Syllabus - SPOL 624

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Cultural Ecology - Political Ecology:

Key Textbooks and Study Guides are listed HERE.  See also TOOLS for key resource links, publications, research groups, online courses and the Class Bibliographic Resources LIST as well as web-resources LINKS ON ENVIRONMENT and CULTURAL ECOLOGY. The Virtual Geography Department and its various resource groups such as EES (Earth's Environment and Society) also has resources that may be useful.

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Social Ecology n 1: a coherent radical critique of current social, political, and anti-ecological trends.
2: a reconstructive, ecological, communitarian, and ethical approach to society.

Online Resources:

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ENVIRONMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY:

Descriptions:

Raymond De Young (1999) - Environmental Psychology. In D. E. Alexander and R. W. Fairbridge [Eds.] Encyclopedia of Environmental Science. Hingham, MA: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

    Environmental psychology examines the interrelationship between environments and human behavior. The field defines the term environment very broadly including all that is natural on the planet as well as social settings, built environments, learning environments and informational environments. When solving problems involving human-environment interactions, whether global or local, one must have a model of human nature that predicts the environmental conditions under which humans will behave in a decent and creative manner. With such a model one can design, manage, protect and/or restore environments that enhance reasonable behavior, predict what the likely outcome will be when these conditions are not met, and diagnose problem situations. The field develops such a model of human nature while retaining a broad and inherently multidisciplinary focus. It explores such dissimilar issues as common property resource management, wayfinding in complex settings, the effect of environmental stress on human performance, the characteristics of restorative environments, human information processing, and the promotion of durable conservation behavior. The field of environmental psychology recognizes the need to be problem-oriented, using, as needed, the theories and methods of related disciplines (e.g., psychology, sociology, anthropology, biology, ecology). The field founded the Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA), publishes in numerous journals including Environment and Behavior and the Journal of Environmental Psychology, and was reviewed several times in the Annual Review of Psychology. A handbook of the field was published in 1987 (Stokols and Altman 1987).

Definition of "environmental psychology" by the Environmental Psychology Lab, University of Michigan.

    Environmental psychology examines the interrelationship between environments and human behavior. The term environment is broadly defined to include all that is natural on the planet as well as social settings, built environments, learning environments and informational environments. When solving problems involving human-environment interactions it's essential to have a model of human nature that predicts the conditions under which humans will behave in a decent and creative manner. The field develops such a model of human behavior while retaining its broad and inherently multidisciplinary focus. Using this model it explores such dissimilar issues as common property resource management, wayfinding in complex settings, the effect of environmental distraction on human performance, the characteristics of restorative environments, human information processing, and the promotion of environmental stewardship behavior. Environmental psychology recognizes the need to be problem-oriented, using, as needed, the theories and methods of related disciplines (e.g., psychology, sociology, anthropology, biology).

Select resources:

  • Annual Review of Psychology
    Vol. 47: 485-512 (Volume publication date February 1996)
    (doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.47.1.485)
    NVIRONMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY 1989-1994
  • Architect.org resources - design, technology, practice, etc
  • Athabasca University - course: Psychology 432: Psychology and the Built Environment
  • EDRA - Environmental Design Research Association
  • Garling, T. and R. Golledge [Eds.] (1993). Behavior and Environment: Psychological and Geographical Approaches. Amsterdam: North Holland.
  • IAAP - International Association of Applied Psychology
  • Kaplan, S. and R. Kaplan (1982). Cognition and Environment. NY: Praeger.
  • Meredith Wells - Eastern Kentucky University.
  • Ostrom, Elinor. 1990. Governing the commons: The evolution of institutions for collective action. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Schoggen, P. (1989). Behavior settings: A revision and extension of Roger G. Barker's Ecological Psychology. Stanford , CA : Stanford University Press.
  • Social Aspects of Architecture - ARCH 424 - Roger Williams University - Env. Psychology
  • Stokols, Daniel. UCI SEWEB homepage -
  • Stokols, D. (1995). The paradox of environmental psychology. American Psychologist, 50(10), 821-837.
  • Stokols, D. and I. Altman [Eds.] (1987). Handbook of Environmental Psychology. New York: Wiley.
  • Wicker, A. W. (1987). Behavior settings reconsidered: Temporal stages, resources, internal dynamics, context. In D. Stokols & I. Altman (Eds.), Handbook of environmental psychology (pp. 613-653). New York : Wiley.

