GV2DEV: Environment and Development

Module code: GV2DEV

Module provider: Geography and Environmental Science; School of Archaeology, Geography and Environmental Science

Credits: 20

Level: 5

When you’ll be taught: Semester 1

Module convenor: Dr Sophie Blackburn, email: s.e.blackburn@reading.ac.uk

Pre-requisite module(s):

Co-requisite module(s):

Pre-requisite or Co-requisite module(s):

Module(s) excluded:

Placement information: NA

Academic year: 2026/7

Available to visiting students: Yes

Talis reading list: Yes

Last updated: 27 March 2026

Overview

Module aims and purpose

This module investigates the two-way relationship between environment and development. The module examines how environmental values, social relations and the distribution of power in society shape particular approaches to environmental management, and – conversely – how approaches to environmental management can both reflect and reproduce development norms and inequalities. We will explore these themes via a range of case studies, located mainly in the global South or majority world. The module will address key questions including: what are the assumptions and value-systems underpinning dominant approaches to environment and development? Whose interests dominate, and whose are marginalised? What do more sustainable, equitable or progressive development futures look like? The module draws on various theoretical approaches including political ecology, development geography, environmental values and post-colonial theory. Students will leave the module with an understanding of how ideas and values about people, nature and places shape real-world policy and practice.

Module learning outcomes

By the end of the module, it is expected that students will be able to: 

1. Drawing on key concepts in human geography, critically discuss the two-way connections between environment and development.
2. Recognise and assess diversity in how the natural world is understood and valued, and the influence of this diversity on modes of environmental management and control.
3. Using examples, critically assess how modes of environmental management and control relate to wider systems of power and authority.
4. Use skills of critical analysis and independent reading to analyse contemporary environment and development challenges.

Module content

This module draws on staff expertise in social nature and the relationship between international development, landscape ecology, environmental politics and governance. The primary mode of teaching delivery will be interactive lectures and seminars. Topics may include:

• Key concepts: political ecology; uneven development; inequality; environmental values; environmental narratives and discourse; power; sustainable development; the social construction of nature; participatory development; resilience; transformation
• Malthusian and neo-Malthusian narratives of environmental degradation
• Wilderness as an idea and its critiques
• The history and politics of environmental conservation, e.g. the shift from ‘fortress conservation’ to conservation-and-development
• Conservation and the colonial imagination; post-colonial theories
• International development institutions and governance; from modernisation to neoliberal development policy, e.g. Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs)
• Environmental values, ecosystem services, and their politics
• Discourses and representations of the environment
• The commodification and commercialisation of nature
• The politics of land and agriculture
• Participatory development and community-based natural resource management (CBNRM)
• Disaster risk, vulnerability and resilience
• Climate change adaptation
• Forms of resistance including social movements; claims to social and environmental justice
• Global environmental governance and institutions; e.g. global forest governance, REDD+
• Post-development and alternative development trajectories, e.g. South-South collaboration and solidarity
• Transformation in the context of global environmental change; what do progressive nature-society relations look like

The module will draw on examples and case studies throughout, many from Africa and Asia.

Structure

Teaching and learning methods

This module will be taught via the following:

• a weekly lecture and interactive seminar
• weekly tasks and readings, to be undertaken by students in advance of class
• assessment-based workshops, spread across the term, extending themes covered in class
• directed preparation for seminars
• optional feedback meeting for groups, following the first assignment

Core content will be covered via lectures, seminars and weekly readings. The workshops and online videos aim to extend knowledge and provide points of additional depth. 

Study hours

At least 30 hours of scheduled teaching and learning activities will be delivered in person, with the remaining hours for scheduled and self-scheduled teaching and learning activities delivered either in person or online. You will receive further details about how these hours will be delivered before the start of the module.

Please note the independent study hours above are notional numbers of hours; each student will approach studying in different ways. We would advise you to reflect on your learning and the number of hours you are allocating to these tasks.

Semester 1 The hours in this column may include hours during the Christmas holiday period.

Semester 2 The hours in this column may include hours during the Easter holiday period.

Summer The hours in this column will take place during the summer holidays and may be at the start and/or end of the module.

Assessment

Requirements for a pass

Students need to achieve an overall module mark of 40% to pass this module.

Summative assessment

Penalties for late submission of summative assessment

The Support Centres will apply the following penalties for work submitted late:

Assessments with numerical marks

• where the piece of work is submitted after the original deadline (or a DAS-agreed extension as a reasonable adjustment indicated in your Individual Learning Plan): 10% of the total marks available for that piece of work will be deducted from the mark for each calendar day (or part thereof) following the deadline up to a total of three calendar days;
• where the piece of work is submitted up to three calendar days after the original deadline (or a DAS-agreed extension as a reasonable adjustment indicated in you Individual Learning Plan), the mark awarded due to the imposition of the penalty shall not fall below the threshold pass mark, namely 40% in the case of modules at Levels 4-6 (i.e. undergraduate modules for Parts 1-3) and 50% in the case of Level 7 modules offered as part of an Integrated Masters or taught postgraduate degree programme;
• where the piece of work is awarded a mark below the threshold pass mark prior to any penalty being imposed, and is submitted up to three calendar days after the original deadline (or a DAS-agreed extension as a reasonable adjustment indicated in your Individual Learning Plan), no penalty shall be imposed;
• where the piece of work is submitted more than three calendar days after the original deadline (or a DAS-agreed extension as a reasonable adjustment indicated in your Individual Learning Plan): a mark of zero will be recorded.

Assessments marked Pass/Fail

• where the piece of work is submitted within three calendar days of the deadline (or a DAS-agreed extension as a reasonable adjustment indicated in your Individual Learning Plan): no penalty will be applied;
• where the piece of work is submitted more than three calendar days after the original deadline (or a DAS-agreed extension as a reasonable adjustment indicated in your Individual Learning Plan): a grade of Fail will be awarded.

Where a piece of work is submitted late after a deadline which has been revised owing to an extension granted through the Assessment Adjustments policy and process (self-certified or otherwise), it will be subject to the maximum penalty (i.e., considered to be more than three calendar days late). This will also apply when such an extension is used in conjunction with a DAS-agreed extension as a reasonable adjustment.

The University policy statement on penalties for late submission can be found at: /cqsd/-/media/project/functions/cqsd/documents/qap/penaltiesforlatesubmission.pdf

You are strongly advised to ensure that coursework is submitted by the relevant deadline. You should note that it is advisable to submit work in an unfinished state rather than to fail to submit any work.

Formative assessment

Formative assessment is any task or activity which creates feedback (or feedforward) for you about your learning, but which does not contribute towards your overall module mark.

Students will have the opportunity for informal feedback in weekly seminars, where the lecturer will make time for small-group activities and discussion of readings. During this time the lecturer will be available for feedback and advice on feeding forward lessons from class into assessments. In the lead-up to assessment submissions, classes will include activities directly related to the assignment. Students will receive written feedback and be offered additional verbal feedback on the first assignment, which they can use to feed forward to individual assignments.

Reassessment

Additional costs