Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

An examination of selected aspects of social structure, culture and processes of social change in a specific regional area. The focus will vary from term to term.

COURSE DETAILS:

SA 396-4 Environmentalism in the Global South: Issues and Struggles
This course focuses on the struggles and actions over environmental issues in the context of the global South. Environmentalism has long been understood as a “First World” phenomenon, an advocacy movement that is powered by urban, university educated, middle class, “concerned” citizens who want to protect nature from ever-expanding industrialization and urbanization. However, the growing environmental struggles of peoples in the global South compel us to acknowledge and account for the diverse environmentalisms around the world. The terrain of environmentalism in the global South is a result of uneven power geometries, and the non-linear and contentious processes of colonization, capitalism, and globalization. Contemporary environmental movements that challenge these historical processes are characterized by diverse actors, strategies, tactics, actions, political orientations, institutional contexts, and outcomes.

Drawing on several cases across Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America, this course explores the burgeoning of environmental movements in the global South since the last quarter of the twentieth century. We will start with a theoretical discussion on environmental movements where we will look at the strengths and weaknesses of several approaches/perspectives that attempt to explain how different people(s) experience socio-environmental change and fight for their environment. In the second part of this course, we will discuss multiple dimensions of environmentalisms in the global South through case studies, including but limited to the Chipko Movement (India), the Chico Dam Movement (Philippines), the Rubber Tappers Movement (Brazil), the Bergama Resistance (Turkey), the Zapatista Rebellion (Mexico), the Ogoni Movement (Nigeria), the Nu River Anti-dam Movement (China). 

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

The objective of this course is to highlight the diversity and varieties of environmentalism in the global South. The course aims to capture the voices and concerns of numerous social actors in the global South while encouraging students to think about the multiple ways that race, class, and gender affect individual and societal responses to environmental problems, as well as the strategies used to accommodate, cope with or resist socio-environmental change, and visions of what is needed and desired.

Grading

Materials

REQUIRED READING: