This course provides a survey of central issues in environmental politics. Moving from domestic social movements to international environmental regimes, we will try to understand the multiple levels at which environmental politics take place, the complex history of such politics, the conflicting world views behind environmental struggles, and the ways in which conflicts are overcome and resolved.
Three major themes will tie together the various topics of this course: environmental politics involve interactions between numerous domains and levels of society, from the personal to the global; environmental politics are always struggles over both material and symbolic goals; and struggles over knowledge, knowledge production, and expertise are particularly central to environmental politics. We will try to return to these themes each week.
Meeting time: This course will meet Tuesdays 7:00-10:00 pm in Trotter 301.
Readings
Students will be responsible for all of the primary readings listed for each week. For most weeks, I have also listed related or supplementary readings, which are recommended for those interested in a particular topic. Readings will consist of selections from the class textbooks and photocopied articles and book sections placed on reserve.
Required texts:
Norman J. Vig, and Michael E. Kraft, eds., Environmental Policy in the 1990's: Reform or Reaction?, (Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly, 1997).
Samuel P. Hays, Beauty, Health, and Permanence: Environmental Politics in the United States, 1955-1985, Studies in Environment and History (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1987).
Andrew Szasz, Ecopopulism: Toxic Waste and the Movement for Environmental Justice (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1994).
Gareth Porter and Janet Welsh Brown, Global Environmental Politics (Boulder: Westview Press, 1997).
Sheila Jasanoff, Science at the Bar: Law, Science, and Technology in America (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995).
Recommended text:
J. Vaughn Switzer, and G. Bryner, Environmental Politics: Domestic and Global Dimensions (New York: St. Martins Press, 1998).
1. Introduction to Environmental Politics
What is the Environment? What are politics? We will begin to explore the basic concepts of the course, including the interpretive nature of definitions and ideas and the role of both material demands and symbolic struggles in politics. We will also review the syllabus and course material.
History of Nature and Environmental Politics
2. From Conservation to "The Environment"
Raymond Williams, "Ideas of Nature," in Problems of Materialism and Culture, ed. Raymond Williams (London: Verso, 1980): 67-85.
Donald Worster, Nature's Economy: A History of Ecological Ideas (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1977), Ch. 16.
Hays, Introduction and Ch. 1.
Recommended:
William Cronon, Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West (New York: Norton, 1991).
William Cronon, ed., Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature (New York: Norton, 1995).
Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1980).
David Takacs, The Idea of Biodiversity: Philosophies of Paradise (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996), Ch. 3.
*** Important: Bring a copy of the Williams piece to class. ***
Ideas about nature and the environment change constantly. Raymond Williams argues that such ideas are deeply rooted in and reflective of broader ideas in culture. All of the authors this week show the history of struggles over nature &endash; struggles that define Environmental Politics in its broadest sense. We will use this discussion to begin to root contemporary politics of the environment in both past and current struggles over resources and meaning.
3. Approaches to the Earth
Michiel Schwarz and Michael Thompson, Divided We Stand: Redefining Politics, Technology and Social Order (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1990), Ch. 1 & 2 (save Ch. 3 for class 5).
Hays, Ch. 8.
The following readings are by primary proponents of various environmental movements:
Radical environmentalism (Ecofeminism, Gaia, Earth First!):
Vandana Shiva, Biopiracy: The Plunder of Nature and Knowledge (Boston: South End Press), Ch. 6 & 7.
James Lovelock, Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth (New York: Oxford University Press), Ch. 2.
Dave Foreman, Confessions of an Eco-Warrior (New York: Harmony, 1991), Ch. 1-3.
Crisis (Lifeboat) approaches: (Limits to Growth)
Donella H. Meadows, et al., The Limits to Growth: A Report for The Club of Rome's Project on the Predicament of Mankind (New York: Universe Books), Introdcution and Ch. 1.
Economic Approaches: (Conservation, Cornucopianism)
Aldo Leopold, "The Conservation Ethic", Journal of Forestry 31 (October 1933) 634-643.
Julian Simon, The Ultimate Resource (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press), Introduction & Ch. 1.
Local Expertise:
Lois Marie Gibbs, Dying From Dioxin: A Citizen's Guide to Reclaiming Our Health and Rebuilding Democracy (Boston: South End Press, 1995), Preface, Introduction, Ch. 10 & 11.
