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Catalog Description (see also Course Objectives):
Exploration of fundamental integrative theories and ideas that explore nature/society interactions and change including key contributions from systems science, economics, sociology, demography, political science as well as political, social and cultural ecology. The focus is on learning how to assess the complex interactions between natural and built environments, technology, institutions, social groups and individuals, and value/ethical systems which shape the context for social policy-analysis and decision-making in a rapidly changing world. The goal is to promote integrative habits of thought and practice that facilitates sustainable development both at the community and national/international level from a Christian social ethics perspective. A wide range of issues such as population growth, food production, natural resources management, globalization and technology, energy policy, and socio-economic restructuring and sustainable development planning will be considered. For more information see Course Introduction.
Class Resource Materials:
This is a graduate-level course designed to introduce the student in an integrative manner to the exciting field of Nature/Society Thought and Social Policy-- see Course Objectives. The course will
- Survey key issues in the philosophy and methodology of social science research, then
- Review the historical foundations of this field of study (see below), and
- Survey the various themes and "schools of thought " that use the"ecological paradym" within their branch of the social sciences.
I. Concepts, Principles, and Terms in the Philosophy, History and Practice of Science:
II. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND - Nature/Environment Relations - Role of nature vs. nurture....and other "human-environment" debates in the social sciences:
- Environmental determinism
- Probabilism and possibilism
- Cultural determinism
- Interactionism
- Systems analysis - "wholism" - "holism"
- etc.
Historical Antecedents of Ecology (broadly defined):
-Hippocrates 466-377 ? BC (Airs, Waters and Places)
-Linnaeus 1707-1778 (Systemmae Naturae) Taxonomy
-Ibn Kalduhn - "societies as organisms" that go from youth to old age...
-Alexander von Humbolt 1769-1859 (land and society in Mexico (landscapes), vertical zonation, "anoxia effects" etc... )
-Thomas Malthus 1798 (An Essay on Population)
-Charles Darwin 1809-1882 (origin of species, coral reefs, etc.)
-C. Hart Merriam (1855-1942 ("life zones")
-George Perkins Marsh 1864 (Man and Nature or Physical Geography as Modified by Human Action)
-Gifford Pinchot and John Muir ("conservation movement")
-Herbert Spencer - society as "organism" (social Darwinism) - "stages" of growth - "evolution and change"
19th Century Classical Period:
-Ernst Haeckel (1870) Oikos (House): Ecology - management of the household; economy - discourse on the hosuehold
Autecology - "internal relations" (Physiology) of organisms
Synecology - "external relations" (behavior/sociology/community-Eugene Warming 1895 Ecological Plant Geography (community, "ecology" word used, climax, steady state,...
-Frederick E. Clements 1916 "succession" (1939 Book: Bioecology)
-Arthur Tansley 1935 ("ecosystem")
-Eugene Odum, 1953 Fundamentals of Ecology (energy flow, trophic levels, etc...)
-Konrad Lorenz 1940s - "instinctive and aggressive behavior" "territoriality" (Ethology)Human Ecology in Sociology and Anthropology:
SYNECOLOGY (groups of organisms)
-Robert Park 1920s ("Chicago School") 'society' a reflection of biological functions (Spencerian evolutionary views) - competition, segregation, succession, invasion, specialization, stratification, niche, spatial patterns...(Population, Technology, Culture & social Structure, Natural resources, environment)
-Amos Hawley "Human Ecology" Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences
-Burgess, Ziph, and others (spatial structure of cities)
-Louis WirthAUTECOLOGY - Anthropology - focus on individuals and single cultures, reaction agains SOCIAL DARWINISM
Anti-"environmental determinism" - more "cultural primacy determinism" or "possibilism"-Paul Vidal de la Blache - Rise of "possibilism" (France) "mileiu" "anthropogeography" - "genre de vie" Landschaften ("cultural landscapes")
-George Perkins Marsh (1864) - shift of focus to "man" - MAN-LAND RELATIONS
-Franz Boas "historical particularism"
-Tyler and Morgan "natural history of single communities" or "cultures"
-A.L. Kroeber (Berkeley) - culture areas, diffusion, invention, -
-Carl Sauer (Geography) - Berkeley School
-Clark Wissler - American Museum of Natural History - "identified 9 North American "cultural areas"
-Griffith Taylor (Australia) "stop-and-go determinism" (search for "natural best use" for regions - nature operating traffic lights
-C. Daryl Forde 1934, Habitat, Economy and Society - analyze the "possibilities" for "particular societies" or "human communities"Environmental Determinism in the Social Sciences (geopolitics, sociology, history, poltical science, economics):
-Lothrop Stoddard, The Passing of the Great Race
-Ellen Semple 1863-1932 (student of RATZEL - Germany) - 1903 American History and its Geographic Conditions
-Ellsworth Huntington, e.g. 1915, Civilization and Climate
-Halford J. McKinder ("world island" vs. "Eurasian landsmass" - balance of power
-Alfred T. Mahan (naval historian) - control of the seas/strategic crossroadsJulian Steward's Method of Cultural Ecology (multilinear vs. linear causation) (General vs. Specific Change)
-Emphasis on unique local environments, "culture core vs. secondary traits" adaptation is a major process in social change", systems inquilibrium (functionalism)
-Book - 1955, Theory of Culture Change
-Article - 1968 - "cultural ecology" IN: Intermational Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences. Vol. 4, pp. 337-344.
-Broad Goal: "social science problem of explaining the origin of unlike behavior patterns found among different societies of the human species"
-Specific Goal: "to ascentain whether the adjustment of human societies to their environments require particular modes of behavior or whether they permit latitude for a certain range of possible behavior patterns."
-Procedures: analyze a) relation between environment and "exploitative" or "productive" technology, b) "the 'behavior' patterns involved in the exploitation of a particular area by means of a particular technology, and c) "the extent to which the behavior patterns entailed in exploiting the environment affect other aspects of culture".
-Examples: Shoshonean Indians of Great Basin, Bushmen of Kalahari...Cultural Materialism:
-Marx
-Sahlins, etc
-Marvin Harris - Techno-Environmentalism
-Leslie White - cultural materialism / neo-evolutionism - energy and society ("energetics")
-Talcott Parsons etc.Contemporary Approaches to Studying the Environment - Nature-Society Relations: (in geography, anthropolgy, ecology, sociology)
Key Reading required: Ronnie D. Lipschut. 2004. Global Environmental Politics: Power, Perspectives and Practice. CQ Press. Chapters 1-2 (pps. 1-86.) and (Recommended) Pearcey, Nancy R. 2004. Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from Its Cultural Captivity. Crossway Books.
- Logical positivism or objectivism
- Subjectivism - Existentialism and the Humanistic reaction to positivism
- Idealism / activism
- Realism etc...
- Critical analysis - radical theory/structuration
- Post-Modernism
- etc
Ethnoecology - Ethnoscience - Ecological Anthropology (Key Reading: Townsend. 2000. Environmental Anthropology: From Pigs to Policies. Waveland Press.)
Structural linguistics, compnential analysis, "folk" classification/taxonomic systems, e.g. ("emic" vs" "etic" )
-Perceptual environment - elements perceived by the organism
-Effective environment (behavioral) - elements, perceived or not that affect the organism
-Operational Environment (Total reality ) all elements, influential or not, that are detectable or inferrable-Harold Conklin - "the ethnographic study of cognitive systems" (classification of swidden systems)
-Emilio Moran ("adaptation") - agriculture, high altitudes, etc
-John W. Bennett etc... - "Human systems ecology"
-See also - Behavioral Geography: Saarinem, Gollege, Yi Fu Tuan, etc
III. Schools of Thought in the Use of the Ecological Paradym in the Social Sciences:
Following is a brief introduction to selected themes/schools of thought within the field. See also TOOLS for a list of key resource links, publications, research groups, online courses--see also: Bibliographic Resources.
I. Cultural/Political Ecology: Applied to Sustainable Development in anthropology and geography
Sub-themes:
- Environmental and Social Justice (see also Env. Ethics - below):
- EJ (environmental justice)
- HIV/AIDS and Rural Development
- Human rights and entitlements
- Poverty and vulnerability risk
- Sustainable Livelihoods
- Social Capital
- Environment and social policy
- Environmental Ethics, Religion, and Political Economy (Capitalism, Socialism, etc.)
- Religion and philosophy
- Political economy
- Bioethics
- Business and natural capitalism
II. Global Change Research (GC):
Sub-themes such as: Human Dimensions of Global Change (HDGC), Environmental Security, Hazards and Vulnerability, Sustainability Science, Governance and the Environment, Managing the Commons, etc:
Select programs sites:
- Earth System Science - ESSE21
- Sustainability Science (Science and Technology for Sustainability-Harvard)
- International Human Dimensions Program (IHDP)
- Environmental Security, Politics, International Relations, and Diplomacy (e.g. ECSP)
- Environment, Population, and Security Project (University of Toronto) - Peace and Conflict Studies
- Hazards Research and Risk Assessment (e.g. Hazards Center, University of Colorado)
- Institutional Dimensions of Global Environmental Change (IDGEC-UC Irvine)
- Governance for Sustainable Development - (Bren School UCSB)
- Community-based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM.net)
III. Environmental History, Philosophy, and Literature
IV. Human Ecology/Social Ecology:
Sub-themes:
- Social Construction of Nature - Chicago School
- Radical / Deep Ecology (Murray Bookchin, Janet Biehl, Carol Merchant)
- Ecofeminism (Ruether, Rocheleau, Wangari mathai, etc.)
- Social Ecology - General:
- Environmental Psychology (Stokols, UCI)
- Community Psychology (Perkins,et al)
- Community Development
- Behavioral Geography and Environmental Perception: Saarinem (UAZ), Golledge UCSB) and Cognitive Anthropology (Conklin, Townsend, etc.)
V. Landscape Ecology (see also Global Environmental Change and Sustainability Science):
- Earth System Science - ESSE21
- Urban/Regional Planning
- Environmental Design
- Landscape Architecture
- Computational Ecology and Spatial Analysis
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.
Contemporary Cultural and Political Ecology:
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.
Notes from: As described by Simon Batterbury and Tony Bebbington (University of Colorado, Boulder) See also GEOG 696b: Political Ecology: Institutions, environmental change, and development--new course by Simon Batterbury who is now at the University of Melbourne, Australia--formerly the University of Arizona). Both are geographers. An interesting recent research project by Simon is entitled Livelihoods Systems in Niger.
(Political ecology)...though it traces its roots back to the broader sociological sciences (see below) done by the "human ecology" school of Chicago and others studying more complex urban systems, e.g. Burgess. Cultural/political ecology has been primarily differentiated (like anthropology in general at least earlier in this century) as being focused on "simpler" societies (often rural) and the "developing world"--though we know better today than to see society in so simplistic a perspective, i.e.as differentiated between simple/complex--as earlier thought.
Geography has often followed routes of inquiry similar to anthropology (at least within "cultural geography") due to the great influence of certain schools of thought, e.g. "The Berkeley School" led by Carl Sauer and his students. There is also a strong "urban ecology" school of thought in geography that traces its philosophical roots to the "Chicago School" of Burgess and other "human ecologists"--it its history and approach come from from urban planning and sociology.
Batterbury and Bebbington define social, cultural and/or political ecology in the following manner (from their essay "Cultural Ecology and its critics"):
A concern for the relationship between nature and society has been one of the pillars of geographic inquiry, and has also been an important bridge between geography and other disciplines, in particular anthropology. By the 1960s this area of inquiry was referred to variously as "human ecology" or "cultural ecology". Over the last decade certain forms of inquiry within this tradition have increasingly referred to themselves as "political ecology.
The central question becomes: Why do people do what they do to the environment?
From: William E. Riebsame, University of Colorado, The Topography of Geography: Some Trends in Human Geographic Thinking)
The answers tend to fall into two broad causal classes
- culture and behavior
- institutions and policy
Key questions explored in this field include:
- How have space and location shaped economic, social, political, and cultural life?
- How have economic, social, political, and cultural activities shaped space and location?
- How is globalization changing these processes
Role of Critical Theory and Analysis in Contemporary Political Ecology:
More resources--see - Human Geography Research: Critical Environmental Policy and Politics
- Critical realism: - see Eden, S. 2001. Environmental Issues: Nature versus environment? Progress in Human Geography, 25(1):, 79-85.
- Local, Regional and Global Sustainability (critical analysis):
- Environmental politics of social and institutional practices, e.g. Bryant, R. 2001. Politicized moral geographies: debating biodiversity conservation and ancestral domain. Political Geography, 19, 673-705.
