SPOL28160 Soc Pol Sustainable Wellbeing

Academic Year 2021/2022

How can governments protect and promote human wellbeing during a climate crisis? Is it possible to do while also making the rapid societal changes necessary to stay within the planet's natural limits? This module will grapple with these and other pressing sustainability-related questions through lectures, class discussions, and group activities.

In the first half of the module, we will examine social science perspectives on human wellbeing and human-environment relations. We will cover concepts such as subjective wellbeing, human needs, materialism, multidimensional poverty, intergenerational equity and the precautionary principle. We will also critically review widely used national metrics for capturing wellbeing and how they have evolved.

In the second half of the module, we will examine international responses to promoting sustainable human wellbeing, such as the EU Green Deal. We will focus on how societies can reconfigure national institutions of education, work and welfare to generate sustainable human wellbeing paying particular attention to eco-social policies such as work time reduction and universal basic income. We will end the course by discussing how national responses to the COVID 19 pandemic can provide policy lessons for promoting sustainable human wellbeing.

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Curricular information is subject to change

Learning Outcomes:

1. Demonstrate a broad understanding of the human causes and consequences of global environmental change
2. Understand the consequences of material arrangements on ecological outcomes
3. Understand the challenge of meeting population needs at a globally sustainable level of resource use
4. Grasp how national governments conceptualize and measure human wellbeing and understand how and why this has evolved
5. Understand the relationships between carbon-intensive consumption and human wellbeing
6. Be familiar with the origins and aims of eco-social policies
7. Understand the role of social policies in transitioning to a Just Ecological Society

Indicative Module Content:

We will cover the following theories and concepts;

• Theory of universal need
• Inter-and intra-generational equity
• Risk and disproportionality in outcomes
• Utilitarianism and environmental justice
• Hedonic wellbeing
• Eudaimonic wellbeing
• Human egocentrism and materiality
• Human Development Index
• Treadmill of Production
• Conspicuous vs vicarious consumption, leisure, and waste.
• Ecosocialism
• Eco-Social Policies
• Double Dividend Policies

Student Effort Hours: 
Student Effort Type Hours
Lectures

22
Specified Learning Activities

38
Autonomous Student Learning

40
Total

100
Approaches to Teaching and Learning:
Lectures; critical reading, in-class activities and task-based learning; peer and group work. 
Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations

Not applicable to this module.


Module Requisites and Incompatibles
Not applicable to this module.
 
Assessment Strategy  
Description Timing Open Book Exam Component Scale Must Pass Component % of Final Grade
Class Test: The one-hour midterm exam will combine multiple-choice and short answer questions Week 6 n/a Alternative linear conversion grade scale 40% No

50
Examination: Final Exam in the same format as the midterm. 1 hour End of Trimester Exam No Alternative linear conversion grade scale 40% No

50

Carry forward of passed components
No
 
Resit In Terminal Exam
Spring No
Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 
Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Feedback individually to students, post-assessment
• Group/class feedback, post-assessment

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

Not yet recorded.