Course syllabus — graduate seminar
Taught at Barnard College/Columbia University as ANTH W4002 in 2010
Political ecology is the interdisciplinary investigation of the political-economic and socio-environmental principles guiding, altering, and producing social relations among people and between people and nature. The goal of the course is to comprehensively review the field of political ecology and to explore a variety of new themes in the discipline.
Learning objectives
Students who complete this course will learn how to:
- Conduct close readings of ethnographic and other social science texts, synthesizing their content and posing critical questions.
- Gain exposure to the theories and methods of political ecology
- Appreciate the potential roles of culture, politics, economics, and social relationships in environmental issues.
- Understand the role of interdisciplinary research in approaching environmental issues.
- Synthesize materials collected through their own research to write a short academic paper, which will increase their discursive and critical thinking skills.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
Reaction papers 30%
Class discussion leadership 20%
Class participation 20%
Final paper 30%
Reaction papers: For each week, students will write brief reactions to assigned readings of 1-2 pages. They may consist of questions raised by the readings or take the form of straightforward observation; be critical or laudatory, humorous or serious; encompass an entire set of readings or engage an individual author. They are to be handed in by email as Word (.doc, .docx, .txt) attachments before 9am on the morning of the class. No late papers will be accepted.
Discussion leading and class participation: You will each lead one class discussion during the semester and you will participate in every class discussion. Participation means that you will contribute to the discussion in a way that is thoughtful, constructive, and respectful. Each student will also be responsible for leading class on one day. This will include a very brief summary of readings for that day (5 min max), a discussion of how these readings fit in with prior readings (5 min max), and the presentation of 3-5 questions that will guide class discussion that day.
Final paper projects:
1) Undergraduate students — These projects will be flexible depending upon the needs of the student. Some students may choose to write a traditional 20 – 25 page term paper, others may choose to work in a group on a joint presentation, others may choose to make a film or some other form of media-related project.
2) Graduate students – These projects will directly relate to work that the student needs to complete in relation to their degree program. For example, MA students may write a substantial portion of their literature review as a final paper, Ph.D. students may develop an annotated bibliography for a qualifying exam. These are two of the many various options – individual assignments will be developed in consultation with the instructor.
Procedure: All students will meet with me in the third week of class to designate a specific assignment for themselves for the semester.
General guidelines for written assignments: All assignments should be typed in standard fonts with one inch margins. File names should be the “last name_assignment” (e.g. Peterson_Reaction1). Citations should follow the format used in the journals American Anthropologist or American Ethnologist.
REQUIRED BOOKS
- Smith, N. 2008 (1984). Uneven Development: Nature, Capital, and the Production of Space. University of Georgia Press. ISBN: 0820-33099-X
- Robbins, Paul. 2004. Political Ecology: A Critical Introduction (Critical Introductions to Geography). Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN: 1405-10266-7
- Peluso, N. 1992. Rich forests, poor people: Resource control and resistance in Java. U California Press. ISBN: 0520-08931-6
- Rocheleau, D. 1996 Feminist Political Ecology: Global Issues and Local Experiences (International Studies of Women and Place) Routledge. ISBN: 0415-12027-6
- Gibson, C. Politicians and Poachers: The Political Economy of Wildlife Policy in Africa. Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 0521663784
- Kosek, J. 2006 Understories: The Political Life of Forests in Northern New Mexico. Duke University Press. ISBN: 0822-33847-5
- Arturo Escobar 2008. Territories of Difference: Place, Movements, Life, Redes. Duke University Press. ISBN: 0822-34327-4
SCHEDULE OF READINGS
There is a lot of reading for this course, and you are responsible for reading what is required for each day. Readings for each day are listed below; please pay attention to the requirements for each week before Monday, since Wednesday readings can be heavy.
Wednesday, Jan 20: Course introduction
- Ortner, Sherry. 1984 Theory of Anthropology Since the Sixties. Comparative Studies in Society and History 26(1):126-66.
Monday, Jan 25: Cultural ecology
- Steward, Julian. 1955. “The Concept and Method of Cultural Ecology” in Theory of Culture Change: The Methodology of Multilinear Evolution, pp. 30-42. Urbana: University of Illinois Press
- Rappaport, Roy. 1967. Ritual Regulation of Environmental Relations Among a New Guinea People. Ethnology 6:17-30
- Leopold, Aldo. 1949. “The Land Ethic” in A Sand County Almanac, pp. 201-226. New York: Oxford University Press.
Wednesday, Jan 27: Political economy
- Karl Polanyi The Self-Regulating Market and the Fictitious Commodities: Labor, Land, and Money. In Edelman, Marc and Angelique Haugerud, eds. Introduction and Part I (p 1-104) of The Anthropology of Development and Globalization. Malden MA: Blackwell.
- Immanuel Wallerstein, 1976. The Modern World-System: Capitalist Agriculture and the Origins of the European World-Economy in the Sixteenth Century. New York: Academic Press. pp. 229-233
- Biersack, Aletta. 2006. “Reimagining Political Ecology: Culture/Power/History/Nature” in Reimagining Political Ecology, pp. 3-40. A. Biersack and J. Greenberg, eds. Durham: Duke University Press.
Monday, Feb 1: Political economy updated
- Smith, N. 2008 (1984). Uneven Development: Nature, Capital, and the Production of Space. University of Georgia Press.