- Political economy of nature and "commodification" - Goldman, M. (ed.). 1998. Privatizing Nature: Political Struggles for the Global Commons. Rutgers University Press.
- "Politicised" biophysical changes and evidence stemming from environmental science and physical geography - e.g. Horta, K. 2000. Rainforest: Biodiversity conservation and the political economy of international financial institutions. in Stott & S. Sullivan. 2000. (eds.). Political Ecology: Science, Myth and Power. Arnold. (ps. 179-202).
- Feminist political ecology with an emphasis on gender analysis, e.g. Rocheleau D, Thomas-Slayter B, Wangari E (eds.) 1996. Feminist Political Ecology: Global Issues and Local Experience. Routledge. (Intro. and Conclusion).
- The "pristine myth", e.g. Sluyter, Andrew. 1994. Intensive wetland agriculture in Mesoamerica: space, time, and form. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 84(4), 557-584.
Examples of a research projects in geography and anthroplogy using some of the ideas from cultural and political ecology include the following:
Select Online resources:
- A PROTOCOL FOR STUDYING THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC DIMENSIONS IN THE LAKE SUPERIOR BASIN - example of cultural/human/political perspectives and research design in geography--regional economic sustainability
- CAPE - Cultural and Political Ecology Specialty Group - AAG - Association of American Geographers ( homepage - Archives of Discussion List - http://lists.psu.edu/archives/aag-cesg-l.html) - CAPE-SG Newsletter
- Core curriculum and publications of the faculty of the School of Geography, Clark University which focuses on these themes (see Susan Hanson, B.L. Turner, Peet, etc.).
- Cultural Environmental Studies - WSU.
- Human Geography Research: Critical Environmental Policy and Politics
- Notes on Cultural Ecology by Catherine Marquette --history, themes, informative tables as well as Cultural Ecology Proseminar by Connie Weil and Phil Porter of the University of Minnesota.
- PESO - Political Ecology Society.
- Political and Cultural Ecology Specialty Group of the AAG (Association of American Geographers).
- Post-Modern Thought - review of key writers/thinkers - University of Colorado, Denver (Martin Ryder), School of Education - course: Contemporary Philosophy, Critical Theory and Postmodern Thought
- Society for Human Ecology - anthropology
- SOSIG (Social Science Information Gateway) - Resources in Social Ecology - Internet Resources Listed Alphabetically
Key Books and Articles:
- Adams., W.M. 1991. Green Development: Environment and Sustainability in the Third World. Routledge Press.
- Alland, Alexander Jr. and Bonnie McCay. 1973. The concept of adaptation in biological and cultural evolution. IN Honigmann, John J. 1973. Handbook of Social and Cultural Anthropology. Rand McNally College Publishing Company. pp. 143-178.
- Anderson, James. 1973. Ecological anthropology and anthropological ecology. IN Honigmann, John J. 1973. Handbook of Social and Cultural Anthropology. Rand McNally College Publishing Company. pp. 178 - 240.
- Atkinson, Adrian. 1991. Principles of Political Ecology. Belhaven Press.
- Barth, Fredrik. 1956. Ecologic relationships of ethnic groups in Swat, North Pakistan. IN Manners, Robert A. and David Kaplan. 1968. Theory in Anthropology: A Sourcebook. Aldine. pps. 386-92..
- Barrows, Harlan, H. 1923. Geography as human ecology. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 13:1-14
- Berkes, Fikret and Carl Folke (eds.). 2000. Linking Social and Ecological Systems : Management Practices and Social Mechanisms for Building Resilience. Cambridge University Press.
- Blaikie, Piersand Harold Brookfield. (eds.). 1987. Land Degradation and Society. Methuen.
- Blaikie, Piers. 1994. Political Ecology in the 1990s: An evolving view of nature and society (CASID Series No. 13). East Lansing: Michigan State University.
- Blaikie, Piers. 1998. A review of Political ecology: Issues, epistemology, and analytical narratives. Zeitschrift fur Wirtschaftsgeographie, 3-4, 131-147.
- Brookfield, Harold. 1975. On the environment as perceived. Progress in Geography 1:51-80.
