University of St Andrews

Key information

SCOTCAT credits : 30

ECTS credits : 15

Level : SCQF level 11

Semester: 2

Availability restrictions: Available to students on the University’s International Relations MLitt courses

Planned timetable: Monday 1-3pm

This module problematizes climate change. It identifies the actors, systems and power structures that resist and/or facilitate its address, while charting the major attempts of the international political system to create norms, regimes, rules and institutions to govern it in the last half century. Despite a dominant theoretical reliance on poststructuralism, the module draws on a variety of theoretical and policy insights while inviting students to engage with how the problem of climate change underlies different issues of global concern, especially in terms of conflict and security. Students will be challenged to demonstrate how climate change intersects with a particular security and/or conflict related issue of social, economic or political concern, while demonstrating how climate change, in turn, exacerbates or ameliorates this concern.

Learning and teaching methods and delivery

Weekly contact: Weekly 2-hour seminar *11 weeks

Scheduled learning hours: 22

Guided independent study hours: 253

Assessment pattern

As used by St Andrews: The work of the module will be assessed in the following ways: 1. Essay 50% 2. Problem Paper 25% 3. Policy Document 25%


Re-assessment: 100% Written Exam

Personnel

Module coordinator: Dr Y A Collins
Module teaching staff: Dr Ariadne Collins

Intended learning outcomes

• Understand the emergence and intractability of the problem of climate change
• Develop familiarity with varied theoretical and policy approaches that engage with the problem
• Understand climate change related issues as related to or co-constitutive of other global challenges rather than as primarily an externality
• Formulate policy responses sensitive to climate change related concerns