EGS5024F - Managing Complex Human Ecological Systems

Course Outline:

Increasingly scholars have recognised that many of our environmental problems are complex systems problems that require an understanding of natural, socio-economic and governance systems as well as the interactions that occur between them. Furthermore, research suggests that conventional approaches to managing environmental problems are not moving us in sustainable directions and hence the call for innovative and alternative approaches to managing these complex systems. EGS 5024F introduces graduate students to important theoretical, methodological and ethical foundations of environmental and coastal management. The module introduces systems thinking and complexity theory and explores tools and governance frameworks for managing complex human-ecological systems. These concepts and theoretical ideas are then applied to cases in the coastal and small-scale fisheries arena. At the NQF 9 level students will prepare an additional grand challenge. These students will be required to review an interdisciplinary academic paper and present a seminar to the class, and written review, providing a critique of this paper.