Global Politics of Environment and Resources

We live in a time of unevenly distributed climate calamity. Droughts, wildfires, floods and heatwaves are now a part of the fabric of everyday life in the Global North, while those in the Global South occupy the frontlines of ecological collapse.

On this MSc Global Politics of Environment and Resources you will become knowledgeable about the trajectories of current environmental and demographic change and explore the tensions and contradictions they generate from a critical geopolitical perspective.

Drawing from Birkbeck’s expertise across politics, geography, history and law this course offers you an ambitious curriculum addressing conceptual issues of:

• climate change
• uneven resource access
• food sovereignty and security
• demographic change.

We provide you with a concrete examination of key areas in contemporary environmental policy and law, and you will be taught by research-active academics keen to share their insight and knowledge of topics including political ecology, political economy, critical geography, political theory, and international environmental policy and governance.

You will undertake specific case studies of geopolitical, population and environmental occurrences and debates in particular countries or regions. You will also gain a working knowledge of the main theoretical debates regarding the relationship between resource use, food, politics and society.

Please note that the part-time route for this course is no longer available.

• Birkbeck is a world-renowned centre of original, influential research in politics. Our academic staff are international authorities in their respective fields, publishing and delivering stimulating teaching in a wide range of political topics.
• Our location in central London puts us at the heart of the UK’s political life and at the centre of academic London. You can walk down to Parliament and Whitehall, while Bloomsbury contains some of the world’s most famous libraries and centres of research. Our departmental building was once a key location for members of the Bloomsbury Group, so you could be studying in rooms that have hosted distinguished visitors, including T.S. Eliot, George Bernard Shaw and Maynard Keynes.
• Birkbeck Library has a large politics and environment collection, including the major specialist journals, and provides you with access to an extensive range of online materials.
• You can take advantage of the rich research collections nearby, including Senate House Library, which is right next door to Birkbeck, the British Library, which is five minutes' walk away, and the British Library of Political and Economic Science at the London School of Economics, which is also walkable from Birkbeck.