- Bryant, R. 2001. Politicized moral geographies: debating biodiversity conservation and ancestral domain. Political Geography, 19, 673-705.
- Burton, Ian, Robert W. Kates and Gilbert F. White. 1993. The Environment as Hazard. Guilford Press.
- Cloke, Paul, Chris Philo, and David Sadler. 1991. Approaching Human Geography: An Introduction to Contemporary Theoretical Debates. Guilford Press.
- Conklin, Harold C. 1954. An ethnoecological approach to shifting cultivation. IN Wagner, Philip L. and Marvin Mikesell. (Eds.).1962. Readings in Cultural Geography. University of Chicago Press. SEE pps. 457-464.
- Crumley, Carole L. 2001. New Directions in Anthropology and Environment: Intersections. Altamira Press
- Eden, S. 2001. Environmental Issues: Nature versus environment? Progress in Human Geography, 25(1):, 79-85.
- Framework for Sustainability Science: A Renovated IPAT Identity.
Waggoner, P. E., and J. H. Ausubel. 2002. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 99(12): 7860-7865- Goldman, M. (ed.). 1998. Privatizing Nature: Political Struggles for the Global Commons. Rutgers University Press.
- Golledge, Reginald G. and Robert J. Stimson. 1997. Spatial Behavior: A Geographic Perspective. Guilford Press.
- Goudie, Andrew. 1991. The Human Impact on the Natural Environment. MIT Press.
- Honigmann, John J. 1973. Handbook of Social and Cultural Anthropology. Rand McNally College Publishing Company.
- Horta, K. 2000. Rainforest: Biodiversity conservation and the political economy of international financial institutions. in Stott & S. Sullivan. 2000. (eds.). Political Ecology: Science, Myth and Power. Arnold. (ps. 179-202).
- 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.
- Kasperson, Turner, et al: Regions at risk: comparisons of threatened environments and Case studies. UNU, Tokyo.
- Kasperson, Jeanne X., and Roger E. Kasperson. 2001. Global environmental risk. London: Earthscan.
- 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.
- Klare, Michael T. 2003. Resource Wars: The New Landscape of Global Conflict. Owl Books (NY); Reprint edition (March 13, 2002).
- Lewis, Martin W. 1992. Green Delusions: An Environmentalist Critique of Radical Environmentalism. Duke University Press.
- Light, Andrew. 1998. Social Ecology after Bookchin. Guildford Press.
- Long-Term Trends and a Sustainability Transition; and Characterizing a Sustainability Transition: Goals, Targets, Trends, and Driving Forces. Kates, Robert W., and Thomas M. Parris. 2003. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 100(14) (8 July): 8062-8067, 8068-8073. Two articles included in the PNAS Special Feature on "Science and Technology for Sustainable Development." No. 1 - No. 2
- Low, Nicholas and Brendan Gleeson, 1998. Justice, Society and Nature Routledge, 1998.
- Luccarelli, Mark. 1997. Lewis Mumford and the Ecological Region: the Politics of Planning. Guilford Press.
- Marsh, George P. 1885. The modified Earth. IN Salter, Christopher L. 1971. The Cultural Landscape. Duxbury Press. pp 101-104.
- Manners, Robert A. and David Kaplan. 1968. Theory in Anthropology: A Sourcebook. Aldine.
- Mitchell, Bruce. 1979. Geography and Resource Analysis. Longman Scientific.
- Moran, Emilio F. 2000 (2nd edition) . Human Adaptability: An Introduction to Ecological Anthropology. Westview Press.
- Murphy, Robert F. and Julian H. Steward. 1956. Tappers and Trappers: parallel process in acculturation. IN Manners, Robert A. and David Kaplan. 1968. Theory in Anthropology: A Sourcebook. Aldine. pps. 393-408.
- National Academy of Science. 1999. Our Common Journey: A Transition Toward Sustainability
- Netting., Robert M. 1986. Cultural Ecology. Waveland Press, Inc.
- Pasqualetti, Martin J. 1997. The Evolving Landscape: Home Aschmann's Geography. John's Hopkins University Press.
- Peet R. and M.Watts. 1996. Liberation Ecologies: environment, development, social movements. London: Routledge.
- Pelto, Pertti. 1970. Anthropological Inquiry: The Structure of Inquiry. Harper & Row, Publishers.
