Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

An examination of environmental issues in their social context. Environmental issues are on the leading edge of contemporary public concern and public policy debates. This course will examine such issues as the relationship between social organization and mode of subsistence, the politics of hunger, and the way in which human societies in their particular social, historical, and cultural contexts view and interact with the natural world.

COURSE DETAILS:

This course examines environmental issues in their social context. We will explore the intersections between the environment and the social structures, relationships, and institutions. The threat of planetary environmental collapse makes it imperative that we engage ourselves in critical thinking and look at the relationship between humans and the environment in a new way. We will investigate the connections between various environmental and social problems, as well as numerous political ideologies, philosophies, and movements that have continually redefined how we think of nature and the environment. In the first part of this course, we will aim to develop a theoretical understanding of how individuals, communities, and societies relate to and interact with nature and the environment across time and space. We will discuss the various epistemological positions (such as realism and constructivism) to conceptualize human-nature relationships and we will explore the contributions of eco-Marxist, ecofeminist, and indigenous approaches to the environment-society nexus. Overall, we will focus on the importance of ecological thinking for social theory. In the second part, we will discuss the issues of urbanization, biodiversity, conservation, sustainable development, environmental injustices as well as environmental-social movements in order to reach a broad understanding of ecological issues. These issues are on the leading edge of contemporary public concern and public policy debates. We will examine how societies have been both producing and responding to those problems and how our relationships with nature and the environment are mediated through power geometries and already existing inequalities.

A primary goal of this course is for students to develop a better understanding of the relationships between the environment and society. At the end of this course you should be able to (1) understand some of the major theoretical approaches and concepts that are used to investigate socio-environmental issues of our time; (2) critically evaluate the changing socio-environmental relations and public responses to the environmental problems, and (3) have detailed knowledge on a number of case studies. The course intends to assist you in shaping your personal responses to the environmental problems affecting your lives and your communities and encourage you to think critically, analytically, and creatively about ecological processes and problems contemporary societies experience. Since personal responses to the environmental problems are necessary but never enough, this course also aims to provoke you to envision societal responses and solutions to environmental crises in Canada and around the globe.

Grading

Materials

REQUIRED READING: