International Development and Environmental Analysis (IDEA) stream
Stream Coordinator: Dr. Craig Thorburn
Tel: +61 3 9905 9319
Email: Craig.Thorburn@monash.edu
Office: W503b, Building 11, Clayton Campus
Craig Thorburn's staff profile
The International Development and Environmental Analysis (IDEA) stream is a professionally-oriented course for students from a wide range of disciplinary backgrounds who wish to pursue careers or enhance their professional skills in the fields of international development and environmental sustainability.
The goal of the IDEA stream is to create a new generation of practitioners and scholars who are critically engaged and committed to sustainable development in a global context. Monash University has long been a leader and innovator in internationally-oriented education in Australia, driven by strong academic and applied research on the political, economic, social and environmental dimensions of global change.
The IDEA stream moves beyond conventional 'development studies' toward a trans-disciplinary approach that examines how biophysical change, economic transformations, and institutional practices interact to reshape social and ecological vulnerability, resilience and sustainability. It aims to create reflective and reflexive professionals who have the ability to work effectively with a wide range of actors in diverse situations. Core and elective subjects encourage intensive interaction through seminars, group work and practical study that bring together people from different disciplinary backgrounds and professional experiences.
Structure: Core Knowledge Units and Electives
| Core Knowledge Units | Elective Themes | ||
|---|---|---|---|
|
1. Perspectives on environment and sustainability Defining Sustainability and its historical development Disciplinary, interdisciplinary and other forms of knowledge Analysing worldviews, environmental values and stakeholder positions Alternative Sustainability frameworks |
3. Urbanisation and regional development in the Indo-Pacific Rims Economic development strategies from colonial times to the present Urbanisation and inequality Ecological impacts of development Gender relations Grassroots movements and collective opposition action or Doctrines of developmentHistorical and theoretical contexts of notions of development Phases and epochs of development discourse and practice Top-down technocratic versus grass-roots participatory development Uneven development and 'victims of development' |
4. Environmental revolutions Historical perspectives on nature and social theory Ecological imperialism Reflexive modernity and risk Post-modern nature |
Development Studies and Practice Economics and Environmental Economics Environmental Management and Thinking Legal Studies Public Policy and Management Research Methodology |
|
2. Research in political ecology Political and economic causes of environmental change Resource conflicts in the developing world Social consequences of environmental change Implications for natural resources management |
5. Art and business of development Development in practice Actors, ideologies and policies Analysis and planning techniques Implementation and management tools Monitoring and evaluation |
||
Core units:
APG4425 - Perspectives on environment and sustainability
People's approaches to environmental issues (what they see as problems and what they see as solutions) vary widely based on worldviews, assumptions, and value systems. This unit develops students' capacity to critically evaluate differing ideological, philosophical, and disciplinary approaches to environment and sustainability, such as positivistic science, technology, systems theory, social ecology, indigenous worldviews, deep ecology, bioregionalism, poststructuralism, neoliberalism, and sustainability science. Throughout, it will explore the implications of these approaches for policymaking, disciplinary research, environmental management, and political processes and action.
APG4556 - Urbanisation and Regional Development in the Indo-Pacific Rims
This unit engages in a comparative analysis of the geographical and economic dimensions of spatial and social change in the countries and regions of the Indo-Pacific Ocean rims. Themes include: state policies of economic growth, urbanisation and industrialisation, regional disparities in industrial growth, gender dimensions of industrialisation, politics of ethnicity; environmental outcomes of industrialisation, and urban governance. This unit is an alternate core, swapping with APG4628 Doctrines of Development. Students are only required to take one of these two units.
APG4627 - Research in Political Ecology
This unit introduces student to principles and analytical methods of political ecology, and its application to analysing sustainable development and natural resources management. The first part of the unit introduces the theoretical foundations for the political ecology approach and explores its application to the issue of sustainable development. The second part of the unit uses the political ecology approach from an international comparative perspective for analysing development conflicts in a range of environmental sectors in international and Australian contexts, including farming and pastoralism, water, mining, fisheries and forests.
APG4628 - Doctrines of Development
This subject deconstructs the concepts of 'development', 'progress' and 'underdevelopment' before embarking on a historical examination of how various theories have been translated into policy and action. It then looks chronologically at the rise and demise of various doctrines and approaches, focusing on the role of international development aid and trade. It engages the core question of 'What can reasonably be said about the causes of changes in a country or a region's 'level of development'?' Through case studies, it underscores the particularity of individual countries' experiences, while attempting to draw out what are the basic principles that can be compared across time and space. This unit is an alternate core, swapping with APG4556 Urbanisation and Regional Development in the Indo-Pacific Rims.
APG5804 - Environmental Revolutions
This unit explores the ways in which ideas about human-environment relations have revolutionised theories, practices and politics of international development and global environmental change. It explores the major historical and contemporary debates in the natural and social sciences concerning nature and human economy and the evolution of current thinking and approaches to environmental sustainability. Contemporary perspectives such as feminist approaches to ecology, varieties of environmentalism in the South, environmental racism, and eco-trading are incorporated in these discussions.
APG5805 - The Art and Business of International Development
This unit offers a practical, hands-on approach for learning a range of applied skills needed by professionals in international development organizations. It will introduce students to the working culture of institutions involved in international aid and development. The unit will cultivate knowledge of the range of organisations and institutions involved in international development, funding requirements of aid agencies, development management skills such as the logical framework (logframe) approach, and project proposals writing, monitoring and evaluation.
Elective Themes
Students complete electives sufficient to bring the total number of points for the degree to 72 credit points. If required, electives may be chosen from level three offerings, but only to a maximum of 12 points. Students must assure that they complete a total of at least 24 points at level 5.
Core units from other streams may be taken as electives, with the exception of APG4427 Frontiers in sustainability and environment (available only to students in the Environment and Sustainability Stream) and BTX9100 Sustainability regulation (available only to students of the Corporate and Environmental Sustainability Management stream).Electives may be chosen from across the University with permission from the stream coordinator and, if no equivalent unit is available at Monash, from other Universities. Suggested electives for the IDEA stream can be drawn from the range of themes in the suggested list of electives.
Final Projects
In order to undertake a final project students must gain a distinction average (70D) or above in the core and elective units, and/or permission of the course coordinator. For students who have not attained a distinction average, additional coursework electives may be substituted.
Students electing to undertake a final project may only enrol in these units after consultation with the Stream Coordinator. For research projects, it is strongly recommended that students first complete a research methods subject (see Research Methodology stream in the list of electives).
The course offers two final project options: either a supervised research essay that enables students to consolidate the theoretical knowledge and analytical skills acquired in the coursework components in a research context; or an industry internship placement that provides students the opportunity to apply and consolidate the knowledge and professional skills they have acquired through the coursework components within the practical context of a business, government, nongovernmental or community organisation. Final projects consist of either a single 12-point final project unit or a combination of two of these units.
Final Project Units:
- APG5780 Conceptualising environment and sustainability research project (12 points)
- APG5781 Implementing environment and sustainability research project (12 points)
- APG5763 Sustainability internship (12 points)
Eligible students can also undertake a double (24 point) final project, consisting of either two 12-point research units:
- APG5780 Conceptualising environment and sustainability research project
- APG5781 Implementing environment and sustainability research project
or a combination of an internship and research unit:
- APG5763 Sustainability internship, and
- APG5781 Implementing environment and sustainability research project
These may be taken simultaneously in a single semester or in series over two consecutive semesters. Major 24-point final projects generally involve empirical data collection, and are therefore only available to students with a proven capacity to undertake primary research.