Due: 10am each Friday from Week 1

            Words: 1000

            Submission: Canvas

Purpose:

1.     to demonstrate your understanding of the weekly readings;

2.     to develop your critical thinking skills;

3.     to demonstrate your ability to apply theoretical approaches to EJ to current environmental issues;

4.     to ensure you are prepared for the lectures

5.     to trigger questions for the Drop-in Sessions

You are expected to have read the week’s articles before you attend the lecture - you will get much more from the lecture if you have.

In place of weekly tutorials you will be required to deliver reflections that integrate your understanding of the weekly academic readings with additional material on a current environmental issue or issues. The additional materials will be uploaded to Canvas each Monday morning along with the reflection guidelines for that week.

Each week you are expected to submit a reflection of no more than 100 words on the week’s readings and the issue/s identified in Canvas.

You must demonstrate your engagement with the key claims of each academic reading and consider how they are reflected in the ‘issue/s’ material.

Detailed instructions for each week’s task will be posted to Canvas.

You are expected to come to lectures with reactions to, and questions about the academic readings.

2    Mid-Semester | Ministerial Briefing Paper | 25%

Due:                11 pm Friday 17 September

Words:           1000

Submission:  Canvas

Purpose:        To demonstrate your: 

1.     detailed understanding of two theories of justice;

2.     ability to apply that knowledge to a current issue in environmental politics;

3.     ability to think critically;

4.     ability to develop a logical argument; and

5.     ability to write clearly, concisely and persuasively

Taking two of the approaches to justice we have looked at, create briefing paper for the Minister for the Environment that examines how and why a current issue in Australian environmental politics is a matter of justice. You will need to demonstrate how framing the issue as a matter of justice can assist the Minister and policy makers  to decide how to manage the particular environmental issue you are discussing. You must support the material with references - provide a separate document with your bibliography (the bibliography is not included in the word count).

See the Assessment Rubric in Canvas for specific marking criteria.

Your Briefing paper must have a title that clearly identifies the environmental issue/environmental movement and the justice frameworks you are using.

Your task is to explain to/persuade the Minister that justice is an appropriate framework for successfully addressing your chosen environmental issue/environmental movement.

You must choose two justice frameworks from the four we have examined (Rawlsian, Libertarian/Nozickian, Recognition, and a Capabilities approach) and provide a comparative examination of how the two approaches could assist the Minister deal with your chosen issue.

Your Briefing Paper is designed for the Minister and it must demonstrate you have engaged in a critical examination of the literature - that is it must detail both the usefulness and the flaws of the theories within your chosen context - while making the case that the issue is a matter of justice. That is, you will be examining the ways that justice frames can contribute to assisting the Minister and policy makers address your chosen environmental problem/issue/movement.

You are expected to draw the justice framework materials from the class literature and source and conduct your own research on the environmental issue/environmental movement - this does not have to be from scholarly sources: it is more likely to come from newspapers, TV, Podcasts, videos, websites, blog posts, etc.

3    Research Essay | 50%

            Due:                Outline | 11 pm  Friday 15 October

Completed Essay | 11 pm Friday 12 November

Words:           2500

Submission:  Canvas

Purpose:        To demonstrate your: 

1.     understanding of a current issue of environmental politics as a matter of justice;

2.     understanding of justice as an organising framework;

3.     understanding of critical/decolonial theory;

4.     ability to engage in critical thinking;

5.     ability to apply critical/decolonial theories of justice to a case study;

6.     critical thinking skills;

7.     ability to mount a logical academic argument;

8.     essay writing skills including appropriate structure, accurate spelling and grammatical structure, appropriate and consistent referencing

Choose a current environmental/ecological/intergenerational/climate change issue/campaign/movement/organisation - one that has made headlines in 2020-21 such as the summer bushfires,  the drought, flood/flooding events, the Juukan cave explosion, COVID 19, the 2020 review of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC), Australia’s BLM movement, mid-central coast erosion, a nuclear waste dump for Australia, new coal or gas mining licences, the status of the Great Barrier Reef, deep-sea mineral exploration, asteriod mining or something else (and it must be an issue that has been ‘live’ in 2021).