Module manager: Rachael Carrie
Email: r.h.carrie@leeds.ac.uk
Taught: Semester 1 (Sep to Jan) View Timetable
Year running 2026/27
SOEE2372
This module is not approved as a discovery module
The module provides an understanding of the relationships between human needs, sustainability and the environment. It introduces students to different ways of thinking about goals for improving human and environmental wellbeing, the extent to which these might be complementary or contradictory, and how they intersect with broader social phenomena. The module introduces different ideas about sustainability transformations and considers complexities of environmental governance for sustainability.
The module aims to build understanding about the complex interrelationships between human wellbeing and the natural environment. It encourages critical evaluation of different perspectives about these relationships, including how they are governed. The objectives are to:
- Introduce different social and environmental dimensions of sustainability and different perspectives about the ways they are defined and can be measured
- Guide students to analyse interrelationships between dimensions, including cause/effect relationships across scales from local to the global
- Encourage critical consideration of how transformation and environmental governance are conceived and implemented as part of attempts to achieve sustainability
- Illustrate how module concepts are reflected in real-world challenges and initiatives using case studies and examples
- Provide opportunity for learning experientially
The learning activities include classes that are a mixture of lecture-style teaching and activities where students are encouraged to interact to apply and share learning to explore different aspects and different perspectives. Experiential activities include a field-day and linked seminars in different parts of the module that encourage students to learn actively about action being taken to achieve sustainability objectives locally. This learning activity has been incorporated partly to balance problem- and solution-focussed learning.
On successful completion of the module students should be able to:
LO1) apply critical understanding about goals for different dimensions of sustainability
LO2) argue how achieving goals for different dimensions of sustainability might be complementary and/or contradictory
LO3) apply critical understanding about different theoretical perspectives on transformation for sustainability and its governance
LO4) evaluate actions taken to make progress towards sustainability and to propose suggestions for the future
Skills Learning Outcomes
Through this module students will gain skills in:
SKLO1) searching for information and applying critical thinking to support a position
SKLO2) working to organise, produce and communicate outputs in a variety of formats
SKLO3) using active learning to evaluate activities and provide constructive suggestions
Details of the syllabus will be provided on the Minerva organisation (or equivalent) for the module
| Delivery type | Number | Length hours | Student hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fieldwork | 1 | 7 | 7 |
| Lecture | 6 | 1.5 | 9 |
| Practical | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Seminar | 12 | 2 | 24 |
| Private study hours | 158 | ||
| Total Contact hours | 42 | ||
| Total hours (100hr per 10 credits) | 200 | ||
Student progress will be monitored via weekly discussions and associated activities in class.
Seminars with activities that reflect assessments are included in each of the four parts of the module. These provide opportunity to develop experience/knowledge of the assessment requirements and to obtain feedback on ideas/interpretation of key ideas.
The second assessment builds on the first component. Thus, feedback received there can be built on in the second assessment.
| Assessment type | Notes | % of formal assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Coursework | Oral assessment | 35 |
| Coursework | Coursework | 65 |
| Total percentage (Assessment Coursework) | 100 | |
The resit for the first piece of coursework (oral assessment) would be an individual submission in place of a presentation.
Check the module area in Minerva for your reading list
Last updated: 30/04/2026
Errors, omissions, failed links etc should be notified to the Catalogue Team