August 31

Course Description:

The overall theme for this class will be “Whose environment is it?” In particular, the class will explore the ways in which some people and groups control ‘natural’ places and some do not. We will look at how nationality, class, ethnicity, colonial history, and (especially) gender affect who has the power to use and make decisions regarding ‘natural’ areas. While we will examine environmental politics within North America, the class will center on international case studies from Africa, the Pacific, Latin America and Asia. In particular, we will focus on cases in so-called ‘post-colonial’ places where groups of people long denied access to areas are reasserting claims for control over environmental governance. In other words, we will be looking not only at environmental issues, but also at issues of social justice.

Course Requirements:

Readings and Participation:

This is a seminar class. This means that I expect everyone to read the material before the class meeting and to participate in class discussions.

The one text you must buy for the class is Carolyn Merchant’s Reinventing Eden.

The rest of the readings for the course must be read through the UVM library’s electronic reserve system. You get them on-line by going to the UVM library website – http://library.uvm.edu/ On that page click on ‘course reserves’ which is on the green bar on the top of the page. On the reserve page, under ‘course’ scroll down to find Geog 245. Then hit ‘search’. The class readings will then come up. Select the reading you are looking for and click on it. On this page look at the link that says ‘internet’ and click on that webpage. The computer will ask you for your username and password. Enter your username and password for your ZOO account. The article will then come up as a PDF file. You can read the article on your computer or print it out. You must have Adobe Acrobat to read the file. If you do not have that program you can download it for free. There is a link to download Adobe Acrobat on the course reserve webpage (where you searched for the course name). Let me know if you expect to have any problems getting these readings and we’ll try to arrange something. These are all very important readings. They are on reserve instead of put together in a photocopied reader for one reason…. It’s cheaper.

Leading class discussions

Each student will take a turn leading the class discussion. You should provide a BRIEF summary of the readings, make a brief presentation about what you felt were the salient points of the readings, and facilitate the class discussion. Also, as part of the short presentation you should come to class with a case study / example that demonstrates some of the concepts covered in the reading.

Discussion points-

For each class you should write up approximately 5 questions or ‘talking points’ that occur to you during the readings. This doesn’t have to be anything elaborate, but it is meant to be a way to keep discussion going in the class (as well as to help answer questions in class you may have had while doing the readings). These should be turned in at the end of class.

Project

Do a case study of a government office or non-governmental organization (NGO) who deals with environmental issues. It can be run by the UN, the US (or other country), a state, or a local government. In the case of NGOs it can be focused on any scale and based anywhere, but transnational groups may be the most interesting to study). Examine how the actions (and/or rhetoric) of this group affect different groups of people differently. Does their work privilege (intentionally or unintentionally) some people’s access to a place or resource above others? (By race, ethnicity, gender, place of residence, etc).

From the research you should write a paper. Papers should be at least 12 pages for undergrads and 20 pages for grad students. Grads are encouraged to do their projects on an organization that is directly relevant to their thesis work. Paper is due Dec. 7 at the beginning of class time.

What an ‘A’ paper looks like:

The paper should be clearly written, well organized, and turned in on time. It does not just report what an organization does and says; rather it scrutinizes and critiques the organization for what their actions and rhetoric imply. In other words, it looks at the unintended consequences (both positive and negative) of the group’s actions. The paper should be based on research that includes: an analysis of the written materials produced by the organization (newsletters, websites, press releases, etc), correspondence (by phone, email, or in person) with members of the organization, correspondence with people that are impacted by the group, correspondence with an individual or organization that has critiqued or opposed the work of the organization you are examining. The paper should mesh the information from the research with concepts covered in class during the semester, but I expect that you will also consult (and cite) a variety of scholarly sources (books or articles) that are pertinent to your analysis that go beyond what was assigned in class.

Papers that lack one or more of these elements will be graded lower than an A.

