Environmental Political Thought POS 6933 Sec. 02C3 Fall 2013
Wednesday 5-7 (11:45 AM-2:30 PM) Professor Thiele
MAT 6
Office Hours: Wednesday 3-5 P.M. Tel. 273-2380
Anderson Hall 302 www.clas.ufl.edu/users/thiele/
This seminar will provide a historical, conceptual, and critical interdisciplinary investigation of environmental political thought. Students will explore the relationship between ecological health, political life and the prospects for sustainability, with particular attention to issues of technology, economics, gender, and (what some might call) spirituality.
As a graduate seminar, the merit of our experience will largely be determined by the diligence and thoroughness with which students read the assigned texts, their attentiveness and participation during seminar, and the spirit of collegiality and learning we foster.
Required Texts:
Peter Hay, Main Currents in Western Environmental Thought (Indiana UP 2002)
Andrew Dobson, Green Political Thought (Routledge 2007)
Vandana Shiva, Staying Alive: Women, Ecology, and Development (South End Press, 2010)
Robyn Eckersley, The Green State: Rethinking Democracy and Sovereignty (MIT Press 2004)
Worldwatch Institute, Is Sustainability Still Possible (Island Press 2014)
Leslie Paul Thiele, Indra’s Net and the Midas Touch: Living Sustainably in a Connected World
(MIT Press 2013)
David Orr, Down to the Wire: Confronting Climate Collapse (Oxford UP 2012)
Paul Wapner, Living Through the End of Nature: The Future of American Environmentalism
(MIT Press 2010)
Bill McKibben, Enough: Staying Human in an Engineered Age (St. Martins, 2004)
Seminar Requirements:
1. A term paper of 15-20 double-spaced pages. It is due by noon on Friday, December 6. Late papers without exception will be penalized 1/2 letter grade for each day late. Paper topics are to be closely aligned to the seminar readings and themes, and must be selected in consultation with Professor Thiele. Please set up an office meeting early in the semester to begin the process of developing a paper topic. The paper is worth 60% of the final grade.
2. A presentation based on the weekly readings. The presentation is to be emailed to all seminar participants, including Professor Thiele, by noon of the Monday preceding the seminar. Late electronic submissions will be penalized 1/2 letter grade. Written presentations should consist of three components:
a) A single-spaced, one-page synopsis of the weekly reading.
b) A single-spaced page consisting of 3 full paragraphs, with each paragraph posing a question that interrogates the reading(s), addresses on the textual context of the question, and underlines its significance. Think of these questions as the sort you will be writing when you compose essay exams for your students.
c) A single-spaced, 2-3 page answer to one of the questions.
Seminar participants will summarize (not read) the synopsis, questions, and answer in a 20 minute oral presentation. The presentation is worth 15% of the final grade.
3. A 10 minute response to a presentation. Your response should (1) critically evaluate the presentation and (2) address one of the questions left unanswered by the presenters. You are to compose and submit a written outline to serve as an aid for your oral response. Do not read the outline verbatim. The oral response is worth 5% of your final grade.
4. A 15 minute oral prospectus of your term paper (you may have notes, but do not read verbatim from your prospectus). Students will electronically supply 2 articles or book chapters to seminar participants relating to your term paper one week prior to presenting. The prospectus defense is worth 10% of your final grade.
Students should be consistently well prepared to discuss the weekly readings in an informed and articulate manner. It will not be possible for you to receive an A in this seminar unless you have done the readings and engage in seminar discussions each and every week. Seminar participation will count for 10% of the final grade.
