Breadcrumbs

Map NZ Map World

Environment and Society

The Environment and Society masters programme is designed for graduates of undergraduate qualifications in social sciences, environmental sciences, law, economics or management.

You build on your qualifying degrees to gain advanced knowledge and critical analysis of the many and diverse perspectives applied to understanding and addressing environmental challenges.

You will complete a selection of core papers and engage in independent research in the area of environmental and societal inter relationships. The structure of the degree also allows you to include relevant papers from other disciplines such as environmental science, law, and management, and provides an ideal way to encourage close interconnections between theory and practice across a broad range of issues and topics relevant to environment and society.

A Postgraduate Certificate (PGCert(EnvSoc)) and Postgraduate Diploma in Environment and Society (PGDip(EnvSoc)) are also available.

Apply to enrol

Key information

Study Locations:Hamilton, Tauranga, Online
Papers offered differ by location. The Catalogue of Papers has full location info.
Area of Study:

Study Environment and Society in these qualifications

Study Environment and Society as a specialisation of

500 Level

Code Paper Title Points Occurrence / Location
ANTHY515Ethnographic Research Methods30.023A (Hamilton)
This paper provides an in depth introduction to ethnographic research, including its ethical, theoretical, and methodical components.
ANTHY521Cultural Perspectives on Environmental Issues30.023A (Hamilton)
This paper uses an anthropological lens to understand human-environment relations and critically engages with current environmental concerns, beliefs, practices and ideologies.
EDUCA500Culturally Responsive Methodologies incorporating kaupapa Māori and Critical Theories30.023X (Block - Tauranga)
Culturally Responsive Methodologies utilise kaupapa Maori and critical theoretical frameworks to develop contexts within which the researched community can define the terms for engaging, relating and co-creating new knowledge.
ENVPL510Planning Theory15.023B (Hamilton)
This paper discusses the various theories that influence how we plan our world. It will cover issues such as power, justice, governance, politics, neoliberalism, marxism, gender, democracy and environmental racism.
ENVSC504Pollution and Environmental Contaminants15.023B (Hamilton)
This paper examines the ecological effects of chemical and non-chemical pollution. Analysing online databases and the scientific literature provides practical and theoretical understanding of the impacts of pollution and methods to measure such effects.
ENVSC505Environmental Systems: Biogeosciences across Scales15.023A (Hamilton)
This paper examines how core concepts in the multidisciplinary field of biogeochemistry provide a systems understanding across scales.
EVSOC591Dissertation30.023X (Hamilton)
Students complete a self-designed research project and dissertation that demonstrates the research process and analyses the findings in the context of relevant theory and practice.
EVSOC592Dissertation60.023X (Hamilton)
A report on the findings of a theoretical or empirical investigation.
EVSOC593Environment and Society Thesis90.023X (Hamilton)
An externally examined piece of written work that reports on the findings of supervised research.
EVSOC594Environment and Society Thesis120.023X (Hamilton)
An externally examined piece of written work that reports on the findings of supervised research.
GEOGY520Human Dimensions of Environmental Change30.023B (Hamilton)
This paper examines the increasing risks imposed on human communities by global environmental change such as global warming and the occurrence of so-called natural disasters. The paper establishes a platform for the critical analysis of these processes by introducing students to important theoretical developments including the role...
HISTY512Environmental History30.023A (Hamilton)
Environmental History explores the ways in which human societies, cultures, and economies have imagined and shaped, as well as been shaped by, the natural world across time and place from the development of agriculture to 20th century environmental movements.
LCOMM584Sustainable Futures30.023B (Hamilton)
Individuals and organisations operate in contexts that are increasingly complex and uncertain. They face issues that are global in nature and which threaten long term sustainability. To successfully meet fast changing futures, contexts and stakeholders must be addressed. New styles of leadership and management are thus required, ac...
MAORI502Sustainable Resource Issues30.023A (Online)
This paper examines contemporary issues facing natural resource management among indigenous peoples with a particular focus on the experiences of Maori and Pacific peoples.
MAORI570Te Mahi Rangahau: Māori, Pacific and Indigenous Research Methods and Issues30.023A (Online)
This paper introduces students to a range of research issues, helps students identify and apply the most effective methodology, understand, review and apply various research methods including kaupapa Maori and indigenous epistemologies.
MNMGT581Research Methods in Management Studies30.023A (Hamilton), 23B (Hamilton) & 23G (Online)
This paper aims to introduce students to the assumptions underlying the different methodologies and methods for performing research in the social sciences. The focus is on interpretive, positivist, critical, and mixed methods. The paper attempts to give students the conceptual and methodological resources needed to think and conver...
POLSC537Environmental Politics and Public Policy30.023A (Hamilton)
This paper introduces students to the complexities and challenges of environmental policy processes, and develops skills in scholarly research on environmental policy making. A significant focus of the paper is on analysing and understanding the complex intersections of institutions, culture, science and technology, and systems of ...
PSYCH555Environmental Psychology15.023B (Hamilton) & 23B (Tauranga)
Provides students with theoretical and practical knowledge in Environmental Psychology, the study of the transaction between humans and their natural and built environments.
STMGT504Strategies for Sustainability15.0No occurrences
This paper aims to enhance students' understanding of sustainability issues confronting today's managers and to develop ability in analysing situations and in formulating strategies where sustainability business concerns are implicated.

Scholarships and prizes

New to Waikato? The International Excellence Scholarship is worth up to $10,000.

Visit our Scholarship Finder for information about possible scholarships

Find your scholarship


Graduate study options


Graduate and Postgraduate Admission and Requirements

To be eligible to be considered for enrolment in graduate Environment and Society papers, a student should normally have at least a B average in either the best three of their 300 level papers of their major or all the undergraduate papers of their major.

To complete a PGCert(EnvSoc) students must complete 60 points in papers listed for Environment and Society, including at least one of ANTHY521 or POLSC537.

To complete a PGDip(EnvSoc) students must complete 120 points in papers listed for Environment and Society, including at least 60 points from papers in Appendix A of the MEnvSoc regulations, including at least one of ANTHY521 or POLSC537. Students may include a 30-point dissertation.

To be admitted to the MEnvSoc, a student must have completed either:

a) a bachelor's degree in social sciences, environmental sciences, law, economics or management and have gained at least a B grade point average in either the best three of their 300 level papers in their major or all of the undergraduate papers of their major, or

b) A bachelor's degree with honours or a postgraduate diploma in social sciences, environmental sciences, law, economics or management and have gained at least a B grade point average across all 500 level papers.

Completion requirements for the MEnvSoc vary according to admission criteria:

Students admitted under a) above must complete 180 points at 500 level in Environment and Society, including at least 60 points from Appendix A of the MEnvSoc regulations, including either ANTHY521 or POLSC537, 30-60 points from papers in Appendix A or Appendix B of the MEnvSoc regulations, and either a 60 point dissertation or a 90 point thesis in an approved topic relevant to Environment and Society.

Students admitted under b) above must complete 120 points at 500 level in Environment and Society, including 30-60 points from papers in Appendix A of the MEnvSoc regulations, including either ANTHY521 or POLSC537, and either a 60 point dissertation or a 90 point thesis in an approved topic relevant to Environment and Society.

Notes:

1. Students admitted under a) above may, at the discretion of the programme convenors, be required to include one of the following research methodology papers in their programme of study: EDUCA500 or MNMGT581.

2. Students admitted under a) above may, at the discretion of the programme convenors, include up to 30 points in relevant papers outside of Appendix A or B of the MEnvSoc regulations.


Contacts

School of Social Sciences
Phone: 0800 800 145 or +64 7 838 4080
Email: [email protected]