This is how the points will break down:

Attendance and discussion contributions: 400 points

“Talking Points” turn-ins: 150 points

Leading class discussion: 150 points

Project: 300 points

Total points: 1000 points

Grades will be distributed according to the following scale:

A+ 100-97; A 97-93; A- 93-90; B+ 90-87; B 83-87; B- 83-80; C+ 80-77; C 77-73; C- 73-70; D+ 70-67; D 67-63; D- 60-63; F= below 60.

Academic dishonesty: Academic dishonesty includes plagiarism (submitting someone else’s work as your own), cheating, and fabrication of information or citations. It will result in a grade of “F” for this course. If you have any questions or uncertainty regarding this policy discuss them with me.

Access: I encourage persons with disabilities to participate in this class. If you anticipate needing any type of accommodation in this course or have questions about physical access, please tell me as soon as possible.

Class Schedule:

(Note: This is an approximate schedule. If there are any changes to it I will announce it in class.)

August 31 - Intro

“The Big One” (Nuclear waste and The Phallus) Harper’s April 2004

(Read in class)

September 7 – Gendered Environments

Dowler, Lorraine (2004) Gender and Landscape: Renegotiating The Moral Landscape. in GenderScapes: Place, Culture and Landscape (eds) Dowler, Carubia, and Szczygiel, forthcoming from Routledge,

Rose, Gillian. 1993. Feminism and Geography: The Limits of Geographical Knowledge. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota. Chapter 5 “Looking at landscape: The uneasy pleasures of power” (p. 86-112)

Seager, Joni and Domosh, Mona (2001) Putting Women in Place. Chapter 6, The Environment (p. 174-194)

Bryant, R. 2001. Political Ecology: A critical agenda for change? . In Social Nature, ed by N. Castree and B. Braun. Malden: Blackwell. pp. 151-169.

September 14 – Improving nature I

Merchant, Carolyn. 2003. Reinventing Eden: The Fate of Nature in Western Culture (intro and part 1. p. 1-92)

Locke, J. 1989. “Of Property,” in C.B. Macpherson, ed., Property: Mainstream and Critical Positions. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Marx, Karl. 1990 [1868]. Capital: Volume One. New York: Penguin Books. (primitive accumulation: Chapters 26-27). Pp. 873-895.

September 21 – Improving nature II

Reinventing Eden part 2(p. 93-186)

Cosgrove, D. 1995. “Habitable Earth: wilderness, empire, and race in America.” in D. Rothenberg, ed., Wild Ideas. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. (pp. 27-41)

September 28 – Improving Nature III

Reinventing Eden part 3(p. 187-246)

Arnold, D. 1996. “Inventing Tropicality,” in The Problem of Nature. Cambridge: Blackwell (pp. 141-168)

Friday Oct. 1 – Carolyn Merchant visit

October 5 – Western counter-narratives I: conservation and preservation.

Film – Earth and the American Dream

Grove, R. Green Imperialism. 1995. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (pp. 16-72 and 474-486)

McDaniel, C and Gowdy, J. (2000). Paradise for Sale: a Parable of Nature. Berkeley: UC press (p. 3-69)

October 12 - Western counter-narratives II: ecofeminsim

Emel, J., 1995: Are you man enough, big and bad enough?

Ecofeminism and wolf eradication in the USA. Environment and Planning

D; Society and Space, 13, 707-734.

Starhawk. 1999. The spiral dance: A rebirth of the ancient religion of the great goddess. 20^th anniversary edition. San Francisco: Harper: SanFrancisco. Introductions 1 and 2;

Sturgeon, Noel. 1997. Ecofeminist natures: Race, gender, feminist theory, and political action. New York and London: Routledge. (chapter one) p. 23-58.

October 19 – Western visions of nature go traveling I: Discursive appropriations

Rojek, C. 1997. Indexing, dragging and the social construction of tourism sights. In Touring cultures: Transformations of travel and theory, ed C. Rojek and C. J. Urry, 52-74. New York: Routledge.

Urry, J. 1990. The Tourist Gaze. London: Sage Publications. P. 1-15

Howe, K.R. 2000. The knowing of Oceania. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.

(Intro and part 1) p. 1-30.