Wednesday, Feb 3: Political economy updated 2
Special guest: Neil Smith, CUNY Graduate School
Monday, Feb 8: Political ecology foundations
- Blaikie, Piers, and Harold Brookfield. 1987. Land Degradation and Society (Development Studies). Routledge. Chapters 1, 2, 4, 6, & 7
Wednesday, Feb 10: Political ecology foundations 2
- Blaikie, Piers, and Harold Brookfield. 1987. Land Degradation and Society (Development Studies). Routledge. Chapters 8, 10, 13
- Bryant, Raymond. 1992. Political Ecology: An Emerging Research Agenda in Third-World Studies. Political Geography 11(1):12-36.
Monday, Feb 15: Modern political ecology
- Robbins, Paul. 2004. Political Ecology: A Critical Introduction (Critical Introductions to Geography). Wiley-Blackwell.
Wednesday, Feb 17: Modern political ecology 2
- Robbins, Paul. 2004. Political Ecology: A Critical Introduction (Critical Introductions to Geography). Wiley-Blackwell.
Monday, Feb 22: Conservation, states, and resistance
- Peluso, N. 1992. Rich forests, poor people: Resource control and resistance in Java. U California Press.
Wednesday, Feb 24: Conservation, states, and resistance 2
- Peluso, N. 1992. Rich forests, poor people: Resource control and resistance in Java. U California Press.
Monday, March 1: Critiques of political ecology
- Escobar, Arturo. 1999. After Nature: Steps to an Anti-essentialist Political Ecology. Current Anthropology 40: 1-30.
- Vayda, Andrew P. 2009 “Causal explanation as a research goal: dos and don’ts” and “Against Political Ecology” Chs. 1 and 6 of Explaining Human Actions and Environmental Changes. AltaMira Press.
- Walker, Peter A. 2005 Political ecology: where is the ecology? Progress in Human Geography 29, 1 (2005) pp. 73–82 Walker, Peter A. 2006 Political Ecology: where is the policy? Progress in Human Geography 30, 3 (2006) pp. 382–39
Wednesday, March 3: Critiques of political ecology
Special guest: Andrew Vayda, Rutgers University
Monday, March 8: Feminist political ecology 1
- Rocheleau, D. 1996 Feminist Political Ecology: Global Issues and Local Experiences (International Studies of Women and Place) Routledge.
Wednesday, March 10: Feminist political ecology 2
- Rocheleau, D. 1996 Feminist Political Ecology: Global Issues and Local Experiences (International Studies of Women and Place) Routledge.
SPRING BREAK, March 15 and 17
Monday, March 22: Corruption and conservation
- Gibson, C. Politicians and Poachers: The Political Economy of Wildlife Policy in Africa. Cambridge University Press.
Wednesday, March 24: Corruption and conservation 2
- Gibson, C. Politicians and Poachers: The Political Economy of Wildlife Policy in Africa. Cambridge University Press.
Monday, March 29: Neoliberalism
- Harvey, David. 2005. A Brief History of Neoliberalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Selections.
Wednesday, March 31: EcoNeoliberalism
- Bridge, Gavin. 2007. Acts of enclosure: Claim staking and land conversion in Guyana’s gold fields. In Heynen, et al., eds., Neoliberal environments: False
promises and unnatural consequences. London: Routledge, 74-88. - Castree, Noel 2006. Commentary: From neoliberalism to neoliberalisation: Consolations, confusions, and necessary illusions. Environment and Planning A, 38: 1-6.
- McCarthy, James 2004. Privatizing conditions of production: Trade agreements as neoliberal environmental governance. Geoforum, 35: 327-341.
- McAfee, Kathleen 1999. Selling Nature to Save It? Biodiversity and the Rise of Green Developmentalism. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space April 1999 17: 2: 133 -154
- Schroeder, Richard. 2008. Environmental justice and the market: The politics of sharing wildlife revenues in Tanzania. Society and Natural Resources 21 (7):556-568.
Monday, April 5: Environmental justice
- Kosek, J. 2006 Understories: The Political Life of Forests in Northern New Mexico. Duke University Press.
Wednesday, April 7: Environmental justice 2
- Kosek, J. 2006 Understories: The Political Life of Forests in Northern New Mexico. Duke University Press.
Monday, April 12: Environmentality
- Foucault, Michel 1991. “Governmentality” In The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality. (Eds) Graham Burchell, Colin Gordon, and Peter Miller.
Chicago: The University of Chicago Press - Hall, Stuart. 2001. “Foucault: Power, Knowledge, and Discourse” in Wetherell, Margaret, Stephanie Taylor, and Simeon Yates, ed. Discourse Theory and Practice: A Reader Open University: Sage Publications p.72-81.
- Agrawal, Arun. 2005 Environmentality: Community, Intimate Government, and the Making of Environmental Subjects in Kumaon, India. Current Anthropology 46 (2): 161-190.
- Li, T. M. 2005. “Beyond ‘the State’ and Failed Schemes” American Anthropologist 107(3): 383—394.
- Mathews, Andrew. 2005. “Power/Knowledge, Power/Ignorance: Forest Fires and the State in Mexico” Human Ecology 33(6): 795-820.
Wednesday, April 14: Territories of difference 1
- Arturo Escobar 2008. Territories of Difference: Place, Movements, Life, Redes. Duke University Press.
Monday, April 19: Territories of difference 2
- Arturo Escobar 2008. Territories of Difference: Place, Movements, Life, Redes. Duke University Press.
Wednesday, April 21: Territories of difference 3
- Arturo Escobar 2008. Territories of Difference: Place, Movements, Life, Redes. Duke University Press.
Monday, April 26: Territories of difference 4
- Arturo Escobar 2008. Territories of Difference: Place, Movements, Life, Redes. Duke University Press.
Wednesday, April 28: Presentations 1
Monday, May 3: Presentations 2