Community Psychology:

**See summary paper by Rhoda Smith - LLU Student (DOC file) - and her READINGS list.

Perkins, Douglas D. "What is community psychology?"

Community psychology is fundamentally concerned with the relationship between social systems and individual well-being in the community context.  Thus, community psychologists grapple with an array of social and mental health problems and they do so through research and interventions in both public and private community settings.

One of the most exciting aspects of community psychology is that the field is developing rapidly and is still in the process of defining itself.  It is not easily reduced to the traditional. content categories in psychology for several reasons.  Fist, community psychologists simultaneously emphasize both (applied) service delivery to the community and (theory-based) research on social environmental processes.  Second, they focus, not just on individual psychological make-up, but on multiple levels of analysis, from individuals and groups to specific programs to organizations and, finally, to whole communities.  Third, community psychology covers a broad range of settings and substantive areas.  A community psychologist might find herself or himself conducting research in a mental health center on Monday, appearing as an expert witness in a courtroom on Tuesday, evaluating a hospital program on Wednesday, implementing a school-based program on Thursday, and organizing a community board meeting on Friday.  For all the above reasons, there is a sense of vibrant urgency and uniqueness among community psychologists--as if they are as much a part of a social movement as of a professional or scientific discipline.

Some references:

  • Berkes, Fikret and Carl Folke (eds.). 2000. Linking Social and Ecological Systems : Management Practices and Social Mechanisms for Building Resilience. Cambridge University Press.
  • Berger, Peter L. and Samuel P. Huntington. 2003. Many Globalizations: Cultural Diversity in the Contemporary World. Oxford University Press.
  • Boggs, Carl. 2001. The End of Politics: Corporate Power and the Decline of the Public Sphere. Guilford Press.
  • Bronfenbrenner, U. (1977). Toward an experimental ecology of human development. American Psychologist, 32, 513-531.
  • Conca, Ken and Geoffrey D. Dabelko. 2002. Environmental Peacemaking. Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
  • Crumley, Carole L. 2001. New Directions in Anthropology and Environment: Intersections. Altamira Press.
  • Faber, Daniel. 1998. The Struggle for Ecological Democracy Environmental Justice Movements in the United States. Guilford Press.
  • Kirby, Kathleen. 1996. Indifferent Boundaries: Spatial Concepts of Human Subjectivity. Guilford Press.
  • Kirk, William. 1951. Historical geography and the concept of behavioural environment. Silver Jubilee Souvenir and N. C. Subrahmanyam Memorial Volume, Indian Geographical Society, 25:152-160.
  • Mitchell, Don. 2003. The Right to the City: Social Justice and the Fight for Public Space. Guilford Press.
  • Nation, M., Wandersman, A., & Perkins, D.D. (2002). Promoting healthy communities through community development. In L. Jason & D. Glenwick (Eds.),Innovative strategies for preventing psychological problems (324-344). New York: Springer.
  • Perkins, D.D., Hughey, J., & Speer, P.W. (2002). Community psychology perspectives on social capital theory and community development practice. Journal of the Community Development Society, 33(1), 33-52.
  • Perkins, D.D., Crim, B., Silberman, P. & Brown, B.B. (2004). Community development as a response to community-level adversity: Ecological theory and research and strengths-based policy. In K.I. Maton, C.J. Schellenbach, B.J. Leadbeater & A.L. Solarz (Eds.), Investing in children, youth, families and communities: Strengths-based research and policy (pp. 321-340).
    Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. [Links to Community Development Resources on the Internet]
  • Perkins, D.D., & Long, D.A. (2002). Neighborhood sense of community and social capital: A multi-level analysis. In A. Fisher, C. Sonn, & B. Bishop (Eds.), Psychological sense of community: Research, applications, and implications (pp. 291-318). New York: Plenum.
  • Seidman, E. (1988). Back to the future, community psychology: Unfolding a theory of social intervention. American Journal of Community Psychology, 16, 3-24.

Community Development

**See also landscape architecture and ecology, urban planning.

**See also summary paper by Rhoda Smith - LLU Student (DOC file) - and her READINGS list.

Select Resources:

ENVIRONMENTAL PERCEPTION: BEHARIORAL GEOGRAPHY & COGNITIVE ANTHROPOLOGY

See description below from AAG Specialty Group and its Newsletters which explain the goals and purposes of Behavioral Geography and related areas of "perceptual" or "cognitive geography".  

