Environment, Politics & Globalisation

Course detail Description

The Environment, Politics & Globalisation MA, MSc is a demanding and stimulating course, with an emphasis on developing your analytical and research skills.

You will study Globalisation and the Environment, as well as optional modules covering topics such as Climate: Science and History, Geopolitics, Power and Place, Environmental Actors and Politics, and Disasters and Development. If you choose to follow the MSc research pathway, you will study Advanced Quantitative and Spatial Methods in Human Geography.

The Environment, Politics and Globalisation course is aimed at providing students with an in-depth and critical awareness of the politics and geographies shaping environments at a range of interrelated and ever shifting scales. In this context the course involves a broad and reflexive interpretation of the terms ‘environment’, ‘politics’, and ‘globalisation’. It aims to enable students to develop the skills required to engage with both cutting edge academic literature and grounded policy scenarios so that they can participate in the dynamic and contested environmental arena. These aims are achieved by the unique combination of theoretical and practical modules that draw on staff environmental expertise, along with internships with participating environmental organisations. You will be required to obtain the minimum of 180 credits to complete the course.

If you are studying full-time, you will complete the course in one year, from September to September. If you are studying part-time, your course will take two years to complete. You will take the combination of required and optional modules over this period of time, with the dissertation in your second year.

Course purpose

For those seeking to develop their intellectual and practical skills to engage in both academic debates and the practical construction of environmental policy and politics at national and international scales.

Further literature

Course format and assessment

Teaching

We use lectures, seminars and group tutorials to deliver most of the modules on the course. You will also be expected to undertake a significant amount of independent study. Typically, one credit equates to 10 hours of work.

Per 20-credit taught module:

Lectures, seminars and feedback: Typically 20 hours

Self-study: 180 hours (some modules may involve lab work or e-learning which would require less self-guided learning).

Dissertation:

Lectures, seminars and feedback: Usually four dissertation workshops/ tutorials and five contact hours of one-to-one or group consultation with supervisors.

Self-study: 587 hours.

Assessment

Performance on taught modules in the Geography Department is normally assessed through essays and other written assignments, oral presentations, lab work and occasionally by examination, depending on the modules selected. All students also undertake a research-based dissertation of 12,000 words.

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Structure

Year 1 Courses are divided into modules. You will normally take:

• MSc – modules totalling 180 credits
• MA – modules totalling 180 credits

King’s College London reviews the modules offered on a regular basis to provide up-to-date, innovative and relevant programmes of study. Therefore, modules offered may change. We suggest you keep an eye on this course page for updates.

Required Modules You are required to take the following modules:

• Dissertation in Environment, Politics & Globalisation (60 credits)
• Globalisation & the Environment (40 credits)
• Practising Social Research (20 credits)

If you are taking the MSc pathway, in addition you will be required to take the following module:

• Advanced Quantitative & Spatial Methods in Human Geography (20 credits)

Optional Modules In addition, you are required to take an additional 40 credits from a wide range of optional modules that may typically include:

• Environmental Internship (20 credits)
• Environmental Actors & Politics (20 credits)
• Disasters & Development (20 credits)
• Critical Geographies of Terrorism (20 credits)
• Environmental Science & Policymaking (20 credits)
• Community, Vulnerability & Disaster Risk (20 credits) (Prerequisite: Disasters & Development either through taking the module fully or through auditing)
• Tourism, Conservation & the Environment (20 credits)
• Climate Change & Culture (20 credits)
• The Right to the City (20 credits)
• Climate: Science & History (20 credits)
• Geopolitics, Power & Place (20 credits)

You will take enough credits to bring your total for the degree to the minimum of 180 from a wide range of optional modules that may typically include:

• Any of the modules listed above.
• Any Level 7 (Master’s) modules offered in the Department of Geography.
• Any Level 7 (Master’s) modules offered in the India, Brazil or Lau China Institute, as available.
• Up to 20 credits from Level 7 modules offered from across the university, subject to approvals.