Course Overview

Controversies over economic development strategies almost invariably involve conflicting plans for preservation, use, transformation, or destruction of nature.  Conventional wisdom holds that economic development must necessarily occur at the expense of the environment.  This course aims to challenge this assumption.

The first unit of this course examines various ways of understanding the environment-development relationship.  Although "environment" and "development" are usually viewed as fairly simple concepts, each – as it is generally applied – embodies a number of assumptions about society, nature, and the relationship between the two.  It is only because of our narrow assumptions of these two terms that we accept as uncontestable the existence of "environment-development problems" such as overpopulation and resource scarcity.  Thus, this first unit of the course "unpacks" the terms "environment" and "development" and the mainstream conception of the environment-development trade-off that rests upon "common-sense" definitions of these terms.  As an alternative, this unit turns to scholars who have proposed that neither preservation of the environment nor development of the economy should be seen as absolute goals.  Rather, different people's development goals involve using/transforming nature in different ways, and these development goals themselves exist only within broader contexts.

The second unit of this course turns to the perspective of “political ecology” that has become an increasingly popular paradigm for interpreting environment-development relations, in which place-based environment-development conflicts.  These conflicts are seen as reflecting social and natural processes that occur in other places, and at different scales.  This unit also looks at how the simplistic discourses of environment-development conflict and "sustainable development" have been used by various interest groups to promote their particular interests.

Having established that a multitude of conceptions of both environment and development are possible, in the third unit we inquire how alternate formulations of the concepts might be mobilized to create new strategies for mediating the relationship between nature and society, for the betterment of both.  To this end, in this third unit we turn to the study of locally-based social movements, which are frequently informed by indigenous knowledge systems and/or by feminist perspectives on nature.  These social movements often are looked to as sources of inspiration for those seeking a path outside the “environment-versus-development” mindset that pervades most development thinking.

Readings are drawn both from theoretical material and case studies, and academic readings are complemented with the occasional journalistic article or documentary film.  Although most of the theoretical perspectives and case studies encountered in this course emerge from analyses of the environment-development relationship in the "Third World" (especially in agricultural regions), connections continually will be made with contemporary environment-development conflicts in the "First World" as well.  To this end, the final project will involve applying theories learned in this course to an environment-development conflict in the U.S.
 

Graduate and Undergraduate Sections of This Class

This class is offered as both an undergraduate and graduate class.  Although much of the material is at a fairly high level, the course is designed so that graduate students take a leadership role and assume a mediating role between the professor and the undergraduates.  Ideally, this format should provide an optimal learning experience for undergraduates, graduate students, and the instructor alike.

For most classes, graduate students will have additional readings and writing assignments, usually of a more theoretical nature than the general readings.  Class sessions will begin with a designated graduate student presenting this material, and some of the discussion will then center on how this "graduate-only" material relates to the empirical material covered in the general readings.  Undergraduate students will be expected to participate in these discussions, with the understanding that they will not have done the "graduate-only" readings.
 

Written Assignments

Students taking this class for undergraduate credit will submit three written assignments, as follows:

1. Midterm Essay: As the class nears the completion of Unit II, students will be given a hand-out with a number of midterm essay questions.  An essay of approximately 6-10 pages will be due November 1, answering any one of the essay questions from the assignment sheet.

2. Final Project: As a group, we will analyze a local environment-development conflict as a class-wide final project (last year, for instance, we analyzed the proposed Southwood development in Tallahassee; when teaching a course similar to this one at another university, we analyzed a corporate scale hog farm proposed for nearby).  Students will be broken into approximately three to five groups, each with a combination of graduate and undergraduate students, and each group will be assigned to write on one component of the issue under study.  All members of a group will receive a single grade for the group’s “chapter” of the report.  Each group’s “chapter” will likely be in the 15-20-page range and will be due December 13.

3. Final Project Evaluation:  Following collection of the “chapters” from the final project, these will be put on display, and students will be expected to read through the entire “report” and write a summary recommendation for the body responsible for mediating the environment-development conflict under study.  These are to be written and submitted individually and should be 2-5 pages.  They will be due December 17.
 