See also key scholar profiles 1997 and 1995 (from AAG Specialty Group) -

**Reginald G. Golledge, Professor of Geography and Director of Research Unit on Spatial Cognition and Choice--University of California, Santa Barbara.

To advance the theoretical and applied interests of environmental perception and behavioral geography within the discipline of geography, developing links to related disciplines through communication and organization. Environmental perception and behavior geography (EPBG) is a broad subarea within human geography that takes a disaggregate approach to the study of human activity, culture, and society. 
It is concerned with a diverse set of issues about human behavior, perception, attitudes, beliefs, memory, language, intentions, reasoning and problem-solving involving space and place. EPBG research is motivated by two premises, that understanding these issues will help imporve traditional models in human geography, and that these issues constitute geographic problems in their own right. 
Furthermore, to an EPBG researcher, people are not interchangeable parts for study but may differ as a function of their culture, socioeconomic status, age, gender, education, travel experiences, differing abilities, and more. EPBG researchers employ a wide array of research methodologies, both qualitative and quantitative, and have interdisciplinary contact with psychology, anthropology, history, phenomenology, micro-economics, computer science, literature, and other disciplines. 

Selected Resources:

  • Blaikie, Piers. 1994. Political Ecology in the 1990s: An evolving view of nature and society (CASID Series No. 13). East Lansing: Michigan State University.
  • Burton, Ian, Robert W. Kates and Gilbert F. White. 1993. The Environment as Hazard. Guilford Press.
  • Brookfield, Harold. 1975. On the environment as perceived. Progress in Geography 1:51-80.
  • Crumley, Carole L. 2001. New Directions in Anthropology and Environment: Intersections. Altamira Press
  • Garling, T. and R. Golledge [Eds.] (1993). Behavior and Environment: Psychological and Geographical Approaches. Amsterdam: North Holland.
  • Golledge, Reginald G. and Robert J. Stimson. 1997. Spatial Behavior: A Geographic Perspective. Guilford Press.
  • Jackson, J.B., Peirce F. Lewis, David Lowenthal, D.W. Meinig, Marwyn S. Samules, David Sopher, and Yi-Fu Tuan. 1979. The Interpretation of Ordinary Landscapes: Geographical Essays. Oxford University Press.
  • Kaplan, S. and R. Kaplan (1982). Cognition and Environment. NY: Praeger.
  • Kirby, Kathleen. 1996. Indifferent Boundaries: Spatial Concepts of Human Subjectivity. Guilford Press.
  • Kirk, William. 1951. Historical geography and the concept of behavioural environment. Silver Jubilee Souvenir and N. C. Subrahmanyam Memorial Volume, Indian Geographical Society, 25:152-160.
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        1. (10% of grade) brief biosketches and summaries of key figures and writers in environmental history and literature (on 3X5 cards) - write on 10 writers/thinkers selected from the weblist entitled: Figures in Environmental History and Ethics.  Or from the other thinkers and writers listed HERE . Have them also check specifically the resources under History of Ideas and Literature about Nature.  See also Philosophers Index  A - Z   This assignment is DUE BY WEEK FOUR.

        2. (40% of grade) TWO written analyses (POLICY BRIEFS) of select theoriest/writers/schools of thought within the discipline (to be assigned):

Each report will be between NO MORE THAN 6-8 pages MAXIMUM in length (be concise and synthetic in writing).  The paper is to be submitted in electronic format on  BLACKBOARD the Discussion Forum.  It will be deposited online where both your classmates and the instructor can read and asses them. Each written report will synthesize and summarize an assigned "theory, ideas and their proponents (school of thought), writers, and key attributes".  It will explain how this school of thought and its principal proponents have contributed to the field of social, cultural and political ecology.  ]

In addition, you are to briefly give YOUR evaluation of the writer's ethics, value to those doing policy analysis--particularly to those who assume a Christian perspective.  In other words, what can we learn (both positive and negative) from the writer, school, idea(s) in question. Each student will be ready to present oral summaries of these reports (time permitting).  Everyone will post the written reports on the BLACKBOARD site.  These reports will then become the object of "discussion" and evaluation by your fellow students and the instructor--to improve them in quality of writing, thought and intellectual rigor. 

Paper No. 1 is due WEEK FIVE and Paper No. 2 at the end of WEEK TEN.

