Aug 30

Course Description:

In this course we will examine the intersection of politics and ecology. We will examine the ways that government policies, economic development and globalization affect the environment as well as the ways that environmental problems affect political debates and actions. We will explore contemporary viewpoints on climate change, wilderness preservation, population growth, land degradation, environmental contamination, and other environmental issues. While doing so we will particularly focus on how changes in the environment, and environmental policies, hurt some groups of people and perpetuate social injustice. We will discuss how local environments ought to be managed, and more importantly, discuss ideas about who should have the right to manage them

Course Requirements:

Lectures: I expect that you will attend lectures, contribute to discussions in class, complete the assigned readings before class, take the exams and be responsible for making-up any work missed during an absence. There may also be guest lectures in the class. If you miss a class I would suggest that you get the notes from a classmate and ask her/him about what we went over that day. Don’t miss the exam days!! If you are someone who may miss classes throughout the semester because of athletics or another university sponsored activity please let me know early in the semester so I can make note of it.

Readings: There are two books you should get for this class: Social Nature by Noel Castree and Bruce Braun and Political Ecology: An Integrative Approach to Geography and Environment-Development Studies by Karl Zimmerer and Thomas Basset. Both are available at the UVM bookstore. There will also be readings that you will need to read that will be posted on the electronic reserve system from the library. These readings are required. Some of them are listed on the syllabus and some will be determined based on class projects (see below).

You get the articles 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 173: Political Ecology. 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 because it is cheaper and also allows for the flexibility needed to include the readings that the groups assign throughout the semester.

Read all assigned material before the class for which it is assigned. We will discuss the readings in class and the material from the readings will be on exams.

Movies: From time to time we will be watching movies that demonstrate the concepts covered in the class. The information from the movies will be on the exams (Don’t fall asleep!).

Things you will be graded on:

Exams:

There will be 2 exams during the semester: a midterm on Wed Oct 17th in class and the final on Friday Dec 7th at 8am. The information from the exams will come directly from the class discussions, readings and movies. The final exam is NOT cumulative; it only covers information since the first exam. The exams may have some multiple choice and short answer, but will mostly be based on answering essay questions. I’ll let you know more information about the format as the exam date gets closer.

Group Presentation:

You will be required to investigate an issue in political ecology in a small group and then help run a class that describes the issue to your classmates. Since there are 40 people in the class there will be 10 groups with 4 people each. The groups will be responsible for researching the topic, finding a reading that prepares the rest of the class for the topic, and coming up with a presentation / class activity that gets the ideas across to the class. Possible topics might include: issues about biotechnology and genetically modified foods, effects of natural(?) disasters, trade issues and the environment (debates about the WTO for instance), conflicts arising from differences between indigenous knowledge and scientific knowledge, perspectives on the morality of sabotage and violence in activism, etc.. As a class we will brainstorm some topics during the second week and assign people to groups. For each group I will be the “fifth member” and will be in close contact with the groups in case of problems. I want to meet with each group during the week prior to their presentation.

Paper:

You will be required to do a research paper on an aspect of politics and the environment. The paper should be 8-12 pages (double-spaced, 12 point font, standard margins). “Politics and environment” is a pretty wide category so find a topic or case study that fascinates you: whether it is because it is important for where you live, or it has a lot to do with the subject area you are majoring in, or it is a field you would like to work in later, or it is something you may want to study in more detail later in school, or maybe you’ve just always been interested in it.

You are required to turn in to me an idea for the paper by Friday Oct 12. It should be about a paragraph in length and it will count as part of your final paper grade.

You are also required to turn in an annotated bibliography of at least 7 scholarly sources for you project by Friday Nov 16th. This bibliography should be of scholarly articles or books. For your paper you may also use website information, magazine articles, newspaper accounts, class readings and/or interviews but this should be in addition to the 7 scholarly sources.

The paper is due at the beginning of class on Tuesday Dec. 6.

What an ‘A’ paper looks like:

The paper should be clearly written, well organized, and turned in on time. While websites of various organizations and news outlets can provide valuable information about your topic, an ‘A’ paper is based on research that not only cites numerous scholarly sources (books and published articles) but also analyzes and critiques them. The paper should mesh the information from your research with concepts and readings covered in class during the semester, but I expect that you will consult a variety of scholarly sources 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.

Attendance and participation:

Attendance will be taken each day. If you miss more than 3 classes during the semester you will start losing points at the rate of 25 points off final class points for each day missed (there are a total of 1000 points for the semester). In other words if you miss 4 classes you lose 25 points, 5 classes you lose 50 points, etc. Also, there will be points awarded for participation in class discussions (see below).

Grades will be distributed according to the usual 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.

