Programme description
The MSc in Environment and Development (E&D) is an interdisciplinary programme exploring the inter-dependencies between pressing environmental concerns and development pressures. It explores these themes, the disputes around it and practical issues from an informed theoretical perspective, with an abiding concern for social justice claims. Conventional academic approaches focus on development or the environment as separate categories, while this programme looks at socioeconomic development as a socio-ecological and politicoecological process.
In particular this E&D programme focuses on:
- grounding students in an awareness of the contested development paradigm;
- inculcating an awareness of economic, political and cultural links between environmental change and social inclusion.
Those issues will be studied at the local and national level, but also taking into account the global scale of environmental and development agendas. In many cases the root causes of inequality and poverty, both in the Global South and in the Global North, are driven by regional or global economics far beyond the borders of a particular country, village or region.
The programme will teach you to critically evaluate the multiple dimensions of the relationship between development and the environment. Teaching, fieldwork, group and practical exercises will use examples of relevance to Northern and Southern countries.
The breadth and depth of the School of GeoSciences enables students to explore a variety of environment and development issues relevant to the programme: e.g. biophysical dynamics, food insecurity, environmental governance, river basin management, cultural studies, climate change, multiple scarcities and inequalities, gender and development,etc. Students are challenged to cultivate research thinking that is cross-cutting and globally relevant, but also grounded in cases that focus on particular issues, places or systems, providing insights to effective solutions.
This programme is affiliated with the University's Global Development Academy.
Programme structure
This MSc consists of two semesters of taught courses. Students take two compulsory and four option courses, each a balance of lectures, seminars, workshops and visits, followed by an individual dissertation.
Compulsory courses typically will be:
- Understanding Environment and Development
- Development: Principles and Practices
- Research and Practice: Fieldwork
- Dissertation
Option courses:
In consultation with the Programme Director, you will choose from a range of option courses. We particularly recommend:
Semester 1 Optional Courses
- Atmospheric Quality and Global Change
- Development, Science and Technology
- Displacement and Development
- Climate Change and Corporate Strategy
- Economic Issues in Public Policy
- The Ecology of Ecosystem Services
- Energy and Society I; Key Themes and Issues
- Environmental Valuation
- Frameworks to assess Food Security
- Frameworks to assess Food Security
- Marine Systems and Policies
- Principles of Environmental Sustainability
- Research Design in Human Geography
- Soil Protection and Management
- Swahili 1A
Semester 2 Optional Courses
- Anthropology and Environment
- Anthropology of Global Health
- Case Studies in Sustainable Development
- Corporate Social Responsibility and the Law
- Critical perspectives on mental health and well-being in the global south
- Energy Policy and Politics
- Environmental Impact Assessment
- EU and National Climate Change Law
- Forests and Environment
- Gender and Development
- Global Environmental Politics
- Human dimensions of environmental change and sustainability
- International Political Economy
- International Security
- Interpreting Development: Institutions and Practices
- Interrelationships in Food Systems
- Marine Infrastructure and Environmental Change
- Participation in Policy and Planning
- Political Ecology
- South Asia: Roots of Poverty and Development
- Sustainability of Food Production
- Swahili 1B
- The International Politics of Money
- Waste Reduction and Recycling
- Water Resource Management
Courses are offered subject to timetabling and availability and are subject to change.
Career opportunities
This programme is suitable for students seeking roles within international and national development agencies, thinktanks, NGOs, environmental consultancies or the private sector, or those going on to PhD research.
Student experience
Would you like to know what it’s really like to study at the School of GeoSciences?
Visit our student experience blog where you can find articles, advice, videos and ask current students your questions.
Visit the
Environment & Development (MSc)
page on the University of Edinburgh website for more details!
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