          3. (40%) Weekly Reading Reports--assigned by the instructor.

          Students will submit WEEKLY READING REPORTS (each no more than 2 pages in length) that sumarizes books, articles, journals, etc...assigned by the instructor. These book summaries will be posted on BLACKBOARD in the DISCUSSION FORUM.  Students are expected to also make brief 3-5 minute oral presentations on their reading during the proseminar when called upon by the instructor. It is the student's responsibility to be ready to present orally and have posted the summary ON TIME.   This is worth (40% of your quarter grade).  More on this during the first week.

          4. (10%) Active participation online in the discussion forum.

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        Grading Rubric:

          For an A grade:

          Above 94% on all reports and take-home exercises as well as exceptional work on the research project (see above). To get an A you must demostrate high creativity, initiative, resourcefulness in all areas of the course and have an excellent participation and attendance record as well.

          For a B grade:

          For a B+ you must get above 87% in all reports and good work on take-home exercises/ projects. For a B you must achieve between 84 - 86% and a B- will be given to those scoring between 80 - 83%.

          For a C grade:

          Below 80% on reports and below average writing on take-home exercises/ projects and below average participation and attendance: C+ = 75 -79%, C = 70 -74%, C- = 65 - 69%.

          For a D or F grade:

          To get a D+ = 60 - 64% and D = 55 - 59%; D- = 50 - 54%. Below 50% is a failing grade = F

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        Procedures and Regulations:

          No make-up will be allowed except by prior arrangement for good cause (official University business and death in the immediate family). In all cases you must notify the instructor before you make-it-up. Make-up work must be normally taken within one week of the missed project is due.

          Doing your best consists in:

          • regular attendance and participation in all class discussions and activities,
          • reading required assignments before you come to class,
          • handing-in or doing assignments on time--this also applies to class presentations where the
          • quality of your presentation in terms of visual/graphical appeal are evaluated AND
          • clarity, organization and quality of material given in the oral presentation.

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        Notes on Communications:

        1. Throughout the entire course a strong emphasis will be put on encouraging students to practice and perfect various forms of written, oral and graphic communication--emphasis on use of HTML Web-based material as well as use of maps and charts. See the following list of WWW Publishing Resources for ESSE (Earth System Science Education) for more information how to publish on the web.  
        2. See also the various WWW Resources relating to cartography, map and aerial photo interpretation, GIS/RS (remote sensing), and so on included in the ESSC course ( ESSC 500 ) WWW resources list entitled -- Important Resources for Earth System Science .  
        3. Students will also be expected to learn to use basic electronic communications effectively such as email. Much of the course will be carried out online via the BLACKBOARD site.  
        4. Monitoring of participation to asses evidence of interaction with people and resources beyond the course--in the real world--is encouraged and demanded! Students will also be shown HOW TO ACCESS ONLINE (INTERNET) DATA in the course. One of the goals is to not only teach good email writing skills and netiquette,  but more important HOW TO USE THE INTERNET to do research and communicate across the globe with other students as well as experts in their areas of interest.

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        Time and Location - Assignment Due Dates

FACE-TO-FACE LECTURES/DISCUSSIONS

Griggs Hall Conference Room 105

Wednesday evenings (Winter Quarter) 5:30 - 8:30 PM

DEADLINES for Assignments

Reading Assignments No. 1 (to be done before the first class if at all possible) - books on reserve in the Del Webb Library.

  • Netting, Robert M. 1986 . Cultural Ecology. Waveland Press, Inc. Read Chapter 1 and 6

  • Townsend. 2000. Environmental Anthropology: From Pigs to Policies. Waveland Press. Read Chapter 1 thru 6

  • Lipschutz, Ronnie D. 2004. Global Environmental Politics: Power, Perspectives and Practice. CQ Press. Chapters 1-2 (pps. 1-86.)

  • Key Reading: Zimmerer, Karl. and Thomas J. Bassett. 2003. Political Ecology: An Integrative Approach to Geography and Environment-Development Studies. Guilford Press - chapters 1 and 14.

  • Recommended) Pearcey, Nancy R. 2004. Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from Its Cultural Captivity. Crossway Books.

A. Written Briefs (short papers) - see BLACKBOARD.

First Paper due = end of Week FIVE
Second Paper due = end of Week TEN


B. READING REPORTS - WEEKLY

C. 3x5 card author summaries (Due Week Four)


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