Recommended (analytic writings about specific movements):
Hays, Ch. 7 & 9.
Martha F. Lee, Earth First! Environmental Apocalypse (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press,1995).
Timothy W. Luke, Ecocritique: Contesting the Politics of Nature, Economy, and Culture (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997).
David Takacs, The Idea of Biodiversity: Philosophies of Paradise (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996), Ch. 6. (On Commodification approaches).
Last week we explored the cultural roots of notions of the environment. This week we look at some contemporary notions of the environment and environmental protection. Rather than taking these readings as a moral guide, we will approach them analytically, trying to understand the vision of our social world that each contains and the political strategies that come from these visions.
Environmentalism as a Social Movement
4. Social Movements
Aldon D. Morris and Carol McClurg Mueller, ed., Frontiers in Social Movement Theory (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992), pp 77-103.
Alberto Melucci, Nomads of the Present: Social Movements and Individual Needs in Contemporary Society, ed. John Keane and Paul Mier (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1989), Introduction and Ch. 1.
Barbara Epstein, Political Protest and Cultural Revolution: Nonviolent Direct Action in the 1970s and the 1980s (Berkeley: University California Press, 1991), Introduction.
Enrique Lara-a, Hank Johnston, and Joseph R. Gusfield, ed., New Social Movements: From Ideology to Identity (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1994), Ch. 1.
Recommended:
Steve Breyman, Movement Genesis: Social Movement Theory and the 1980s West German Peace Movement (Boulder: Westview, 1998), Ch. 2.
Social movements are organized efforts to change some aspect of social, political, or cultural life. We will look at several different approaches to the study of social movements. Environmentalism itself has been viewed as a social movement. We will see what the different approaches have to say about environmental movements.
5. Nuclear Power
Brian Balogh, Chain Reaction (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991), selection.
Dorothy Nelkin, "Nuclear Power and its Critics: A Siting Dispute," in Controversy: Politics of Technical Decisions, ed. Dorothy Nelkin. 2nd ed.(Beverly Hills, CA: Sage, 1984): 51-71.
Brian Wynne, Rationality and Ritual: The Windscale Inquiry and Nuclear Decisions in Britain(St. Giles Chalfont: History of Science Society, 1982), Ch. 1 & 2.
Barbara Epstein, Political Protest and Cultural Revolution: Nonviolent Direct Action in the 1970s and the 1980s (Berkeley: University California Press, 1991), Ch. 2.
Schwartz & Thompson, Ch. 3 (see class 3).
Recommended:
Gary Downey, The Clamshell Alliance.
Nuclear power struggles have a long, complicated history. While fighting the rapid expansion of nuclear power in the 60s and 70s, this movement drew strength from anti-war sentiment and the anti-technocratic, "small is beautiful" perspective of the 70s. Largely successful in stopping the production of new plants, this movement is still struggling with the results of the nuclear age. It has more recently become tied to the toxic politics and environmental justice movements, which we will explore next week.
6. Toxic Politics and Environmental Justice
Rachel Carson, Silent Spring (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1962), Forward, Ch 1,2,3,7,17.
Michael Reich, Toxic Politics: Responding to Chemical Disasters (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1991), Ch 1 & 8.
Don DeLillo, White Noise (New York: Penguin, 1984), 109-129 (Ch. 21).
Szasz, Ch.4.
Phil Brown and Edwin J. Mikkelson, No Safe Place: Toxic Waste, Leukemia, and Community Action (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990), Introduction, Ch 2.
Hays, Ch 6
Vig & Kraft, Ch 11
Robert D. Bullard, "Introduction and Chapter 1: Anatomy of Environmental Racism and the Environmental Justice Movement," in Confronting Environmental Racism: Voices from the Grassroots, ed. Robert D. Bullard. (Boston: South End Press, 1993): 7-39.
Recommend:
Jonathan Harr, A Civil Action (New York: Random House, 1995).
Richard Hofrichter, ed., Toxic Struggles: The Theory and Practice of Environmental Justice, (Philadelphia: New Society Publishers, 1993).
Lois Marie Gibbs and Citizens Clearing House for Hazardous Waste, eds., Dying from Dioxin: A Citizen's Guide to Reclaiming Our Health and Rebuilding Democracy, (Boston, MA: South End Press, 1995).
