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NATURE, ECONOMY, AND SOCIETY:
Seminar Description
Syllabus pdf
The emergence of environment as a major
focus of science and governance has stimulated profound rethinking
in economics and the social sciences, and in agencies such as
the World Bank, about the relationship between nature and society.
Conservation and environmental management policies worldwide are
shaped by the resulting new concepts and analytical tools.
But while many agree that the natural
world must be taken into account in trade, development and regulatory
policy, there are deep differences about how to do so. This is
not surprising, especially if we understand environmental disputes
as disputes about the distribution of resources among countries,
classes, communities, genders, and generations.
This seminar samples a range of recent, influential
writing in environmental economics, ecological economics, political
ecology, geography, and anthropology. We will consider the policy
implications and applications of contrasting theoretical approaches,
including case studies of programs and projects based upon them.
Among the issues we will discuss: Is the privatization, monetary
pricing, and market exchange of natural resources the best way
to foster their optimal use? Can and should nature earn its own
right to exist in a global market economy? Does the treatment
of natural resources as commodities increase or lesson equality
and sustainability in the distribution of environmental benefits
and burdens? Is it possible to devise measurements of environmental
values, monetary and non-monetary, that are applicable worldwide?
What is experience thus far with markets in ecosystem services
and genetic and other resources, and with direct payments for
environmental services? How can new economic approaches take adequate
account of the place-specificity, bio-complexity, and social embeddedness
of natural resources? Do the discursive practices of ecological
modernization promoted by global environmental institutions foster
sustainability? Or do they promote “biology as an accumulation
strategy” at the expense of people and nature, as some critics
contend? What analytical concepts, methods, and policy processes
can provide a foundation for sustainable and equitable development?
This is a reading-intensive seminar intended
mainly for graduate students in their 2nd year of later. A prerequisite
is any of the following: FES 721a, 725b, 819a, 839b, 743b, 746a,
747a, 748b, 752b, 753a, 756b, 757a, 759b, 768b, 733b, 734a, 737b,
794a, or instructor’s permission. Brief student presentations,
eight 1-page commentaries on weekly reading topics, and a 15-page
final paper (a literature review) are required. There are no examinations.
Because we will be reading a number of
very recent books and articles, the full syllabus will not be
available until a few weeks before the term begins. It will be
posted on the Yale Classes www site or can be obtained from kathleen.mcafee@yale.edu.
FES 912b Seminar: NATURE, ECONOMY, AND SOCIETY
Weekly topics
1. Introduction: contemporary approaches to nature, economy, and
society
2. A closer look at formative schools of contemporary environmentalism
3. Ecocentrism and contradictions of modern environmentalism
4. Poststructuralist influences, situated knowledge, framing environmental
problems
5. Case study: The greening of the World Bank
6. Political ecology I: The politics of environmental science
7. Case study: Multilateral environmental institutions:
the Global Environment Facility
8. Political ecology II: Eco-equity; ecological debt; the environmentalism
of the poor
9. Property regimes and conservation: public goods; common property;
concepts of
community
10. Case studies: genetic resources; biodiversity prospecting;
intellectual property
11. Applications and case studies: valuation and payment for environmental
services
12. Student-chosen case studies and presentations
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