This is how the points will break down:

Exams: 500 (2 exams at 250 each)

Group Presentation: 100

Final paper: 300

Turn in topic idea: 25

Turn in of annotated bibliography: 25

Participation: 50

Total points: 1000

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 the use of sources in your research or other areas of potential conflict with 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.)

Readings for the week should be read before the Monday class.

Week 1: Aug 27-31

Intro, syllabus, meet each other.

Society and nature, politics and ecology, epistemology and ontology, structure/agency.

Read for Friday:

Blaikie, P. 2001. Social nature and Environmental Policy in the South: Views from Verandah and Veld. In Social Nature, ed by N. Castree and B. Braun. Malden: Blackwell. pp. 133 - 150

Week 2: Sept 5-7

No class on Monday

Population, neo-malthusians, and the “tragedy of commons.”

Land degradation: ecological, social, and political causes. Political ecology: The academic thread of research

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.

Week 3: Sept 10-14

discourse, materiality and nature. Movie: Earth and the American Dream. discussion of visions of nature

Braun and Wainwright 2001. Nature, post-structuralism, and politics. In Social Nature

Friday: Group topic #1

Week 4: Sept 17-21

The politics of environmental science

Forsyth, T. 2003. Environmental “laws” and generalizations. Chapter 3 in T. Forsyth Critical Political Ecology: The Politics of Environmental Science. New York: Routledge. pp. 52-76. (on reserve)

Robbins, P. 2003. Fixed Categories in a portable landscape: The causes and consequences of land cover categorization. In Political Ecology by Zimmerer and Bassett.

Friday: Group topic #2

Week 5: Sept 24-28

The “Green Revolution” and constructing poverty

Yapa, L. 1996. Improved seeds and constructed scarcity. In Liberation Ecologies: Environment, development and social movements, ed by R. Peet and M. Watts. New York: Routledge. pp. 69-85. (on reserve)

Friday: Group topic #3.

Week 6 Oct. 1-5

Gender and the environment

Schroeder, R. 1999. Contesting Agroforestry Interventions. Chapter 6 In Shady Practices by R. Schroeder. Berkeley: UC Press. pp. 105-129. (on reserve)

Friday: Group topic #4

Week 7: Oct 8-12

Nationality, race and the environment: Nuclear weapons testing and its aftermath. Movie: Radio Bikini

Davis, Jeffrey Sasha. (2005). “Representing place: ‘Deserted isles’ and the reproduction of Bikini Atoll.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 95 (3): 607-625.

Braun, B. and McCarthy J. (2006) Hurricane Katrina and abandoned being. Society and Space, 23 802-809.

Friday: Group topic #5 Turn in final paper topic idea.

Week 8: Oct 15-19

Mon. “Conservation encounters in the ‘contact zones’ of empire” (2006) by Juanita Sundberg. (on reserve)

Wed. Oct 17th- ******** Exam I ***********

Friday: - Group topic #6

Week 9: Oct 22-26

Social justice and environmentalism at odds.

Chapin, M. 2004. A Challenge to Conservationists. (on reserve)

Friday: Group topic #7

Week 10: Oct 29-Nov 2

Scales of environmental governance part 1: No governance - Green Anarchy

Abbey, E. 1991 [1981] Down the river with Henry Thoreau. In Down the River. New York: Penguin. pp. 13-48. (on reserve)

Earth First Philosophy. http://www.earthfirstjournal.org/efj/primer/index.html (on reserve)

Bookchin, M (1987) Social Ecology versus Deep Ecology: A Challenge for the Ecology Movement (on reserve)

Friday: Group topic #8

Week 11: Nov 5-9

Scales of environmental governance part 2: indigenous governance

Sundberg, J. 2003. Strategies for authenticity and space in the Maya Biosphere Reserve, Peten, Guatemala. In Political Ecology by Zimmerer and Basset.

Friday: Group topic #9

Week 12: Nov 12-16

Scales of environmental governance part 3: The state

Neumann, R. 2003. The Production of Nature: Colonial recasting of the African Landscape in Serengeti National Park. in Political Ecology by Zimmerer and Bassett.

Friday: Group Topic #10 Turn in annotated bibliography for paper

No Class Nov 19-23 Thanksgiving break

Week 13: Nov 26-30

Scales of environmental governance part 4: The global market and global politics

Movie: “Rising Waters” about sea level rise and the politics of global warming conventions.

McAfee, K. 1999. Selling nature to save it? Biodiversity and green developmentalism. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space Vol. 17, pp. 133-154.

Friday Nov 30^th ***Paper due***

Week 14: Dec 3-7

Environmental protection and politics in social nature.

Proctor, J. (2001) Solid rock and shifting sands: the moral paradox of saving a socially constructed nature. In Social nature.

Final Exam – Friday Dec 7, 8am in this room.