Reshaping Environments

This subject is not offered in 2014.

120 hours

For the purposes of considering request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Student Support and Engagement Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Overview, Learning Outcomes, Assessment and Generic Skills sections of this entry.

It is University policy to take all reasonable steps to minimise the impact of disability upon academic study, and reasonable adjustments will be made to enhance a student's participation in the University's programs. Students who feel their disability may impact on meeting the requirements of this subject are encouraged to discuss this matter with a Faculty Student Adviser and Student Equity and Disability Support: http://services.unimelb.edu.au/disability

This subject explores how environments shape us and we humans reshape the environment. It examines human attitudes to, impacts on and interactions with the environments in which we live by considering ‘natural', transformed and built environments as sites of production and consumption, imagining and contest, in different parts of the globe. The subject considers the material relationship between the natural and built environments by exploring issues of resource use. Human demands for water, energy, food, fibres and minerals, will be examined in relation to the technologies and practices used to meet those needs, and the resulting creation of waste and pollution and impacts on climate and a range of ecosystems and species. These issues and processes will be presented and considered using thematic, geographically varied, historic and contemporary examples. The subject will operate at three ‘scales' including: ‘natural' landscapes and their ecosystems; cities and the urban environment; buildings.

At the conclusion of the subject students should be able to:

• Identify and describe the physical and social needs of humans within their environment(s).
• Identify and describe the ways that humans re-shape their environment to suit needs and expectations.
• Identify and describe the ways that economic, social and environmental norms shape environmentally significant action.
• Identify, describe as a system, and detect the physical and social consequences of human efforts to reshape their environment.
• Discuss the human-environment relationships and the implications of this for future environmental design, norms and management.

• reflective journal throughout semester totalling approximately 1500 words (20%);
• tutorial participation during the semester (10%);
• a three-part project report of 3000 words equivalent, due before week 6, week 9 (group submission), end of semester (70%).

Bender, Helena (ed.) (2012) Reshaping environments: an interdisciplinary approach to sustainability in a complex world, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne

This subject potentially can be taken as a breadth subject component for the following courses:

• Bachelor of Arts
• Bachelor of Biomedicine
• Bachelor of Commerce
• Bachelor of Music
• Bachelor of Science
• Bachelor of Engineering

You should visit learn more about breadth subjects and read the breadth requirements for your degree, and should discuss your choice with your student adviser, before deciding on your subjects.

At the completion of this subject students should have developed the following skills:

• Basic analytical skills for observing human-environment interactions
• Skills for the observation and interpretation of practices which transform natural and urban environments
• Skills in synthesising, reporting on and discussing issues relevant to this subject