- Rocheleau D, Thomas-Slayter B, Wangari E (eds.) 1996. Feminist Political Ecology: Global Issues and Local Experience. Routledge. (Intro. and Conclusion).
- Sahlins, Marshall D. 1964. Culture and environment: the study of cultural ecology. IN Manners, Robert A. and David Kaplan. 1968. Theory in Anthropology: A Sourcebook. Aldine. pps. 367-373.
- Salter, Christopher L. 1971. The Cultural Landscape. Duxbury Press.
- Sauer, Carl O. 1956. The agency of man on earth. IN IN Wagner, Philip L. and Marvin Mikesell. (Eds.).1962. Readings in Cultural Geography. University of Chicago Press. SEE "Landscape and ecology" pps. 539-557.
- Sluyter, Andrew. 1994. Intensive wetland agriculture in Mesoamerica: space, time, and form. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 84(4), 557-584.
- Smith, Sheldon and Ed Reeves. 1989. Human Systems Ecology: Studies in the Integration of Political Economy, Adaptation, and Socionatural Regions. Westview Press.
- Sorre, Max. 1952. The concept of genre de vie. IN Wagner, Philip L. and Marvin Mikesell. (Eds.).1962. Readings in Cultural Geography. University of Chicago Press. SEE "Landscape and ecology" pps. 445-456.
- Steward, Julian. 1955. Theory of Culture Change. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
- Steward, Julian H. 1968. Cultural ecology. International Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences, 337344.
- Steinberg, Paul F. 2001. Environmental Leadership in Developing Countries: Transnational Relations and Biodiversity Policy in Costa Rica and Bolivia (American and Comparative Environmental Policy). The MIT Press; 1st edition (December 1, 2001)
- Tobin, Graham A. and Burrell E. Montz. 1997. Natural Hazards: Explanation and Integration. Guilford Press.
- Townsend, Patricia K. 2000. Environmental Anthropology: From Pigs to Policies. Waveland Press Inc.
- Turner II, B. L. 1989. The specialist-synthesis approach to the revival of geography: The case of cultural ecology. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 79:88-100.
- Turner, B. L., II, William C. Clark, Robert W. Kates, John F. Richards, Jessica T. Mathews, and William B. Meyer, eds. 1990a. The earth as transformed by human action. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press with Clark University.
- Vocet, Fred W. 1973. The history of cultural anthropology. IN Honigmann, John J. 1973. Handbook of Social and Cultural Anthropology. Rand McNally College Publishing Company. pp. 1-88.
- Wagner, Philip L. and Marvin Mikesell. (Eds.).1962. Readings in Cultural Geography. University of Chicago Press. SEE "Landscape and ecology" pps. 369-560
- Wood, Dennis. 2004. Five Billion Years of Global Change: A History of the Land. Guilford Press.
- Zimmerer, Karl. 1994. Human geography and the 'new ecology': the prospect and promise of integration. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 84:108-125.
- Zimmerer, Karl. and Thomas J. Bassett. 2003. Political Ecology: An Integrative Approach to Geography and Environment-Development Studies. Guilford Press.
Global Environmental Change (GEC), Sustainability Science or HDGC (Human Dimensions of Global Change) and Environmental Security--see Web-links:
This subfield has become a critical area of analysis for those approaching these issues from the global and national policy perspective.
Another primary focus of the course will be the theme of Environmental Justice, Racism and Poverty--see resources and readings such as: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 online web-resources LINKS ON ENVIRONMENT/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.
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE (EJ):
SOCIAL CAPITAL AND POVERTY:
This area of study has had a particularly strong influence on those who view this field as a means and arena for activism and application of ethics and religion in the real world. It has also had a strong influence on the legal, policy, governance, and political science arenas.
SUSTAINABLE LIVELIHOODS:
Books:
More resources from George Dzimiri (graduate student - LLU)
The paper discusses the livelihoods jargon. It proceeds to analyze some livelihoods through a case study. The paper is helpful in defining certain terms related to livelihoods systems.
The URL provides papers for sustainable livelihoods in Southern Africa. Helps African students and other scholars to understand the different livelihoods different countries pursue in Southern Africa.
The paper provides a list of resourceful donors and individuals working on HIV/AIDS and livelihoods.
