Sociology 025/History 121
Fall 2013
People and Nature: The History and Future of Human Impacts
on the Planet
Professor Prasannan Parthasarathi
office: 323S Stokes
office hours: Wednesday 3-4:30 and by
appointment
phone: x2-1579
email: parthasa@bc.edu
Professor Juliet Schor
office: 531 Mc Guinn
appointment
phone: x2-4056
office hours: Tuesday 12-1:30 and by
email: juliet.schor@bc.edu
Teaching Assistants:
Rachel Ball, ballra@bc.edu
Kathryn Olson, Kathryn.Olson@bc.edu
Bobby Wengronowitz, bobbywego@gmail.com
Course Description: The 21st century opened with combined crises of
climate, bio-diversity, and eco-system functioning. In contrast to much
sustainability discourse, human disruption of the natural environment is not
new. Environmental historians have identified major human alterations in
eco-systems over the last 500 years. This course combines contemporary
analyses of human impacts on the environment with the historical record,
and explores both the familiar and the novel in the realm of ecological
challenges. We devote substantial attention to solutions to our current
ecological dilemmas.
Core Credit: This course fulfills one Social Science Core. If you sign up
through Sociology 025, you will automatically Core Credit for the class.
However, if those slots are full, you can sign up through History 121 and get
Core Credit. You’ll just need to go to Student Services and ask them to give
you the credit.
Requirements: Written requirements are six short response papers (30%),
an in-class midterm (20%), a final examination (30%) and participation in
weekly sections (20%). Assignments and discussion questions will be posted
on the course website. The course website is at cms.bc.edu.
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Readings: The books listed below are available at the BC Bookstore. Books
and articles are on reserve at O’Neill Library and can be accessed through
the course website.
Required texts:
Javier Auyero and Débora Alejandra Swistun, Flammable: Environmental
Suffering in an Argentine Shantytown, (Oxford University Press 2011)
Mike Berners-Lee, How Bad Are Bananas? The Carbon Footprint of Everything
(Greystone Publishers, 2011)
Richard Heinberg and Daniel Lerch, eds., The Post Carbon Reader: Managing
the 21st Century’s Sustainability Crises (Watershed Media, 2010)
Donald Worster, Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s (Oxford University
Press, 1979)
Academic Integrity and Plagiarism Policy: We take cheating and
plagiarism extremely seriously. We have appended the University’s
academic integrity statement to this syllabus. You are responsible for
knowing what that policy is, and how cheating and plagiarism are defined.
Disability: If you are a student with a documented disability seeking
reasonable accommodations in this course, please contact Kathy Duggan,
(617) 552-8093, dugganka@bc.edu, at the Connors Family Learning Center
regarding learning disabilities and ADHD, or Paulette Durrett, (617) 5523470, paulette.durrett@bc.edu, in the Disability Services Office regarding all
other types of disabilities, including temporary disabilities. Advance notice
and appropriate documentation are required for accommodations.
Reading List
I.
September 4 Introduction: The Challenge of
Sustainability: The climate crisis, ecological footprint and
overshoot, ecological issues in a global context.
Global Footprint Network, The Ecological Wealth of Nations, pp. 1-10.
Juliet Schor, Plenitude: the new economics of true wealth (Penguin Press 2010)
ch 2.
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Bill McKibben, “Global Warming’s Terrifying New Math,” Rolling
Stone, July 19, 2012, accessible at:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/global-warmings-terrifyingnew-math-20120719
Mike Berners-Lee, How Bad Are Bananas? pp. 1-23.
II.
September 9-18 Drivers of Environmental Change:
population, inequality, and human movement
September 9 Malthusians and their Critics
William N. Ryerson, “Population: The Multiplier of Everything Else,” in
Post-Carbon Reader, ch 12.
Lisa Park and David Pellow, The Slums of Aspen: Immigrants vs. the Environment in
America's Eden, Introduction, chs, 1, 3.
Mike Davis, Planet of Slums, ch 6, pp. 121-150.
