BA Sustainable Development and History

About this course

Sustainable development and history is a combination that brings together the urgent contemporary questions of how humanity can live within planetary limits with the longer historical perspective on how societies have related to their environments across time. Sustainable development examines the ecological, economic and social dimensions of sustainability, asking how economic systems can be restructured to support human wellbeing without undermining the natural systems on which all life depends. History provides the essential context, showing how current environmental challenges are the product of specific historical processes, decisions and power relations, and how past societies have navigated the relationship between human activity and natural systems. At the University of the Highlands and Islands, this part-time programme allows you to pursue this unusual and timely combination while managing other commitments alongside your studies. You will engage with environmental history, the history of development and resource use, theories of sustainable development including ecological economics and the social dimensions of environmental policy, and the political and governance challenges of making transitions to more sustainable societies. The Highlands and Islands setting provides a distinctive context for these questions, with its particular history of land use, coastal and marine resource management and the relationship between communities and landscapes. Research methods in both disciplines develop your ability to engage with evidence across different scales and types of source material. Graduates pursue careers in environmental organisations, heritage bodies, sustainable development policy, local government, community development, research and education. The combination of historical perspective and sustainability analysis is valued wherever organisations need people who understand both the long-term dynamics of environmental change and the practical policy challenges of working toward more sustainable futures. Many graduates proceed to postgraduate study in environmental history, sustainability, environmental policy or related interdisciplinary fields.

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