Introductory description

Despite its significance, there is often a sense that social sustainability remains a "forgotten pillar," often overshadowed by environmental and economic concerns. This module addresses the social dimensions of GSD, allowing students to engage with theoretically complex concepts through practical activities. This is both rich and fascinating module that provides students with an essential background for the remainder of the degree. The module is taught in a combination of lectures and seminars.

Module web page

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Broadly speaking, the module will dedicated to core sociological theories regarding modern societies and theory pertaining to the manifestations of inequality and exclusion in contemporary areas of social injustice. An indicative list of topics is listed by week below (this is subject to change):

• Introduction to the 'social'
• Founders and foundations for the social pillar.
• Imperialism, Colonialism, Post-colonialism, and de-colonialism.
• Anthropocene, Capitalocene, and more-then-human knowledge.
• Power and Hegemony
• Class and Inequality
• Race, Ethnicity and Racism
• Nations and Nationalisms.
• Gender, Sexuality, and Intersectionality.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Apply well-informed, evidence-based sociological explanations of the key challenges that face the world.
• Explain the social systems which cause global social problems.
• Reflect critically on the reasons why some societies 'develop' whilst others do not.
• Understand core sociological theory that can be applied to analyse contempoary social inequality

Indicative reading list

Reading lists can be found in Talis

Specific reading list for the module

Research element

Research skills are embedded into the teaching strategy of the module; students are expected to read and critically analyse scholarly papers written from a variety of perspectives.

Interdisciplinary

This is a core module on the Global Sustainable Development course which adopts an interdisciplinary approach spanning the arts, humanities, social and natural sciences fields in order to engage with the major global challenges facing contemporary society, explore these 'big problems,' from a variety of perspectives and consider a range of possible solutions.

International

This is a core module on the Global Sustainable Development course which offers a unique trans-disciplinary and international learning experience that allows students to achieve breadth and depth of knowledge.

Subject specific skills

Ability to:

Critically assess and analyse sustainability issues that need to be addressed, including real-life examples.
Use and apply established frameworks and methodologies for analysing the impact(s) of a behaviour or process.
Generate and evaluate different models of sustainable development to assess their likely impact.
Actively implement or contribute to changes that promote sustainable development within the scope of own learning experience.
Engage with real-life problems relevant to sustainable development.
Use historical knowledge and an understanding of the consequences of past actions to envision how futures may be shaped.
Identify the importance of empowering individuals and organisations to work together to create new knowledge
employ leadership for sustainable development by challenging assumptions and negotiating alternatives to unsustainable current practices.
Identify the opportunities to support and develop a progressive and resilient culture that encourages citizens, professions and institutions to put learning into practice.

Transferable skills

Written communication skills
Oral communication skills
Working with others
Problem solving
Information technology
Numeracy
Research across various disciplines
Peer review