Description: An examination of the conceptual framework and application of political ecology as used to understand human-environment relationships, conflicts, and change. Political ecology can be utilized to understand human-environment relationships by exploring how localized environmental change is a part and product of social, political, and economic processes, including linkages across scale and relations of power. Possible topics include case study–based investigations of environmental degradation and marginalization; environmental conflict; environmental conservation and control; and environmental identity and social movements. Students apply their acquired knowledge of political ecology to research and analyze a specifically located human-environment issue. Prerequisites: Environmental Science 110 and permission of the instructor.
October 31st 2012