Course description

The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report underscores that profound social change is urgently needed to mitigate climate change and meet other sustainability goals. Understanding processes of social, cultural, socio-economic, and socio-technical change and their dynamic relations to the global environmental and climate crisis is of profound importance and urgency. The MA in Social Change, Environment and Sustainability responds to these needs by creating a world-leading postgraduate programme to develop a generation of graduates and researchers with the skills, knowledge and confidence to contribute to and lead in these transformational processes.

On this programme, you will explore the contribution of sociological understandings of social change to addressing the global environmental crisis, and the challenges of large-scale transformations towards sustainable societies. You will also delve into cutting edge theoretical approaches to socio-economic, socio-technical and cultural change, and benefit from in-depth training in research methods and design. Upon graduation, you will be equipped with the knowledge and skills to tackle complex problems rooted in the dynamic relationships between our socio-economic and socio-technical systems and the natural environment.

Teaching and learning

The MA will require a total of 180 credits. This is split into modules, with each module comprising between 15 and 60 credits.

We combine traditional lecture-based teaching with tutorials, seminars and workshop sessions. Students will be expected to work both individually and on group projects. Updated timetable information will be available from mid-August 2024 and you will have the opportunity to discuss your unit choices during induction week with your Course Director.

Part-time students complete the full-time course over two years. There are no evening or weekend course units available on the part-time course.

Coursework and assessment

Core and Optional units include a range of formative and summative assessments. Assessment for additional options is normally by a 3,000-word assessed essay for each unit. All students undertake a dissertation of between 12,000 and 15,000 words, supported by core units in research design, strategy and project management.

Career opportunities

There is a significant under-provision of social science postgraduates with the specific subject expertise of social change for sustainability. This skills gap is despite the strong emphasis in both government, private and third sector organisations on behavioural, organisational and social change.

This programme is one of the few in the country that addresses this skills gap, and the only one in the UK which specifically blends Sociology with environment, sustainability, and social change. It will equip you with the research training, knowledge, and skills both for employment in a variety of fields and for PhD research. You will also gain highly-valued employability skills such as digital literacy, group work, data handling, communication, presentation and writing skills.