GES3330/GYM4330 Field studies in regional sustainability
UNIT SUMMARY
This field-based subject aims to sharpen the analytical abilities of students between levels 3 and 5 who wish to pursue careers in environmental policy, urban and regional planning, and international development. It enables them to gain field-based knowledge of regional sustainability in a developing country context, namely South Africa. It explores the concepts of regional development and sustainability, and draws attention to the practical constraints and issues associated with translating such concepts into regional policy and practice. Field-study in South Africa offers a challenging set of issues and opportunities for such students, because it helps them develop a grounded perspective in examining abstract policy goals such as ‘global sustainability’ and ‘ecologically-sustainable development’. It is also appropriate as a field-study site for comparative purposes. South Africa and Australia share broadly similar geographical characteristics in terms of soil, water availability, climatic conditions and vegetational distribution, but their experiences of resource use and approaches to natural resource management have been markedly different. The field-based study in South Africa will enable students to understand how the complex interrelations between social and ecological processes can affect regional sustainability in different ways, and to think in creative and comparative ways of developing alternative strategies for regional sustainability.
In practical terms, the unit involves a 17-day field trip in South Africa,
based in the Mpumalanga Lowveld region, during January/February. It also
includes required pre-trip briefings and post-trip written assessments
and public presentations at Monash-Clayton during Semester 1.