Your task is to develop a strategy which is designed to ‘steer’ change around a particular ‘unsustainable’ social practice or practices to improve environmental sustainability outcomes. Your focus may be on a household, community, business and or government related practice(s). There is room for creativity and we suggest you discuss your topic and a brief approach with your tutor during tutorials.
Your strategy report/paper should have two parts:
Part 1: Rationale and Analysis of an ‘Unsustainable’ Practice
Your report should set out the rationale for the particular practice or group (complex/ bundle) of practices you are focusing on and why it is important in terms of its implications for environmental sustainability. Your report must include an analysis of what constitutes the practice/s, who participates in or ‘carries’ the practice/s and how it might be changing (ie. trends/evidence of increasing environmental impact/ evidence of new ‘recruits’ and carriers)? You need to identify the key problems and challenges for affecting change to the practice/s, which may vary for different groups of people or for different contexts. You will be expected to demonstrate your understanding and engagement with some of the social practice theory literature (which will be explored in the course materials/lectures) in developing your analysis.
Part 2: Rationale for, and Design of, a Strategy for Change
From your analysis in Part 1, you need to provide a rationale for the design of your strategy for change which addresses the particular challenges you identified. In designing your strategy for change you need to clearly link the analysis of the practice/s with the strategies for change. How does your strategy aim to change the practice/s in question? What important challenges does your strategy overcome? What important opportunities does your strategy harness? Why are your solutions better than other possible or existing solutions? What types of strategies are involved? Is it a multi-pronged strategy involving a range of approaches (eg. educational, policy, regulatory, infrastructural, incentives etc.) and why? Who needs to be involved and why? What role do the various actors in your strategy need to play and how might they be co-ordinated (ie. governance issues)? What are some of the problems or risks that may emerge in implementing your strategy and how might they be overcome?
The strategy must be your own work (i.e. the product of your own creativity. Your strategy report must not be simply an assessment or reproduction of somebody else’s strategy. That said you may draw from existing approaches or strategies to address your chosen ‘unsustainable practice/s’ and propose modifications or alternatives based on your critical analysis of the practice/s or problem trying to be addressed. You may draw on a number of sources to assist your analysis and strategy development including reviewing current literature, reports and other relevant strategies.