October 26 – Western visions of nature go traveling II: The (male?) gaze

Rothenberg, T., 1994: Voyeurs of Imperialism: The National Geographic Magazine before World War II. In Anne Godlewska and Neil Smith (eds.), Geography and Empire. Oxford: Blackwell.

Pritchard, A. and N. Morgan. 2000. Privileging the male gaze: Gendered tourism landscapes. Annals of Tourism Research 27 (4): 884-905.

Jolly, Margaret. (1997). ‘From Point Venus to Bali Ha’i: Eroticism and Exoticism in representations of the Pacific’ in Sites of Desire, Economies of Pleasure. Ed. by L. Manderson and M. Jolly. pp. 99-122.

Teaiwa, Teresia 2000. Bikinis and other s/pacific n/oceans. in Voyaging Through the Contemporary Pacific, ed. D. Hanlon and G. M. White, 91-112. New York: Rowman and Littlefield.

November 2 - A question of scale: Manifest Destiny goes new-school

Neumann, R and Schroeder R. “Manifest Ecological Destinies: Local Rights and Global Environmental Agendas.” Antipode 27, 4: 321-324

Scott, James. 1998. Seeing Like A State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed. New Haven: Yale University Press. Introduction and chapter 1 (pp. 1-52)

Neumann, R. (2003). The Production of Nature: Colonial recasting of the African landscape in Serengeti National Park. In Political Ecology (eds) Zimmerer, K and Bassett, T. p. 240-255

Peluso, Nancy. 1993. "Coercing conservation? The politics of state resource control." Global Environmental Change 3(2): 199-217.

***** OPTIONAL ***** Marston, Sally. 2000. “The social construction of scale.” Progress in Human Geography 24, no.2 p. 219-242

November 9 –Is local control better?

Scott, J. 1998. Seeing Like A State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed. New Haven: Yale University Press. Chapter 9 and conclusion (pp. 309-357) .

Veber, H. 1998. "The salt of the Montana: interpreting indigenous activism in the rain forest." Cultural Anthropology 13(3): 382-413.

Conklin, B. and L. Graham. 1995. ‘The shifting middle-ground: Amazonian Indians and eco-politics’ American Anthropologist, 97 (4): 695-710.

November 16 – Problematizing the ‘local’ ? (do some ‘locals’ count more than others?)

Peluso, Nancy. (1995). “Whose woods are these? Counter-mapping forest territories in Kalimantan, Indonesia.” Anitpode 27 (4) p. 383-406

Schroeder, Richard .and Suryanata, Krisnawati (1996) “Gender and class power in agroforestry systems” In Liberation Ecologies: Environment, development, and social movements, ed. R. Peet and M. Watts, 69 - 85. New York: Routledge.

Pulido, Laura. (2000). Rethinking environmental racism: White privilege and urban development in southern California. Annals of the American Association of Geographers 90 (1): 12-40.

Sundberg, Juanita (2003). Strategies for Authenticity and Space in the Maya Biosphere Reserve, Peten, Guatemala.” In Political Ecology (eds) Zimmerer, K and Bassett, T. p. 50-72.

November 23 - No class in lieu of class for Merchant visit on Friday Oct. 1st

November 30 - Violent environments

Peluso, Nancy and Watts, Michael (2001) Violent Environments. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. (introduction)

Neumann, R. 2000. “Disciplining peasants in Tanzania: from state violence to self-surveillance in wildlife conservation.” in N. Peluso and M. Watts, eds., Violent Environments. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

McCarthy, James. 2001. States of nature and environmental enclosures in the American West. in N. Peluso and M. Watts, eds., Violent Environments. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

December 7 – Activism and gender

Paper is due at beginning of class.

Trask, Haunani-Kay. (1989). ‘Fighting the Battle of Double Colonization: The View of a Hawaiian Feminist.’ Ethnies, Human Rights and Tribal Peoples: Renaissance in the Pacific 4 (8,9,10): pp. 61-67.

Wyman, M., (1999) Sweeping the Earth: Women Taking Action for a Healthy Planet. (chapters: introduction and 26) pp. 13-28 and 272-280.