Social Studies of Environment and Sustainability

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The proposed programme of Advanced Training courses, scheduled for delivery across a single week, will offer doctoral students a suite of coordinated training events under the broad theme of 'Social Studies of Environment and Sustainability'. In its broadest sense, sustainability engages with policies and lifestyles, explores the roles of political and economic actors in helping or hindering transitions to more manageable modes of governance in relation to natural resources, and encourages more equitable relations between and among communities locally and worldwide. UEA's reputation for the interdisciplinary study of these course topics is unrivalled and all participants will benefit from training delivered by world leading social scientists and drawing on research excellence from within and outside the University of East Anglia.A focus on 'Social Studies of Environment and Sustainability' allows each specialist training course to address issues of rights, values, knowledge, governance and social norms at the heart of those societal challenges identified in the Horizon 2020 programme. The aim is to encourage reflection and to equip PGR students with policy-relevant tools for addressing some of the most challenging questions currently facing 21st century social science. Specifically, the four training courses in the overall suite will focus on:(1) Ideational Theories and Discursive Methodologies in Policy Analysis: The Case of Environmental & Sustainability Policy.(2) Research Methods in Global Environmental Justice (GEJ) Research.(3) The Interdisciplinary PhD: Conceptual and Practical Approaches to the Nature of Interdisciplinary Research.(4) Participatory Research Approaches in Global Contexts This truly advanced and original set of training courses is designed to supplement core PGR training pathways in UEA and to complement and enrich current offerings within the NCRM Advanced Training Network. In line with the ESRC's (2009) definition of advanced training as being 'additional to core training within an individual doctoral training pathway' (ESRC, 2009), some of these courses will offer an advanced conceptual focus (Global Environmental Justice), whilst others address the epistemological identity of a doctoral project (Interdisciplinary PhD), specific methodologies, the outcomes they can produce, and the broader implications of these outcomes in terms of impact (Participatory Research, Ideational Theories & Discursive Methodologies in Policy Analysis).The suite of courses will be offered, in a block, over a single week in June (and will be repeated once a year for three years). This will allow interested parties to attend one or more individual courses depending on their needs, or to attend the whole week of courses, at a reduced rate, if their research interests engage with issues of environment and sustainability, across the wider spectrum. The courses have also been specifically designed to benefit PGR students at various stages of their doctoral programme and each will follow a similar delivery format. In the first instance, this will involve a one or two day workshop combining lectures, discussions, and data-driven sessions focussing on the student's research data. Courses and ongoing learning will continue afterwards, via the provision of an online forum (and repository of relevant resources and links) for participants, moderated by UEA, as well as the offer of a one-to-one follow-up tutorial for PGR students. This will allow postgraduate attendees to benefit from expert advice about their own research at a time when that advice is most needed. This format and suite of courses, we believe, will afford PGR students a genuinely multi and interdisciplinary opportunity to network with world leading researchers and other PGR students addressing similar research issues and challenges.