September 11 Historical Perspectives on Population
The Royal Society, People and the Planet, pp 15-21, (April 2012) available
at: http://royalsociety.org/policy/projects/people-planet/
September 16 Human Movement and Unintended Consequences:
impacts from the Columbian Exchange
Alfred Crosby, The Columbian Exchange: the Biological Consequences of 1492,
chs. 1-3.
September 18 Inequality and the Environment
James K. Boyce, “Is inequality bad for the environment?” in Economics, the
Environment and Our Common Wealth (Edward Elgar, 2013)
Fred Pearce, 2009, “Consumption Dwarfs Population as Main
Environmental Threat,” available at:
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http://e360.yale.edu/feature/consumption_dwarfs_population_as_main
_environmental_threat/2140/
Berners-Lee, Bananas, pp. 149-156
J. Timmons Roberts, “Climate Change: Why the Old Approaches Aren’t
Working,” in Twenty Lessons in Environmental Sociology, eds, Kenneth A.
Gould and Tammy L. Lewis (Oxford University Press, 2009), pp. 191208.
III.
September 23-October 2 De-forestation and Forest
Preservation: deforestation in the 18th and 19th centuries in
North America, Europe and Asia, the contemporary deforestation of tropical areas, and approaches to sustaining forests
Week of September 24, 26 De-forestation in Historical
Perspective
William Cronon, Nature’s Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West (New York,
1991), chap. 4.
Totman, Conrad. The Green Archipelago: Forestry in Pre-Industrial Japan
(Athens, Ohio, 1998), chs. 4-6.
Week of October 1, 3 Destroying and Protecting the Amazon
Thomas K. Rudel, 2009, “How do people transform land: A sociological
perspective on suburban sprawl and tropical deforestation?,” American
Journal of Sociology 115(1):129-154.
Union of Concerned Scientists, “Brazil’s Success in Reducing
Deforestation,” Briefing #8, available at:
www.ucsusa.org/assets/.../Brazil-s-Success-in-ReducingDeforestation.pdf
Ramachandra Guha, How Much Should A Person Consume?, chs. 3, 5 pps.7189, 125-151. (2006).
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IV.
October 7-28 The Energy Revolution, Climate Change
and Global Justice: The shift to fossil fuels, industrialization,
the climate crisis and global poverty and inequality in a carbonconstrained world
October 7 The Energy Revolution
E. A. Wrigley, Energy and the English Industrial Revolution (Cambridge, 2010),
chaps. 1-2.
October 9 Recent Climate Developments
IPCC 5th Assessment Report, Executive Summary, to be released in
September 2013. Pages TBD.
Berners-Lee, Bananas, pp. 139-148, 157-175.
October 14 Columbus Day No Class
October 16 The Politics of Climate Change in the U.S.
J. David Hughes, “Hydrocarbons in North America,” in Post-Carbon
Reader, ch 17.
Aaron M. McCright and Riley E. Dunlap, “Defeating Kyoto: The
Conservative Movement's Impact on U.S. Climate Change Policy,” Social
Problems, Vol. 50, No. 3 (Aug., 2003), pp. 348-373.
October 21 Climate Inaction and Collective Denial
Kari Norgaard, Living in Denial: Climate Change, Emotions, and Everyday Life,
Prologue, Introduction and ch 6, pp. xiii-xix, 1-12, 177-205. (Cambridge:
MIT Press 2011)
October 23: Development and Poverty in a CarbonConstrained World
Peoples’ Agreement, from Cochambamba, Bolivia, available at:
http://pwccc.wordpress.com/2010/04/24/peoples-agreement/
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October 28: Global Climate Policy
Richard Douthwaite, “The International Response to Climate Change,”
in The Post-Carbon Reader, ch 5.
Paul Baer and Thomas Athanasiou, “The Right to Development in a
Climate Constrained World,” Executive Summary, Revised Second
Edition, 2008, available at:
http://www.in.boell.org/web/113-397.html
OCTOBER 30 IN-CLASS MIDTERM No sections this week
V. November 4-18 Agriculture, Water and the Challenge of
Sustainable Food Systems: Enclosure of the commons, the rise of
industrialized agriculture, the emergence of an alternative food system
and unsustainable water use
Nov 4, 6 The Roots of Unsustainable Agriculture
Donald Worster, Dust Bowl
Nov 11, 13 From Industrialized Agriculture to a Sustainable
Food System
Wes Jackson, “Tackling the Oldest Environmental Problem,” in The
Post-Carbon Reader, ch10.
Erika Allen, “Growing Community Food Systems,” in The Post-Carbon
Reader, ch 11.
Berners-Lee, Bananas, pp. 37-104, 176-182.
November 18 Water
Sandra Postel, “Water: Adapting to a New Normal,” in The Post Carbon
Reader, ch. 7.
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VI. November 20-25 Poisoning People and Planet: how the
energy and chemical industries produce toxic chemicals
Javier Auyero and Débora Alejandra Swistun, Flammable: Environmental
Suffering in an Argentine Shantytown, chs. (Oxford University Press, 2009),
Intro, chs 2, 4, 6-7, Conclusion.
VII. December 2-11 Addressing Environmental Challenges:
paradigms of explanation and action
December 2 Debates about Technology and Markets:
Greening capitalism?
Thomas Friedman, Hot, Flat and Crowded, “The Energy Internet: When IT
Meets ET,” ch 10.
Naomi Klein, “Capitalism v. the Climate,” The Nation, November 9,
2011, available online at:
http://www.thenation.com/article/164497/capitalism-vs-climate/
Berners-Lee, Bananas, pp. 24-36, 129-138.
December 4 New Social Institutions: Sharing and Commons
Management: Alternatives to the tragedy of the commons
William E. Rees, “The Human Nature of Unsustainability,” in The PostCarbon Reader, ch 15.
Elinor Ostrom, Governing the Commons, pp. 1-15, 58-88.
December 9 Toward a Sustainable Economy
Josh Farley, “Ecological Economics,” in The Post Carbon Reader, ch 20.
December 11 Ecological Activism and the Sustainability
Movement: the emergence of a worldwide movement that recognizes
planetary trends and is determined to reverse them.
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Ramachandra Guha, The Unquiet Woods: Ecological Change and Peasant
Resistance in the Himalaya (Delhi, 1989), ch.7.
Paul Hawken, Blessed Unrest, (Penguin 2007), chs 1, 2.
Rob Hopkins, “What Can Communities Do?” in The Post Carbon Reader,
ch 33.
Sociology 025 and the Core Curriculum Sociology 025 is a part of the
Core Curriculum in Sociology. As such it is designed to address a range of
intellectual issues, using a variety of methodologies, and to engage students
in particular ways. These are discussed below.
1. The long-standing questions. Sociology, and intellectual inquiry more
generally, have long been preoccupied with a set of big questions.
These include the debate over biological versus sociological causality,
the nature of human agency, what is social justice and how can it be
realized, and what constitutes progress? This course addresses these,
and other similar issues, through the lens of humans’ relationship to
the natural world. For example, we will be considering the extent and
ways in which ecological degradation is caused by human actions, and
particularly whether outcomes have been intentional. We will explore
alternative explanations for major ecological trends such as deforestation. We will look at the climate debate through a number of
lenses, including global justice, politics, and collective denial. We will
examine the ways in which ecological resources are appropriated,
used and degraded. Throughout, large themes explaining humans’
relationship to the natural world will be emphasized.
2. Cultural diversity. This course takes a broad and culturally diverse
perspective, using examples from most parts of the world. We will look
at de-forestation in Central America and Europe, land use in India,
how Western conceptions of population have been colored by racial
stereotyping, and so on.
3. Historical perspective. The course is being co-taught by a historian
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and a sociologist. As such, a historical perspective is present
throughout. In each unit of the course, we begin with a historical
analysis of the topic and then move to contemporary period.