Provides policy briefs, papers and publications on HIV/AIDS and effects on agriculture, food security, etc in Southern Africa.
Regional network on HIV/AIDS, rural livelihoods, agriculture and food security. The organization provides literature related to the epidemic and its impact on rural livelihoods.
This is a significant paper that examines the concept of livelihood diversification in relation to sustainable livelihoods.
Frank Ellis is known to be the guru of rural livelihoods literature. This paper analyzes the factors contributing to livelihoods diversification.
Scoones is another well-known researcher on sustainable rural livelihoods. In this paper he provides a framework for analyzing the rural livelihoods. His framework more or less resembles the sustainable livelihoods framework.
Provides a series of working papers on rural-urban interactions in Sub-Saharan Africa and their impact on livelihoods.
A series of discussions on what the poor say in relation to livelihoods and assets.
The paper looks at factors causing diversification of livelihoods among rural people.
The URL has 20 papers on public assets, diversification and rural development.
The site has resources for water, poverty, MDGs and livelihoods.
Provides working papers on multiple livelihoods and social change in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The website has a series of working papers that discuss the concept of de-agrarianisation in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Discusses rural development in developing countries. At the same time it publishes the Current journal, which analyzes the rural livelihoods.
HIV/AIDS and Rural Development (George Dzimiri):
http://www.microcreditsummit.org/press/Africanmicro.htm
www.fao.org/docrep/x7749e/x7749e00.htm
www.fao.org/sd/Wpdirect/Wpan0048.htm
www.fao.org/sd/Wpdirect/Wpre0074.htm
www.unaids.org/publications/documents/sectors/agricuture/Jc-fao-e.pdf
www.ifad.org/operations/regional/pf/aids 1.htm
www.hiv-development.org/publications/HESA.asp
http://www.fao.org/sd/2001/KN0402a_en.htm
Human Ecology - Sociological Perspectives - Social Construction of Nature--web-resources:
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 online web-resources LINKS ON ENVIRONMENT/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.
Nature-Society thought has also been influenced by thinkers from sociology, socio-biology, social psychology, and political science (especially political economy). See for instance the course - Social Ecology and Evolutionism (University of Chicago) by James Hughes, which explores the pivotal contributions of thinkers such as Amos Hawley, Robert Park, Louis Wirth, Talcott Parsons and others from the "Chicago School" of sociologists and geographers such as Burgess who attempted to interpret the life-cycles of cities and local economies with ecological tools. Their ideas continue to influence the field of human and social or urban ecology heavily including the development of "social ecology" as it has evolved at the University of California, Irvine in its School of Social Ecology.
Select Social Construction Resources:
Environmental History, Philosophy, and Literature--web-resources:
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 online 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.
Environmental literature and creative writing as well as philosophy has been an important source of ideas and study. Following is a list of Key Figures in Environmental History and Ethics who were important leaders in the field. Furthermore, environmental literature and writing is a legitimate and exciting field in its own right--though more often associated with the humanities and arts rather than the social or biophysical sciences. Nevertheless, particularly as it pertains to social policy and ethics, environmental historians and other creative writers and thinkers have had a strong influence on the field--the "romantic" tradition in landscape studies.
Select Resources (books, websites, etc):
SEE BELOW - From: Environment Security and the Res Publica: An Analysis of Environmentalism and an Alternative for the Future. by Barbara Baudot (Paper presented in 1993 at the Environmental Security Conference, France).
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Radical Ecology or Deep Ecology--web-resources:
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 online web-resources LINKS ON ENVIRONMENT 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.
Key contemporary thinkers and writers include:
- Carolyn Merchant - UC Berkeley
- Murray Bookchin - interview (Harbinger: A Journal of Social Ecology, Vol. 2. No. 1) -
- MURRAY BOOKCHIN READER
- Janet Biehl (Biography) - Radical Cities and Social Revolution: An Interview with Janet Biehl from "Perspectives on Anarchist Theory" Vol. 2 - No. 1, Spring 1998.
- Democracy and Nature - Author Biographies
- Viking's Guide to Critical Theory on the web
The Institute for Social Ecology--they define it as:
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.
