Course Description:
“Going up that river was like traveling back to the earliest beginnings of the world, when vegetation rioted the earth and the big trees were kings. An empty stream, a great silence, an impenetrable forest. The air was warm, thick, heavy, sluggish. There was no joy in the brilliance of sunshine. The long stretches of the waterway ran on, deserted into the gloom of overshadowed distances. On silvery sandbanks hippos and alligators sunned themselves side by side. The broadening waters flowed through a mob of wooded islands; you lost your way on that river as you would in a desert, and butted all day long against shoals, trying to find the channel, till you thought yourself bewitched and cut off for ever from everything you had known once.”
—Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

Political Ecology rejects the view that environmental degradation can be understood as a set of objective problems amenable to scientific and technical fixes. It starts with the assumption that there are political, economic and social dynamics that are often left out of common understandings of ecology. This course introduces students to a set of conceptual tools to analyze the political, economic, and cultural contexts of natural resource use and management in the Third World. Political Ecologists view nature not a neutral terrain outside of human history and social relations, but as geographically and historically specific; it both shapes and is shaped by human desires, interests and actions.

The course begins by contrasting popular paradigms for understanding third world environmental change with a Political Ecology approach. We start with classical formulations of political ecology and work through newer work reflecting engagements with more sophisticated understandings of culture, space, place, power, gender, and race. We will work through a series of geographical and historical cases in Latin America, African and Asia, outlining key recurrent themes in the field (e.g. the critique of Malthusian perspectives on population growth’s relation to environmental problems, the denaturalization of environmental problems by focusing on social relations and history, a consistent emphasis on the politics of distribution, access to and control over resources, and the linking of environmental narratives of places, identities, and rights with certain understandings of Third World nations and peoples). Above all, students are asked to apply ideas from Political Ecology to analyze contemporary environmental problems.

Course Requirements:
*See separate “Course Policies and Expectations” handout for additional information

This is a reading and writing intensive course. Students must complete nightly readings, attend all lectures, and participate in discussions. In addition to this, there are three short essay assignments, a group project and in-class presentation, and an in-class final. Each writing assignment engages with the course readings (both required and supplemental), and does not require additional research. The final exam will consist of several short essay questions. You will be given the questions ahead of time.

Grading:
Breakdown of the Final Grade:

• Essay 1 = 10%
• Essay 2 = 10%
• Essay 3 = 10%
• Group Project = 30%
• Final Exam = 25%
• Class Participation = 15%

HANDOUTS DESCRIBING EACH OF THE ASSIGNMENTS WILL BE GIVEN OUT DURING THE FIRST WEEK OF CLASS.

Readings:
Required Readings - These are marked with an asterisk in the course outline and must be carefully read before each day’s class. They are found in the course reader.

Supplemental Readings - These fall below the horizontal line in the Readings section of the schedule and provide important background for the lectures, but are not required. You may also want to take a look at them when preparing group projects or written assignments. They are on reserve in the Earth Sciences Library in McCone Hall.