Environment and Development (MSc)

This MSc in Environment and Development aims to investigate, question and explore alternatives to the prevailing tensions and interdependencies between development and socio-ecological systems.

Environmental challenges and development concerns are high on the international policy agenda. Our MSc Environment and Development programme encourages you to consider the politicised interconnections between socio-economic demands (the search for growth) and environmental degradation, as well as the tensions between the state and society’s outlooks.

We cover a wide range of environment and development challenges or but you can also choose to focus on certain substantive fields (such as economic sectors, natural resources, public services, governance issues, environmental management or urban and rural regions). You’ll develop your critical thinking skills and ability to examine the justification, trends and limitations of conventional responses to prevailing tensions and mounting challenges.

You’ll consider the lived experience of development and socio-ecological change at different levels – local, regional, national and global – and across different time periods. With a focus on the Global North and the Global South, you’ll study past legacies and socio-cultural influences, the allocation of resources, and the challenges to contain environmental degradation and foster environmental justice.

The programme allows you to: understand the ideological positions that influence development policies and the failures of environmental management; review tendencies to convert nature into resources and private property; the formulation and implementation of environmental regulation; the commitments and failures of the apparatus of the state; the interaction between socio-economic sectors, groups and communities; the social and cultural basis of development and environmental change; and, the political reactions, grassroots mobilisation and alliances across different geographical scales, countries and locations.

Consideration is also given to why and how the development appeal continues to influence governments, social groups and international relations while generating uneven, short-term gains and long-lasting impacts. The limitations of policies influenced by environmentalism and narrow sustainability agendas, which commonly fail to address wider social, political and economic expectations, will be a key component of this discussion.