Select Books and Online Resources:
- Achevedo, Gabriel A. Righteous warriors of god: the religious Factor and The study of collective behavior. Yale University Dept. of Sociology, Exam paper (Fall 2001). - DOC file
- Adams., W.M. 1991. Green Development: Environment and Sustainability in the Third World. Routledge Press.
- Anna L. Peterson, Being Human--Ethics, Environment, and Our Place in the World. UC Press, 2001
- Ariel Salleh, Ecofeminism as Politics. Zed, 1997
- Atkinson, Adrian. 1991. Principles of Political Ecology. Belhaven Press.
- Biehl, Janet. Radical Cities and Social Revolution: An Interview with Janet Biehl from "Perspectives on Anarchist Theory" Vol. 2 - No. 1, Spring 1998.
- Blaikie, Piers. 1998. A review of Political ecology: Issues, epistemology, and analytical narratives. Zeitschrift fur Wirtschaftsgeographie, 3-4, 131-147.
- Boggs, Carl. 2001. The End of Politics: Corporate Power and the Decline of the Public Sphere. Guilford Press.
- Bryant, R. 2001. Politicized moral geographies: debating biodiversity conservation and ancestral domain. Political Geography, 19, 673-705.
- Carolyn Merchant's Books - list - Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature. Harper & Row, 1980.
- Deep Ecology Bibliography by Johannes Dingler - (abstract) Nature and the nature of power (PDF)
- Democracy and Nature: International Journal of Inclusive Democracy. Vols 1-9
- Donna Haraway - Cyborg Manifesto and related "radical" perspectives
- Eco-socialism, eco-anarchism & social ecology - course notes: Politics 114: THINKING GREEN Politics, Ethics, Political Economy by Ronnie Lipschutz, University of California, Santa Cruz
- Envisioning Ecotopia by Kenn Kassman. From: New Renaissance,Volume 7, Number 4. Copyright © 1998 by Renaissance Universal, all rights reserved.Posted on the web on 5 April, 1998.
- Ernest Callenbach, Ecotopia (Bantam, 1990).
- Faber, Daniel. 1998. The Struggle for Ecological Democracy Environmental Justice Movements in the United States. Guilford Press.
- Green Information - website
- Human Geography Research: Critical Environmental Policy and Politics
- Human Geography Research: Knowledges, Economy and Exclusion
- Institute for Anarchist Studies - home
- Joan Bennett & William Chaloupka (eds), In the Nature of Things. Minnesota, 1993.
- John Meyer, Political Nature. MIT Press, 2001.
- Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation. Beacon, 2001; 2nd ed.
- Lewis, Martin W. 1992. Green Delusions: An Environmentalist Critique of Radical Environmentalism. Duke University Press.
- Light, Andrew. 1998. Social Ecology after Bookchin. Guildford Press. (Amazon.com link)
- Lipschutz, Ronnie D. 2003. Global Environmental Politics: Power, Perspectives, and Practice. CQ Press.
- Low, Nicholas and Brendan Gleeson, 1998. Justice, Society and Nature Routledge, 1998.
- Macauley, David. 1996. Minding Nature: The Philosophers of Ecology. Guilford Press.
- Merchant, Carolyn. 1980. The Death of Nature. Harper & Row, 1980.
- Mitchell, Don. 2003. The Right to the City: Social Justice and the Fight for Public Space. Guilford Press.
- Nash, Roderick Frazier. 1989. The Rights of Nature: A History of Environmental Ethics. University of Wisconsin Press.
- Nicholas Low and Brendan Gleeson, Justice, Society and Nature Routledge, 1998.
- O'Connor, Martin. 1994. Is Capitalism Sustainable? Political Economy and the Politics of Ecology. Guilford Press.
- Peet R. and M.Watts. 1996. Liberation Ecologies: environment, development, social movements. London: Routledge.
- Peterson, Anna L. 2001. Being Human--Ethics, Environment, and Our Place in the World. UC Press, 2001.
- Post-Modern Thought - review of key writers/thinkers - University of Colorado, Denver (Martin Ryder), School of Education - course: Contemporary Philosophy, Critical Theory and Postmodern Thought.
- Goldman, M. (ed.). 1998. Privatizing Nature: Political Struggles for the Global Commons. Rutgers University Press.
- Rischard, Jean-Francois and J. F. Rischard. 2003. High Noon 20 Global Pro