political ontology and critical development studies to explore and evaluate the contested claims and experiences of resource extraction across the global North and South.

Relationship to other modules

Pre-requisite(s): Before taking this module you must pass SD2002

Learning and teaching methods and delivery

Weekly contact: 1 hr Lecture (x10 weeks), 2hr Seminar (x10 weeks)

Scheduled learning hours: 30

Guided independent study hours: 270

Assessment pattern

As used by St Andrews: Coursework = 100%

As defined by QAA
Coursework: 100%

Re-assessment: Coursework = 100%

Personnel

Module coordinator: Dr J C Hope
Module teaching staff: To be arranged
Module coordinator email jch31@st-andrews.ac.uk

Intended learning outcomes

• Students will develop an appreciation of the global dynamics of resource extraction and how these encounter local claims for land, justice and citizenship.
• They will critically engage with the ways extraction is tied to development, citizenship and rights.
• They will extend their knowledge of how resource extraction underpins conflictive ontologies of place and the non-human, as well as how it can inform emergent epistemologies of the south.
• Students will develop a critical analysis of how environmentally degrading practices continue, even within sustainable development frameworks.
• Students will understand different perspectives on resource extraction and be able to identify a number of proposed alternatives.
• Through film evenings, and the related assessment, students will engage with the particular realities of specific extractive environments and questions how these are represented and known.