Computer facilities for accessing Blackboard and Staffordshire University's e-resources, and appropriate software packages.

DEFRA (2007) Mobilising individual behavioural change through community initiatives: Lessons for Climate Change HMSO: London
Peters, M., Fudge,S. and Jackson, T. (2010) Low Carbon Communities Imaginative Approaches to Combating Climate Change Locally London : Edward Elgar
Rowell, A. (2010) Communities, Councils & A Low Carbon Future What we can do if governments won't. Green Books: Totnes
Seyfang, G. (2009) The New Economics Of Sustainable Consumption: Seeds Of Change (Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke).
Stibbe, E (2009) Handbook of Sustainable Literacy Totnes: Green Books (and updated by website Stibbe, E & Poppy Villiers-Stuart http://www.sustainability-literacy.org/multimedia.html).
Whitmarsh, L., O'Neill S. and Lorenzoni, I. (2010) Engaging the Public with Climate Change: Behaviour Change and Communication London : Earthscan

The module will be delivered through a virtual learning environment:
It is expected that the students allocate a minimum of 30 hours to engage and interact with their tutors and fellow peers.
The module will run over 16 weeks, and will normally include 4 weeks for you to complete the assessments to be graded. Over this period, you will work through self-instructional course material in a virtual learning environment that structures your learning by outlining a programme of specific activities and tasks. To complete these you will be reading and critically engaging with key texts, papers and other documentary resources. This work will be undertaken on an individual basis, but at various points you will be expected to interact and share material with other students in a designated learning group.

Independent Study Hours
(1) independent learning (150 hours) through guided reading from core texts and the use of web-based materials to develop a detailed knowledge of selected contemporary environmental issues at UK, European and global scales.
(2) Assessment Preparation (120 hours) for planning, researching / drafting / writing /editing / producing assignments (36 hours each for assignments 1 and 2 and 48 hours for assignment 3).

(1) a virtual SEMINAR PRESENTATION (1800 words equivalent) 30% (LO 1, 5)
(2) an ESSAY (1800 words) 30% (LO 1-3, 5)
(3) a REPORT (2400 words) 40% (LO 1-5)

Additional Assessment Details (including formative feedback / assessment:
(1) the virtual seminar presentation will require you to show your advanced understanding of the challenges to sustainable development, and specifically those represented by climate change and peak oil at the community level. The presentation offers the opportunity to critically review the concept of vulnerability in relation to specific local communities
(2) The essay offers an opportunity to review the range of strategies, tools and techniques that form part of the low carbon community agendas within the wider sustainable communities agenda
(3) The report will focus on the development of a communication and community learning strategy in relation to a community and its political and business stakeholders

Formative feedback opportunities are provided throughout the module, requiring the submission of summaries, commentaries and observation to the tutors and fellow peers through discussion boards. In addition, for the three summative assignments specific provision is made for formative feedback of draft plans.

The module seeks to examine the role of communities and grassroots initiatives as part of the sustainable development agenda. Academic, political and practitioner circles envisage community-based action playing a critical role in the progress towards a sustainable low carbon future, in the face of the potential impacts of climate change and peak oil. There are also important theoretical considerations in analysing initiatives in building low-carbon sustainable communities (e.g. debates on community capacity for adaptive social learning and action; ecological citizenship, localisation, new social movements, social capital and public participation, socio-technical transition theories). The module provides a background introduction to the causes and impacts of climate change. It analyses the opportunities and barriers to community-based actions and reviews the potential for uptake of low carbon-technologies, and the processes of environmental auditing and carbon/ecological foot-printing which offer a starting point for change. However it also provides a critical awareness of the need to move beyond the assessment of the technologies and socio-technical systems of provision to consider the pivotal role of communication, public engagement /participation, social learning and partnerships as mobilising agents in developing and managing low carbon and sustainability initiatives.