Students requesting classroom accommodation for disabilities must register with the Dean of Students Office and provide documentation from this office when requesting accommodation. Plagiarism in presentations or term papers will result in failure of the course. All students are required to abide by UF’s Academic Honesty Guidelines, which may be viewed at http://www.dso.ufl.edu/judicial/procedures/honestybrochure.php
Grading Scale:
A 95 – 100% C 73 – 76%
A- 90 – 94% C- 70 – 72%
B+ 87 – 89% D+ 67 – 69%
B 83 – 86% D 63 – 66%
B- 80 – 82% D- 60 – 62%
C+ 77 – 79% E 59% or below
Seminar schedule:
August 21 – Introduction to seminar
August 28 – A History of Environmental Thought: Hay, viii-71, 94-172 (no presentations)
September 4 - Radical Ecology: Dobson, 1-147,189-202
Presenter: Responder:
September 11 – Traditional Ideologies and Environmental Thought: Hay, 173-301, Dobson 148-176
Presenter: Responder:
September 18 – Ecofeminism and Developing World Environmentalism: Hay 72-93, Dobson 176-
187; Shiva (all)
Presenter: Responder:
September 25 – The Green State: Eckersley (all)
Presenter: Responder:
October 2 – Sustainability: Lecture by Cynthia Barnett on Water Ethics at noon in Marston Library
Room 107, continuing in MAT 6 with disucussion of Worldwatch (chapters 1, 2, 4-
8, 10-12, 15, 20, 21, 23, 24, 26, 29, 30, 32); (no presentations)
October 9 – No class: Prof. Thiele at conference in Nashville
Presenter: Responder:
October 16 – Sustainability: Thiele (all)
Presenter: Responder:
October 23 - Climate Politics: Orr (all)
Presenter: Responder:
October 30 - Postmodernism and the End of Nature: Hay 302-344, Wapner (all)
Presenter: Responder:
November 6 - The End of Human Limitations: McKibben (all)
Presenter: Responder:
November 13 – Prospectus presentations
Presenters:
November 20 - Prospectus presentations
Presenters:
November 27 – Thanksgiving break
Presenters:
December 4 – Prospectus presentations
Presenters:
Related readings that may be of interest (in no particular order):
Irene Diamond, Fertile Ground
John Zerzan Future Primitive
Felix Guattari Three Ecologies
John Barry Politics of Actually Existing Unsustainability
Henry Shue Basic Rights
David Schlosberg, Defining Environmental Justice
John Meyer, Political Nature
Owen Barfield, Saving the Appearances
Andy Dobson Justice and the Environment
Marius de Geus The End of Over-consumption
Alan Carter A Radical Green Political Theory
Melissa Lane Eco-Republic
Jane Bennett, Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things
Luc Ferry The New Ecological Order
Tim Pachirat, Every Twelve Seconds
Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature
Vandana Shiva, Soil Not Oil: Environmental Justice in an Age of Climate Crisis
Ben Minteer, Refounding Environmental Ethics
John Bellamy Foster Marx's Ecology: Materialism and Nature
Thomas Princen, The Logic of Sufficiency John Barry, Politics of Actually Existing Unsustainability
Lester Milbrath, Envisioning a Sustainable Society
Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature
Mark Sagoff, The Economy of the Earth
Marcel Wissenburg, Green Liberalism
Murray Bookchin, The Ecology of Freedom
Tom Athanasiou, Divided Planet: The Politics of Rich and Poor
Robyn Eckersley, Environmentalism and Political Theory
David Foreman, Confessions of an Eco-Warrior
Robert Goodin, Green Political Theory
Joel-Jay Kassiola, The Death of Industrial Civilization
Timogy Luke, Ecocritique
John Dryzek, The Politics of the Earth
Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac
Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities
Rachel Carson, Silent Spring
Paul Ehrlich, The Population Bomb
Garrett Hardin, “The Tragedy of the Commons”
Frances Moore Lappe, Diet for a Small Planet
Club of Rome/Meadows, The Limits to Growth
E. F. Schumacher, Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered
Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature
WCED/Brundtland, Our Common Future
Robert Bullard, Dumping in Dixie: Race, Class, and Environmental Quality
Elinor Ostrom, Governing the Commons (1990)
Bill McKibben, The End of Nature
Mark Dowie, Losing Ground
Pau Hawken, Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution
Dr. Seuss, The Lorax
John Callenback, Ecotopia: The Notebooks and Reports of William Weston
Edward Abbey, The Monkey Wrench Gang
Terry Tempest-Williams, Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place
Daniel Quinn, Ishmael
Simon Hailwood, How to be a Green Liberal