4. Methodology. Students are exposed to a variety of methodological
approaches and tools. We will be reading standard historical and
social science articles, some activist writing and journalistic, first hand
accounts. By looking at a variety of points of view we are able to assess
the relative strengths and weaknesses of various methods of analysis.
5. Writing component. The course requires not only reading, but also
considerable writing. In addition to a mid-term and a final
examination, students write bi-weekly essays that incorporate
readings.
6. Creating a personal philosophy. Every one of us is a citizen of the
planet, but not all of us have thought consciously about what that
means. How do our consumption decisions affect eco-systems? How
does our participation in a global economy impact the earth? What is
our personal ecological footprint? A major objective of this course is
to get us to think critically and consciously about human impacts on
the planet and their role in them. In addition, the course is designed to
get us to analyze how we conceptualize the planet and humans’
relationship to it. As we shall see, those fundamental ideas are central
to both how humans fare on the planet and how they alter it.
Boston College Academic Integrity Policy and Procedures
(excerpted)
Copied from: http://www.bc.edu/integrity
The pursuit of knowledge can proceed only when scholars take responsibility
and receive credit for their work. Recognition of individual contributions to
knowledge and of the intellectual property of others builds trust within the
university and encourages the sharing of ideas that is essential to scholarship.
Similarly, the educational process requires that individuals present their own
ideas and insights for evaluation, critique, and eventual reformulation.
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Presentation of others' work as one's own is not only intellectual dishonesty,
but also undermines the educational process.
Standards: Academic integrity is violated by any dishonest act which is
committed in an academic context including, but not restricted to the
following:
Cheating is the fraudulent or dishonest presentation of work. Cheating
includes but is not limited to:
* the use or attempted use of unauthorized aids in examinations or other
academic exercises submitted for evaluation;
* fabrication, falsification, or misrepresentation of data, results, sources for
papers or reports, or in clinical practice, as in reporting experiments,
measurements, statistical analyses, tests, or other studies never performed;
manipulating or altering data or other manifestations of research to achieve
a desired result; selective reporting, including the deliberate suppression of
conflicting or unwanted data;
* falsification of papers, official records, or reports;
* copying from another student's work;
* actions that destroy or alter the work of another student;
* unauthorized cooperation in completing assignments or during an
examination;
* the use of purchased essays or term papers, or of purchased preparatory
research for such papers;
* submission of the same written work in more than one course without
prior written approval from the instructors involved;
* dishonesty in requests for make-up exams, for extensions of deadlines for
submitting papers, and in any other matter relating to a course.
Plagiarism is the deliberate act of taking the words, ideas, data,
illustrations, or statements of another person or source, and presenting them
as one's own. Each student is responsible for learning and using proper
methods of paraphrasing and footnoting, quotation, and other forms of
citation, to ensure that the original author, speaker, illustrator, or source of
the material used is clearly acknowledged.
Other breaches of academic integrity include:
* the misrepresentation of one's own or another's identity for academic
purposes;
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* the misrepresentation of material facts or circumstances in relation to
examinations, papers, or other evaluative activities;
* the sale of papers, essays, or research for fraudulent use;
* the alteration or falsification of official University records;
* the unauthorized use of University academic facilities or equipment,
including computer accounts and files;
* the unauthorized recording, sale, purchase, or use of academic lectures,
academic computer software, or other instructional materials;
* the expropriation or abuse of ideas and preliminary data obtained
during the process of editorial or peer review of work submitted to journals,
or in proposals for funding by agency panels or by internal University
committees;
* the expropriation and/or inappropriate dissemination of personallyidentifying human subject data;
* the unauthorized removal, mutilation, or deliberate concealment of
materials in University libraries, media, or academic resource centers.
Collusion is defined as assistance or an attempt to assist another student in
an act of academic dishonesty. Collusion is distinct from collaborative
learning, which may be a valuable component of students' scholarly
development. Acceptable levels of collaboration vary in different courses,
and students are expected to consult with their instructor if they are
uncertain whether their cooperative activities are acceptable.
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