Susan DeLay, "Environmental Justice and the Politics of Identity: Challenging the Authority of Science," Presentation at the 1995 Meeting of the Society for Social Studies of Science, Charlottesville, VA, October 18-22. (1995).
Toxic chemicals and hazardous waste have been a central concern for the environmental movement since Rachel Carson's Silent Spring was published in the 1960s. Waste control was adopted as a goal by mainstream groups and provided the impetus for the wave of environmental regulation past in the 1970s. In the 70s, cases like Love Canal, Times Beach, and Woburn helped to re-define the toxics movement as grassroots and community based, rather than centrally run by mainstream groups. This shift has had important implications for the environmental movement as a whole. One of the most important of these implications is the foundation it provided for the emergence of the environmental justice movement.
U.S. Environmental Policy
7. Environmental Regulations and Laws
Hays, Ch 14.
Szasz, Ch 2, 6.
Daniel A. Dreyfus and Helen M. Ingram, "The National Environmental Policy Act: A View of Intent and Practice," in Enclosing the Environment: NEPA's Transformation of Conservation into Environmentalism. Natural Resources Journal 25th Anniversary Anthology, (1985): 49-67.
NEPA, RCRA, CERCLA, The Clean Air Act, The Clean Water Act, The Endangered Species Act. These and the myriad other acts and regulatory frameworks established by the federal government over the past 30 years define our country's modern environmental policy. That is to say, this body of environmental law and regulation forms the basis for governmental action on the environment. This week we will explore some of the most important laws, their histories, why and how they have become institutionalized.
8. Regulation, Institutions, and Expertise
Sheila Jasanoff, The Fifth Branch: Science Advisers as Policymakers (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1990), Ch1-6 (or 1,3,5).
Vig & Kraft, Ch 2, 6, 7.
Brian Wynne, "Misunderstood Misunderstanding: Social Identities and Public Uptake of Science," Public Understanding of Science 1, no. 3 (July 1992): 281-304.
Brown, Phil. 1992. Popular Epidemiology and Toxic Waste Contamination: Lay and Professional Ways of Knowing. Journal of Health and Social Behavior 33 (September): 267-281.
Recommend (on state regulation):
Evan J. Ringquist, Environmental Protection at the State Level: Politics and Progress in Controlling Pollution (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1993).
Hays, Ch 13
Translating laws to regulations and applying those regulations to specific contexts involves complex bureaucratic negotiations within regulatory institutions. Scientific knowledge and expertise play a crucial role in such negotiation, particularly for environmental regulations. We will explore the contours of regulatory decisionmaking.
9. Risk and the Rationalization of the Environment
Sheldon Krimsky, and A. Plough, Environmental Hazards: Communicating Risks as a Social Process (Dover: Auburn House, 1988), Ch 1&2.
Vig & Kraft, Ch 10.
Sheila Jasanoff, "EPA's Regulation of Daminozide: Unscrambling the Messages of Risk," Science, Technology, and Human Values 12 (1987): 116-124.
Mary Douglas and Aaron Wildavsky, Risk and Culture (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984), Ch1.
Recommend:
Ulrich Beck, Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity (London: Sage Publications, 1992).
P. Slovic, "Beyond Numbers: A Broader Perspective on Risk Perception and Risk Communication," in Acceptable Evidence: Science and Values in Risk Management, ed. D.G. Mayo, and R. Hollander. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991): 48-65.
Szasz pp 56-64.
The sociologist Ulrich Beck argues that modern society is a risk society - economies of risk have become as important as wealth accumulation. On a more mundane level, risk assessment is a central concept in most environmental policy-making. Understanding what risk is and how people understand it is important for understanding environmental politics.
10. The Environment, Science, and the Law
Sheila Jasanoff, Science at the Bar: Law, Science, and Technology in America (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995), Ch 1,2,4,6.
Vig & Kraft, Ch 8.
The following cases: NRDC v. EPA, Ethyl v. EPA, Dolan v. City of Tigard, Cricuola v. Power Authority of the State of New York
Recommend:
Thomas More Hoban and Richard Oliver Brooks, Green Justice: The Environment and the Courts (Boulder: Westview Press, 1987).
Environmental law and regulation cannot be understood without looking at the important role of the courts. In many ways, environmental litigation has driven regulatory decisionmaking. The standards and procedures used in courts are quite different from those of bureaucracies, and actors in the two arenas have had important effects on each other. We will look at some important environmental court cases to explore the legal process.
