Unit Synopsis
Environmental Sociology examines the development of environmental issues in Australia, as a context through which to explore a range of theoretical approaches to the conceptualisation of environmental problems. It develops a distinctly sociological approach that examines why some problems become the focus of political action while others do not, how these problems are related to social relationships and processes, how strategies to address them are developed, and why sociological understanding is crucial to their resolution or management. A key learning outcome from this unit is the ability to apply these ideas to issues of professional interest.
Details
| Level | Undergraduate |
|---|---|
| Unit Level | 2 |
| Credit Points | 6 |
| Student Contribution Band | SCA Band 4 |
| Fraction of Full-Time Student Load | 0.125 |
| Pre-requisites or Co-requisites |
Prerequisite: SOCL11055 Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework). |
| Class Timetable | View Unit Timetable |
| Residential School | No Residential School |
Unit Availabilities from Term 1 - 2026
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 6-credit Undergraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.
Assessment Tasks
| Assessment Task | Weighting |
|---|---|
| 1. Written Assessment | 20% |
| 2. Written Assessment | 40% |
| 3. Examination | 40% |
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%).
Past Exams
All University policies are available on the Policy web site, however you may wish to directly view the following policies below.
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of policies are available on the Policy web site .
Term 2 - 2013 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 75.00% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 50% response rate.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Source: course evaluation
Difficulty level of set readings.
Students will be asked to identify areas they found problematic on a weekly basis as a starting point to explore collectively the concepts and theories students found challenging.
In Progress
Source: Course evaluation
Internal lectures & interactive forums to foster discussion amongst students
Development of new video material for students will be undertaken. New options to link an assessment and written contributions by students will be explored to get students to engage with the interactive forums already offered.
In Progress
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- To provide a theoretical basis for the understanding of the social dimensions of environmental issues.
- To develop this theoretical base through an exploration of the development of environmental discourses and policies, thus also providing insights into the history of environmental movements, conflicts and politics.
- To enable you to examine critically the social dimensions of environmental issues of interest or relevance to yourselves, and to identify the social relationships and discourses shaping these issues.
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| 1 - Written Assessment | • | • | |
| 2 - Written Assessment | • | • | • |
| 3 - Examination | • | • | |
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| 1 - Communication | • | • | • |
| 2 - Problem Solving | • | • | • |
| 3 - Critical Thinking | • | • | • |
| 4 - Information Literacy | • | • | • |
| 6 - Information Technology Competence | • | • | • |
| 7 - Cross Cultural Competence | • | • | • |
| 8 - Ethical practice | • | • | • |
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 10 | |
| 1 - Written Assessment | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | ||||
| 2 - Written Assessment | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | ||||
| 3 - Examination | • | • | • | • | • | • | |||||