Syllabus

MX0168 Introduction to environmental communication - Understanding and addressing environmental challenges from a communication perspective, 15.0 Credits

Subjects

Education cycle

Advanced study in the main field

Grading scale

Language

Prior knowledge

Objectives

The course aims to introduce students to environmental communication as an interdisciplinary field of research and practice that is central for understanding and addressing current environmental challenges. Drawing a combination of relevant theoretical perspectives from social sciences and humanities, students develop an understanding of environmental communication as the joint construction of meaning. This entails moving beyond an understanding of communication as the transmission of information, and highlights the role of social interaction in the shaping and negotiation of discourses, knowledge, values, norms, and practices that can enable, but also constrain social and environmental change. The course includes practice-based components designed to enhance such understanding and to develop practical skills for analysing, producing and facilitating communication.

Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

• describe different theoretical perspectives for understanding environmental communication, including theories on social interaction;
• discuss the role of environmental communication in shaping diverse perspectives and responses to environmental challenges;
• apply different theoretical perspectives in the production and analysis of environmental communication artefacts;
• apply different theoretical perspectives and approaches for facilitating dialogue.

Content

Subject-related content

This course offers an introduction to environmental communication as an interdisciplinary field of research and practice drawing from multiple disciplines within the social sciences and humanities. Different social scientific perspectives are used for understanding environmental communication as the joint construction of meaning occurring in society through e.g., casual conversations, environmental campaigns and policies, or multi-stakeholder decision-making. The course highlights the importance of understanding environmental communication from both instrumental and constitutive perspectives, to be able to understand its role in the constitution and management of environmental challenges. By combining these perspectives, the course broadens the traditional view of communication as the transmission of expert knowledge and information, and emphasizes the role that different forms of communication and interaction play in shaping and transforming the knowledge, values, norms and practices that co-constitute today’s sustainability and environmental challenges. It also brings forward the struggles, conflicts and power relations present in communication and meaning-making.

Practice-based components are integrated throughout the course to deepen students´ understanding of theoretical perspectives while developing analytical and practical skills. This comprises interactive and interdisciplinary group work to produce and analyse different types of environmental communication artefacts and to facilitate dialogue processes involving diverse perspectives. The interdisciplinary composition of the student group plays a central role in these activities, creating experiences that simulate communication processes in which diverse perspectives and competences meet, challenge one another, and potentially develop.

Teaching formats

To further student learning and promote discussion, a variety of methods are used:
Lectures, literature studies, written assignments, project work, workshops, seminars, proficiency training, presentations.

The course focuses on the following generic competencies:
Critical thinking, problem solving, oral communication, written communication, teamwork, ability to work autonomously, plan and manage time.

The following components are mandatory:
See course schedule.

Grading form

Formats and requirements for examination

• Passed written or oral exam(s)
• Active participation in mandatory activities
• Active participation in project work

For further information, please refer to the course schedule.

• If a student has failed an examination, the examiner has the right to issue supplementary assignments. This applies if it is possible and there are grounds to do so.

• The examiner can provide an adapted assessment to students entitled to study support for students with disabilities following a decision by the university. Examiners may also issue an adapted examination or provide an alternative way for the students to take the exam.

• If this syllabus is withdrawn, SLU may introduce transitional provisions for examining students admitted based on this syllabus and who have not yet passed the course.

• For the assessment of an independent project (degree project), the examiner may also allow a student to add supplemental information after the deadline for submission. Read more in the Education Planning and Administration Handbook.

Other information

• The right to participate in teaching and/or supervision only applies for the course instance the student was admitted to and registered on.

• If there are special reasons, students are entitled to participate in components with compulsory attendance when the course is given again. Read more in the Education Planning and Administration Handbook.

Responsible department

Department of Urban and Rural Development