Grade Calculation:

For students taking the class for undergraduate credit, grades will be calculated as follows:
 Midterm: 40%
 Final Project: 40%
 Final Evaluation: 10%
 Class Participation (includes attendance, participation in discussion, and evidence of having thoughtfully performed reading assignments): 10%
 

Class Schedule

[NOTE: Readings from supplementary texts are underlined and are available at the copy center on the 2nd floor of Bellamy.]

UNIT I -- RETHINKING THE ENVIRONMENT-DEVELOPMENT RELATIONSHIP

August 30
Introductory class
 In-class film: Wasting of a Wetland
 In-class audio-tape: Rocky Mountain Arsenal

September 6
LABOR DAY -- NO CLASS

September 13
Myths of Population, Environment, and Development
 Crush: Chapters 7 (Mitchell) and 8 (Williams)
 Hartmann: Chapters 1 and 2

September 20
Myths of Technology, Scarcity, and Development
 Peet & Watts: Chapter 3 (Yapa)
 Sachs-Dev.Dict.: “Resources” (Shiva)
 Yapa
 Shrestha
 
September 27
Rethinking Nature
 Merchant: Chapter 6
 Dizard: Entire book
 
October 4
Rethinking Development
 Sachs-Dev.Dict.: “Introduction” (Sachs) and “Development” (Esteva)
 Preston: Chapters 9, 10, 12, and 13
 Peet & Hartwick: Chapter 1
In-class film: An American Nile
 

UNIT II – POLITICAL ECOLOGY AND DISCOURSE THEORY

October 11
Political Ecology and Beyond
Bryant & Bailey: Introduction, Chapter 1, & Chapter 2
 Peet & Watts: Chapter 1 (Peet & Watts)

October 18
Political Ecology - Applications to Analysis of Environmental Discourse
 Peet & Watts: Chapter 7 (Jarosz)
 O’Connor: Chapter 12 (Gismondi & Richardson)
 Rocheleau, Steinberg, & Benjamin
 Nichols
 Bridge
 In-class film: Arrow Against the Wind

October 25
The Discourse of Sustainable Development
 Crush: Chapter 4 (Adams)
 Merchant: Chapter 9
Sachs-Glob.Ec.: Chapters 2 (Hildyard), 3 (Finger), 9 (Worster), 10 (Shiva), & 11 (Lohmann)
 Sachs-Dev.Dict.: “Environment” (Sachs)
 World Commission on Environment and Development: Overview chapter (pp. 1-23)
 

UNIT III -- ALTERNATIVE PERSPECTIVES ON ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT

November 1
Social Movements -- Potential for Alternatives to Development
 Crush: Chapter 11 (Escobar)
Bryant & Bailey: Chapters 6 & 7
Esteva
Peet & Hartwick: Chapter 7
 MID-TERM PAPER DUE

November 8
Social Movements -- Reappropriating Nature, Development, and Technology
 Peet & Watts: Chapters 4 (Bebbington), 5 (Zimmerer), and 8 (Carney)
 Rocheleau & Ross
 Neumann
 Peluso
 Steinberg & Clark
 Langewiesche

 November 15
Feminist Theory, Environment, and Development
 Merchant: Chapters 4, 5, and 8
 Shiva: Chapter 1
 Rocheleau, Thomas-Slayter, & Wangari
 Peet & Hartwick: Chapter 6

November 22
SEDAAG MEETING – NO CLASS

November 29
Feminism/Environment/Development Social Movement Case Study: The Chipko Movement
 Peet & Watts: Chapter 10 (Rangan)
 Shiva: Chapter 4
 Bandyopadhyay
 Linkenbach
Guha: Chapters 7 and 8
 In-class film: The Forest Through the Trees

December 6
Success Stories (?) in Redefining Environment and Development
Sachs-Glob.Ec.: Chapters 15 (Tandon) & 17 (Agarwal & Narain)
Safina: Chapters on “Golden State” and “Sulu”
Kiester
 
December 13
Final Project: Local Issues
 Group presentations
 GROUP REPORTS DUE

December 17
Final Project: Local Issues
 No class session
 INDIVIDUAL POLICY-RECOMMENDATION PAPERS DUE
 

Texts

The following books are on sale at Bill’s and the University Bookstore.  A book is listed as a “required purchase” if you will be expected to read most of its contents.

