PUAF 744 – Environment and Development
Fall 2014, Tuesdays 7:00pm-9:30 pm
University of Maryland School of Public Policy
Instructor: Thomas C. Hilde
Office: VMH 3141 | Office hours: Mondays and Tuesdays, 4:30-6:30pm
Phone: MSPP main office (or cell: 202-321-7384) | E-mail: thilde@umd.edu
Required Texts
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Lansing. Perfect Order: Recognizing Complexity in Bali. Princeton, 2006.
Walker and Salt. Resilience Thinking. Island, 2006.
Schipper and Burton eds. Adaptation to Climate Change. Earthscan, 2009.
Schipper, et al, eds. Community-Based Adaptation to Climate Change. Routledge, 2014.
Handouts.
Recommended Texts
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Dinar, ed. Beyond Resource Wars. MIT, 2011.
Atran and Medin. The Native Mind and the Cultural Construction of Nature. MIT, 2010.
Easterly. Tyranny of Experts. Basic, 2014.
Brief Course Summary
Development problems are environmental problems and vice versa, whether a matter of agricultural production,
forest or marine conservation, climate change adaptation, pro-growth economic policies, or hydropower
systems. The point may seem obvious. Yet, environment and development are often treated in policy as, at best,
separate elements of a given situation, as if forest conservation is unrelated to the people who live and work in
and near the forest or as if increased energy production comes with no externalities. Everything we humans are
has evolved at some level through the interactions with our environments, transforming those environments in
the process and thus ourselves.
This course examines environmental aspects of development with a focus on sustainable development and what
that might mean. We will investigate different views and practices regarding the intersection of environment,
economy, and society/community, with a focus on their systemic interrelationships. The course is designed with
the view that resolution of environmental/development problems involves not only issues of environmental
protection or ensuring economic well-being, but also questions of justice, modes of decision-making, and the
broader health of communities, individuals, and ecosystems.
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Course Requirements
50% Term paper: 20-25 pages (double-spaced)
Topic of your choosing for the paper must be given prior approval by the instructor at least two weeks
before the due date. We will discuss paper topics and requirements further in class.
50% Class participation and 6 analytical reading questions
(the best 5 counting towards the final grade)
You should read the required texts as carefully as you can for each class meeting in order to participate
fully in the course. The reading questions will consist of one-page, typed analytical questions over the
readings for that day. These assignments should develop an analytical question regarding a key
argument / problem in the text. I will collect these assignments only from those in class that day,
without advance notice, seven times during the semester. The best five marks out of these seven will be
used in calculating the final grade.
Class meetings are informal, minimizing lecture and maximizing discussion.
Rice terraces, Jatiluwih subak, Bali
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Schedule of Readings/Discussion Topics (subject to change)
September 2: Introduction: Development and Environment
 Gustavo Esteva, “Development” in The Development Dictionary
 Wolfgang Sachs, “Environment” in The Development Dictionary
 Amartya Sen, New Republic article, August 22, 2014
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/118969/environmentalists-obsess-about-global-warming-ignorepoor-countries
September 9: What Are the Goals of Development? I: Human Well-being
 McGillivray and Clarke, eds. Understanding Human Well-being, chapters 2-4. Handout
 Graham, Economics of Happiness. Handout
 Costanza, et al. Quality of life. Handout
 Alkire and Deneulin, The Human Development and Capability Approach, chapter 2
http://web.idrc.ca/openebooks/470-3/
 Haushofer: “The Price of Poverty”
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/141640/johannes-haushofer/the-price-of-poverty
September 16: What Are the Goals of Development? II: Sustainability
 Brundtland Report 1987
(available here: http://conspect.nl/pdf/Our_Common_Future-Brundtland_Report_1987.pdf)
 Wilfred Beckerman on economic growth. Handout
 Herman Daly on steady-state systems. Handouts
September 23: Local Governance and Resource Management: Poverty, Sustainability, & Participation
 Bass, et al., Reducing Poverty, chapters 7-10 (St. Lucia; S. Africa; Tanzania; India). Handouts
September 30: Self-Organizing Systems, Complexity, and Resilience: Bali’s Water Temple Systems I
 Lansing, Perfect Order, chapters 1-4
 Handout on complex adaptive systems TBA
October 7: Self-Organizing Systems, Complexity, and Resilience: Bali’s Water Temple Systems II
 Lansing, Perfect Order, chapters 5-7
 Walker and Salt, Resilience Thinking, skim chapter 1, read chapters 2-4 (and case studies)
October 14: Ecological Resilience and Adaptive Human Capabilities
 Walker and Salt, Resilience Thinking, chapters 5-6
 CIFOR: “Focus on resilience can risk turning into a power grab” http://blog.cifor.org/23580/could-thefocus-on-resilience-turn-into-a-power-grab#.VAHw28VdV8F
 Skim: IUCN: Building Resilience to Climate Change: Cases
https://portals.iucn.org/library/efiles/documents/CEM-009.pdf
October 21: Climate Change Adaptation I: Theory
 Schipper & Burton, chapters 2, 3, 5, 6
October 28: Climate Change Adaptation II: Development Practice
 Schipper & Burton, chapters 9, 10, 14, 15
 Schipper, et al, eds. TBD
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November 4: Climate Change Adaptation III: Climate Change Policy
 Schipper & Burton, chapters 16, 18
 Schipper, et al, eds. TBD
November 11: Resource Conflict: The Political-Economic Logic of Resource Wealth
 Bannon & Collier, Natural Resources and Violent Conflict, chs. 1&2. http://bit.ly/Y1V2GB (.pdf)
November 18: Food Security and Environmental Change I
 UNEP: Food and Ecological Security 2011
http://bit.ly/1qXE9Uj (.pdf)
 Handouts from Ingram et al, eds. Food Security and Global Environmental Change
December 2: Food Security and Environmental Change II
 Handouts from Rosin et al, eds. Food Systems Failure
 IISD/Yale: Agroecology and the Struggle for Food Sovereignty in the Americas, 2006
http://environment.research.yale.edu/publication-series/environment_and_development/2670
 Schiffman: “Hunger, Food Security, and the African Land Grab”
http://www.ethicsandinternationalaffairs.org/2013/hunger-food-security-and-the-african-land-grabfull-text/
December 9: Indigenous Rights and Social-Ecological Systems
 Stevens, et al. “Securing Rights, Combating Climate Change: How Strengthening Community Forest
Rights Mitigates Climate Change.” WRI, 2014 www.wri.org/securing-rights.
Slums, Jakarta
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