Globalism and International Environmental Regimes
11. The Global Environment
Al Gore, Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1992), selection.
Peter J. Taylor, "How Do We Know We Have Global Environmental Problems? Undifferentiated Science-Politics and Its Potential Reconstruction," in Changing Life: Genomes, Ecologies, Bodies, Commodities, ed. Peter J. Taylor, Saul E. Halfon, and Paul N. Edwards (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997).
Andrew Ross, "Is Global Culture Warming Up?" Social Text 28 (1991): 3-30.
Steve Yearley, Sociology, Environmentalism, Globalization (1996), Ch 1&3.
Recommend:
Lynton Keith Caldwell, International Environmental Policy, 3rd ed. (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1996).
While global conceptions of the environment were present in the politics of overpopulation and the global food crisis since the late 1950s, the idea of "the global environment" has become increasingly important in the past couple of decades. As always, however, these ideas reflect particular visions of our social world and politics, and they require different sorts of political and social arrangements than do domestic concerns. We will explore current global ideas and their implications for politics.
12. Developmentalism and Global Ecologies
Porter and Brown, Ch. 4.
Arturo Escobar, Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World, Princeton Studies in Culture/Power/History, ed. Sherry B. Ortner, Nicholas B. Dirks, and Geoff Eley (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995), Ch 1&4.
RaÏl Garc'a-Barrios, and Luis Garc'a-Barrios, "Environmental and Technological Degradation in Peasant Agriculture: A Consequence of Development in Mexico," World Development 18 (1990): 1569-1585.
Oasa, Edmund K.; "The Political Economy of International Agricultural Research: A Review of CGIAR's Response to Criticisms of the 'Green Revolution'" in The Green Revolution Revisited, ed. Berhard Glaeser (London: Allen and Unwin, 1987), 13-55.
Michael Watts, "Drought, Environment and Food Security," in Drought and Hunger in Africa, ed. M. Glantz. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987): 171-211.
Recommend:
Wilson, Thomas W. Jr., "Science, Technology and Development: The Politics of Modernization" New York Foreign Policy Association, Headlines Series, 245 (1979): 64.
Amartya Sen, Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation (New York: Oxford University Press, 1981).
Gita Sen, and Caren Grown, Development, Crises, and Alternative Visions: Third World Women's Perspectives (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1987).
James Ferguson, The Anti-Politics Machine: 'Development', Depoliticization, and Bureaucratic Power in Lesotho (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1994).
Following a long tradition of Western aid to the "Third World," developmental approaches to global environmental problems have dominated. Such approaches view environmental destruction as a problem of modernization, often couched in economic terms of market failures and externalities. The Green Revolution and other approaches to agriculture are perhaps paradigmatic of this approach, and highlight the many contradictions involved.
13. International Environmental Regimes
Vig & Kraft, Ch 13.
Porter and Brown, pp. 16-106.
Karen T. Litfin, Ozone Discourse: Science and Politics in Global Environmental Cooperation (New York: Columbia University Press, 1994), selection.
Recommend:
Peter Haas, Robert Koehane, and Mark Levy, Institutions for the Earth (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1993).
Fen Osler Hampson, and Judith Reppy, ed., Earthly Goods: Environmental Change and Social Justice, (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1996).
Ken Conca, Michael Alberty, and Geoffrey D. Dabelko, ed., Green Planet Blues: Environmental Politics from Stockholm to Rio (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1995).
Peter M. Haas, "Introduction: Epistemic Communities and International Policy Coordination," International Organization 46, no. Winter (1992): 1-35.
Regime theory in the field of international relations looks at the agreements developed between states, often trying to understand what compels states to cooperate with each other. While originally focused on security (military) regimes, this body of theory has increasingly branched out to include regimes on the environment. The Rio Conference (UNCED), the Cairo Conference (ICPD), recent Ozone agreements, and more regional agreements like the Med Plan are all interesting cases of international regime formation. We will look at some of these to try to assess what they are, what they can or cannot achieve, and why and how they are produced.
14. Review (or room to expand one of the previous weeks into two).
We will revisit the major themes developed throughout the course in an attempt to fit the various pieces together and to draw some larger conclusions. We will also take time to review and discuss student's final projects.
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