Bryant, Raymond & Sinead Bailey, Third World Political Ecology, London: Routledge, 1997.

Crush, Jonathan (ed.), Power of Development, London: Routledge, 1995.

Dizard, Jan, Going Wild: Hunting, Animal Rights, and the Contested Meaning of Nature, Amherst: UMass Press, 1994.

Merchant, Carolyn, Radical Ecology: The Search for a Livable World, London: Routledge, 1992.

Peet, Richard and Michael Watts (eds.), Liberation Ecologies: Environment, Development, Social Movements, London: Routledge, 1996.

Sachs, Wolfgang (ed.), The Development Dictionary: A Guide to Knowledge as Power, London: Zed, 1992.

Sachs, Wolfgang (ed.), Global Ecology: A New Arena of Political Conflict, London: Zed, 1995.
 

Other Readings

Complete references for readings not found in the texts noted above are as follows.  These readings are underlined in the schedule above.  Photocopies of these readings are available at the copy center on the 2nd floor of Bellamy.

Bandyopadhyay, Jayanta, “From Environmental Conflicts to Sustainable Mountain Transformation” in Grassroots Environmental Action: People’s Participation in Sustainable Development, Dharam Ghai & Jessica Vivian, eds., London: Routledge, 1992.

Bridge, Gavin, “Excavating Nature” in An Unruly World?, Andrew Herod, Gearoid O Tuathail, & Susan Roberts, eds., London: Routledge, 1997.

Esteva, Gustavo, “Regenerating People’s Space” in Alternatives, Vol. 12 (1987), pp. 125-152.

Guha, Ramachandra, The Unquiet Woods: Ecological Change and Peasant Resistance in the Himalaya, Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1989.

Hartmann, Betsy, Reproductive Rights and Wrongs: The Global Politics of Population Control, Revised Edition, Boston: South End Press, 1995.

Kiester, Edwin Jr., "A Town Buries the Axe" in Smithsonian, July 1999, pp. 70-79.

Langewiesche, William, "Eden: A Gated Community" in The Atlantic Monthly, June 1999, pp. 84-105.

 Linkenbach, Antje, “Ecological Movements and the Critique of Development” in Thesis XI, Vol. 39 (1994), pp. 63-85.

Neumann, Roderick, “Local Challenges to Global Agendas” in Antipode, Vol. 27 (1995), pp. 363-382.

Nichols, Karen, “Coming to Terms with Integrated Coastal Management” in The Professional Geographer, Vol. 51 (1999).

Peet, Richard & Elaine Hartwick, Theories of Development, New York: Guilford, 1999.

Peluso, Nancy, “Whose Woods are These?” in Antipode, Vol. 27 (1995), pp. 383-406.

Preston, P.W., Development Theory: An Introduction, London: Blackwell, 1996.

Rocheleau, Dianne & Laurie Ross, “Trees as Tools, Trees as Text” in Antipode, Vol. 27 (1995), pp. 363-382.

Rocheleau, Dianne, Philip Steinberg, & Patricia Benjamin, “One Hundred Years of Crisis” in World Development, Vol. 23 (1995), pp. 1037-1051.

Rocheleau, Dianne, Barbara Thomas-Slayter, and Esther Wangari, “Gender and Environment” in Feminist Political Ecology: Global Issues and Local Experiences, Dianne Rocheleau, Barbara Thomas-Slayter, & Esther Wangari, eds., London: Routledge, 1996.

Safina, Carl, Song for the Blue Ocean: Encounters Along the World’s Coasts and Beneath the Seas, New York: Henry Holt, 1998.

Shiva, Vandana, Staying Alive: Women, Ecology, and Development, London: Zed, 1988.

Shrestha, Nanda, “On ‘What Causes Poverty’” (and Yapa’s response) in Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 87 (1997), pp. 709-722.

Steinberg, Philip & George Clark, “Troubled Water” in Political Geography, forthcoming.

World Commission on Environment and Development, Our Common Future, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987.

Yapa, Lakshman, “What Causes Poverty” in Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 86 (1996), pp. 707-728.