GDEV 2065

Environment and Development

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2024-2025.

This course examines the interface between development and environment issues in a global and international context. The ways we organize our economy, our culture, our social interactions, and the environment to meet our development needs have a profound impact on our ability to sustain ourselves, our society, and the planet. In this course, you will learn the theoretical and material linkages between environment and development issues and processes, and the multiple dimensions of sustainability and their synergies and tradeoffs. By taking a broad view of the development trajectory and the associated landscape transformation, you will explore various barriers and sustainability challenges, and critically examine the social, environmental, economic, and institutional dimensions of these challenges and proposed solutions.

When Offered Spring.

• Discuss, critique, and analyze the environmental, social, and economic aspects of sustainable development.
• Describe the evolutionary trajectory of development and landscape transformation.
• Evaluate distinct development outcomes for society, the environment, and economies from the household to global scale.
• Identify the environment-development synergies and tradeoffs of real-world examples.
• Practice basic research and system thinking skills and interpersonal communication skills through research proposal writing and peer mentoring.

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