The need to pursue environmental sustainability, address poverty alleviation and bring about social justice leads to calls for ambitious societal transformations. Few aspects of knowledge for sustainability are more crucial than those concerning the strategies and processes required to drive required change. This course equips students with the skills and expertise to conceptualise and evaluate reform strategies promoting socio-environmental transformations. It introduces students to different conceptualisations of transformation – social-ecological, structural and enabling frameworks – and outlines practical principles for effective research and action towards sustainability. Students learn to connect critical conceptual (theoretical) readings with practical examples, explore how environmental issues arise in different contexts, and consider openings for intervention through cases where these approaches are applied. Students also explore particular environmental problems in small groups and develop an analysis of a specific problem of their choosing, assessing opportunities and constraints facing different strategies to address the issue. In each section of the course, students will consider the advantages and disadvantages of each conceptual approach to transformations, considering how the approaches might be combined to drive socio-environmental transformations.
Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion, students will have the knowledge and skills to:
- Appraise key social science conceptual frameworks for examining transformative social change towards sustainability
- Connect conceptual frameworks and debates to practical tools used to pursue transformative change.
- Articulate the capacity to use conceptual frameworks and practical tools to analyse socio-environmental problems in different contexts, and to identify persuasive strategies for reform.
- Critically assess a socio-environmental problem, investigate a range of possible alternative solutions to that problem, and construct a persuasive argument about the best approach to addressing that problem, drawing on relevant scholarly literature on the topic
- Demonstrate the ability to clearly express ideas around transformation and communicate them effectively to diverse audiences.
Other Information
This course is based on research and policy related work that entails using key, critical social science practices to analyse environment and development problems and natural resource policy. In a similar fashion to a policy analyst, a student needs to apply these frameworks to analyse particular environmental issues and to evaluate interventions to deal with them.
Indicative Assessment
- Reading Response (300 words) (5) [LO 1,2,5]
- Seminar Contribution (1000 words) (15) [LO 1,2,5]
- Survey Essay (1500 words) (35) [LO 1,2,3]
- Case study essay (2500 words) based on a work in progress presentation (45) [LO 1,2,3,4,5]
The ANU uses Turnitin to enhance student citation and referencing techniques, and to assess assignment submissions as a component of the University's approach to managing Academic Integrity. While the use of Turnitin is not mandatory, the ANU highly recommends Turnitin is used by both teaching staff and students. For additional information regarding Turnitin please visit the ANU Online website.
Workload
The standard workload for a 6 unit course is 130 hours including class time and independent study.
Prescribed Texts
Leach, M, I Scoones, P Newell (2015) The Politics of Green Transformations Routledge. (ebook on the web)
Ely, A (2022) Transformative Pathways to Sustainability Learning Across Disciplines, Cultures and Contexts Earthscan
Preliminary Reading
Robbins, P. (2020) Political Ecology: A Critical Introduction (Wiley-Blackwell, third edition) link to ebook https://library.anu.edu.au/record=b2226337 (background reading for those new to this discplinary area)
Benjaminsen, T and H Svarstad (2021) Political Ecology: A Critical Engagement with Global Environmental Issues
Fees
Tuition fees are for the academic year indicated at the top of the page.
Commonwealth Support (CSP) Students
If you have been offered a Commonwealth supported place, your fees are set by the Australian Government for each course. At ANU 1 EFTSL is 48 units (normally 8 x 6-unit courses). More information about your student contribution amount for each course at Fees.
- Student Contribution Band:
- 2
- Unit value:
- 6 units
If you are a domestic graduate coursework student with a Domestic Tuition Fee (DTF) place or international student you will be required to pay course tuition fees (see below). Course tuition fees are indexed annually. Further information for domestic and international students about tuition and other fees can be found at Fees.
Where there is a unit range displayed for this course, not all unit options below may be available.
| Units | EFTSL |
|---|---|
| 6.00 | 0.12500 |
Course fees
- Domestic fee paying students
| Year | Fee |
|---|---|
| 2025 | $4980 |
- International fee paying students
| Year | Fee |
|---|---|
| 2025 | $6720 |
Offerings, Dates and Class Summary Links
ANU utilises MyTimetable to enable students to view the timetable for their enrolled courses, browse, then self-allocate to small teaching activities / tutorials so they can better plan their time. Find out more on the Timetable webpage.
Class summaries, if available, can be accessed by clicking on the View link for the relevant class number.
Second Semester
| Class number | Class start date | Last day to enrol | Census date | Class end date | Mode Of Delivery | Class Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| On Campus | ||||||
| 7202 | 21 Jul 2025 | 28 Jul 2025 | 31 Aug 2025 | 24 Oct 2025 | In Person | N/A |
| Online | ||||||
| 9049 | 21 Jul 2025 | 28 Jul 2025 | 31 Aug 2025 | 24 Oct 2025 | Online | N/A |