This module seeks to equip students with social scientific concepts and frames of reference relevant to understanding the climate relevance of contemporary events and expected future events.

This module seeks to contribute to society by improving the level of information and motivation among students to address a pressing social crisis.

(LO1) Students will be able to identify current disruptions that scientists link to climate and the expected acceleration of these trends in the future.

(LO2) Students will be able to articulate some of the major risks to society and ecosystem posed by a heating planet.

(LO3) Students will be able to apply core concepts from political economy to the climate crisis (e.g. profit motive, regulatory capture, time preference discount functions).

(LO4) Students will be able to apply core concepts from sociology of domestic and global inequalities to the observed and expected impacts of the climate crisis (e.g. intersectional inequality in industrialized countries, global distribution of wealth, evacuation plans or lack thereof for island nations).

(LO5) Students will be able to demonstrate an awareness of the relevance of criminology for understanding the climate crisis and of criminological approaches to mitigating its impact.

(S1) Writing focused and well-organized prose about contemporary social issues. The module will require and guide students to write memoranda and a well-researched essay analysing the climate crisis.

(S2) Evaluating accuracy and reliability of information. Lectures and seminars will delve into sources for claims, how information was compiled, and with what motivations it was evaluated.

(S3) Perceiving inter-connections among disparate sources of factual data. The module will draw on sources from many disciplines (climatology, political science, economics, sociology, etc.) to establish a perspective on the social dimensions of climate change.

(S4) Applying social theoretical frameworks to make sense of heterogeneous information.

Key topics to be covered are the rudimentary physical mechanisms of climate change (burning fossil fuels emits carbon and methane that trap heat in the atmosphere, temperature increase melts permafrost and releases more carbon and methane trapping ever-more heat), sociologically relevant climatological findings about consequences of trapping heat in the atmosphere (migration, deurbanization, health inequalities), and the political economy of carbon and methane emissions (short-term profitability, long-term mass property destruction).

This module develops core sociological ideas encountered in previous and concurrent modules by examining how a changing climate affects existing social structures such as class antagonisms, intersectional inequalities, sources of legitimate authority and property protection (Weber, Locke), and the conditions of adaptation (Parsons). It will also introduce emerging criminological perspectives on climate change and its mitigation, including debates about the relationship of heat to crime incidence, and the potential for the use of criminal law to hold polluters to account and force them to cease ecologically destructive activities.

Students will be expected to complete readings in preparation for seminars. Canvas pages will make explicit which items from the reading list are required and which are merely suggested. Readings will either be provided through the library reading list or scanned and posted to Canvas. Students will be encouraged to read on the topic on their own even beyond the suggested list as relevant to their interests and specific essay topics.

Teaching Method 1:
Lecture
Scheduled Directed Student Hours: 11
Unscheduled Directed Student Hours: 0
Description: Weekly lectures throughout the term for an expected total of 11 weeks.
Attendance Recorded: Yes

Teaching Method 2:
Seminar
Scheduled Directed Student Hours: 10
Unscheduled Directed Student Hours: 0
Description: Weekly seminars throughout the term, except week one, for an expected total of 10 weeks.
Attendance Recorded: Yes

Self-Directed Learning Hours: 129

Description: Students should complete all required readings and some suggested readings. Students should discuss ideas emerging from the module with one another outside of formal meetings. Students will write two low-stakes short pieces and one longer formal essay drawing on what they learn in lecture, seminar, reading, and discussions.