Facing the Socio-Environmental Complexities of our Time

Are you challenged by the idea of global environmental change and our role within it?

Lancaster is equipping its future students to grasp the social and environmental complexities of our age by re-launching its MA in Environment, Culture and Society.

Some of our alumni have already shown that this critical socio-environmental approach pays off. After graduating in the MA Environment, Culture and Society, for example, Matthew Offord (2000) introduced a range of environmental measures including the first compulsory recycling scheme in the UK as a Deputy Member of Barnett Council in London and is currently MP for Hendon in London. Another former student, Martin Leblanc (2001) went on to work in one of the USA’s foremost environmental organisations, the Sierra Club and is now a leading voice in the movement to reconnect children and nature. Another alumna, Ariane Marietta Steinsmeier (2004) now works as a Senior Policy Advisor for European Climate Finance within the EU’s Nature Conservancy. Ariane builds support for a legally binding post-2012 international climate agreement with a special focus on policies to reduce emissions for deforestation and degradation (REDD) and on eco-system-based adaptation (EBA).

The new MA/MSc in Environment, Culture and Society will be a collaboration between the Sociology Department and Lancaster Environment Centre (LEC) and students will take modules across both units. The idea is that in order to study or work on contemporary environmental problems (think global climate change, or on-going biodiversity loss), students need to gain sociological, cultural and political understanding as well as a grasp of how sciences and technologies work in practice.

For further information about the course, contact Clare Waterton - c.waterton@lancaster.ac.uk

(Photo above shows L-R Ariane, Martin and and Matthew)