Sustainable Cities (Taught)

Our MSc Sustainable Cities combines social and environmental approaches to understanding and responding to the climate crisis in highly unequal cities. It offers you the opportunity to understand environmental risks, such as floods, droughts, inadequate housing, food insecurity and energy crises, and how their impacts are unevenly distributed across geographies and social demographics such as race, class, religion and gender.

Why choose this course?

• It allows you to build a strong theoretical foundation in urban sustainability and climate change while tailoring your learning through a range of option modules.

• This course brings together the expertise of staff working on urban geography, environmental studies, geographic information systems and development to explore how environmental and social concerns can inform a strategy towards a more sustainable urban future.

• You will have the opportunity to join a fieldtrip to Dakar, Senegal, where you will conduct research and engage with local academics and NGOs to explore globalisation, urbanisation and development in context.

• Another fieldtrip centred on the River Thames offers the opportunity to explore critical infrastructures that underpin the sustainable development of London.

What you will learn

Modules are taught by academics keen to share their insights on political ecology, climate change, environmental sustainability, urban inequality, critical geography, food security and urban governance. You will:

• explore different theoretical approaches in urban sustainability

• apply conceptual tools to distinct challenges engendered by the intersection of climate change and urbanisation

• learn about the limitations and strengths of adaptative solutions, environmental policies and initiatives.

You will also conduct your own research project.

How you will learn

You will be taught via lectures and seminars. This course is available to study full- or part-time and follows an evening timetable.

This course is part of our Birkbeck Flexible Master’s UK, which gives you the choice of how you want to study - on campus, online or via flexible learning, which combines both.

If you require a Student visa to study in the UK, you will only be able to apply for the on-campus study option for this course. Online and flexible options will not be available to you because they may affect the conditions of your visa.

Highlights

• We are proud of our vibrant research culture, powered by a shared passion for learning and intellectual engagement among our academics and students. We have a strong commitment to social justice, demonstrated in much of our research.

• You will benefit from a research-intensive environment that brings together world-leading experts across geography, politics, psychosocial studies and criminology and offers access to a range of events, public lectures and workshops.

• Our location in central London offers you excellent access to a wide range of research resources, including Birkbeck Library, LSE Library of Political and Economic Science, the Royal Geographical Society and Senate House Library.

Careers and employability

On successfully graduating from this course you will have gained an array of transferable skills, including in:

• critical analysis, research and data analysis

• understanding how interconnected social, environmental and economic factors influence outcomes in urban contexts

• policy and case study analysis

• incorporating social inequalities into problem-solving approaches

• communication and advocacy.

This course will prepare you for a career path in fields and professions in:

• central and local government

• consultancy firms

• NGOs and charities

• urban planning, civil service and international organisations

• research in universities and other public and private research bodies

• teaching in higher, further and secondary education

• community organising and activism.