Global Environment and Society

In this course, we examine relations between humans, non-humans and the planet through the prism of contemporary dynamics of capitalism, the subjective logics that underwrite them and resistances and struggles against these. Why capitalism? Because it is through capitalist relations (of appropriation, extraction, commodification, exploitation, etc.) that many other forms of domination are reproduced; for example, colonial, gender, racial, and of course class domination, as well as forms of extraction and exploitation of non-humans. The course unpacks various forms of privatisation and dispossession (i.e. not only material but also subjective) at play in contemporary capitalism, and how, in spite of these, capitalism mobilises us subjectively. Conversely we also identify what comes up against such dynamics - how can collectives uphold a non-exploitative relationship with the non-human world: we examine theories of the commons, of social reproduction and a new take on social sustainability to help us do this.

SCQF Credits:  20

Credit Level: 11

Year taken: postgraduate