Introduction to Sustainable Development

• • Emerging global unsustainability
  • Rise of the modern sustainability concept
  • Sustainability: The state of play
  • The role of government in achieving sustainability
  • The market: Technology – Fixing Sustainability?
  • The market: Business responses to sustainability
  • The role of civil society in achieving sustainability
  • North and South: Development perspectives
  • Radical approaches to sustainability
  • Contesting sustainability: The sceptics
  • Contesting sustainability: The role of the media
  • Conclusions: Approaching the future

No eligibility requirements

Special requirements

No special requirements

This unit is a critical introduction to sustainability that traces the concept's evolution and explores how we can establish a more sustainable society. To this end, a range of different approaches to sustainability are introduced and compared, and analysis will be made of their respective effectiveness in addressing global sustainability problems, including reducing the impact humans have on the natural environment.

Please Note: All students studying at Murdoch University will need to complete the compulsory unit, Murdoch Academic Passport (MAP100), which only takes 2-3 hours to complete online. Find out more: http://goto.murdoch.edu.au/MurdochAcademicPassport.

A 2000-word written assignment provides an opportunity to explore an important sustainability issue in depth in light of divergent sustainability perspectives. Teaching staff provide feedback on the written assignment. Five on-line quizzes testing student understanding of key concepts. Students' contributions to tutorials and online discussions are also assessed. There is also a final assessment. Marking rubrics are provided for all assessment work, providing detail on assessment criteria used.

• Participation (15%)
• Essay (30%)
• Online quizzes (25%)
• Final assignment (30%)

Current study term: 29 Aug 21 to 28 Nov 21