Studying at York
Sustainable Business in a Global Context - ENV00118M
- Department: Environment and Geography
- Credit value: 20 credits
- Credit level: M
- Academic year of delivery: 2024-25
Module summary
This module emphasises the global nature of sustainable business, offering students a chance to focus empirically and conceptually on the relationships between local sites of production, exchange, consumption, and governance that constitute “the global.”
Module will run
| Occurrence | Teaching period |
|---|---|
| A | Semester 1 2024-25 |
Module aims
Although diverse and dispersed “stakeholders” are typically consulted when designing and implementing a sustainability strategy, in practice, sustainable business initiatives often emanate from relatively elite places in Europe and North America and are imposed on people in other places. Through lectures and activities grounded in interdisciplinary conversations bridging political ecology, environmental anthropology, global value chain studies, and Indigenous theories of society and environment, this module will equip students with a critical vocabulary to understand how “sustainable business” mediates relationships between different sites and different actors around the world. Students will engage with these theories and approaches in weekly case-based seminars that build on topics discussed in the lecture, giving students a chance to apply what they’ve learned to real-world examples of (un)sustainable business practices, identifying new kinds of questions and – hopefully – new kinds of answers. During seminars, students will split into smaller groups to complete various tasks, coming back together at the end to present their groups’ findings and ask questions to other groups. An individual presentation will give students the opportunity to solicit feedback from the lecturer and other students on their final essay topic.
Module learning outcomes
At the end of the module students will be able to:
-
Demonstrate a thorough understanding of alternative theories of environment and society, and be able to apply them to instances of (un)sustainable business practices,
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Understand the relationship between sustainability challenges across different spatio-temporal sites and scales,
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Be able to select relevant case studies to apply, critically assess, and extend this knowledge,
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Communicate their insights in different contexts and media.
Indicative assessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 100 |
Special assessment rules
None
Indicative reassessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 100 |
Module feedback
Students receive feedback from the lecturer and GTA in weekly lectures and case-based seminars. Students receive verbal feedback on their presentations from classmates, the lecturer, and the GTA, as well as written feedback as part of the assessment. Students receive written feedback from the lecturer on the final essay.
Indicative reading
Archer, Matthew. Unsustainable: Measurement, Reporting and the Limits of Corporate Sustainability. New York: NYU Press, 2024.
Haenn, Nora, and Richard Wilk, eds. The environment in anthropology: a reader in ecology, culture, and sustainable living. New York: NYU Press, 2006.
Mbah, Marcellus F., Walter Leal Filho, and Sandra Ajaps, eds. Indigenous Methodologies, Research and Practices for Sustainable Development. Springer Nature, 2022.
Welker, Marina. Enacting the Corporation: An American Mining Firm in Post-Authoritarian Indonesia. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2014.