SGO4301
Social Science Perspectives on Global Environmental Change
Fall 2006
Time: Wednesdays, 14.15-16.00
Seminar Room: Eilert Sundts Hus, Room 551
Contact:
Karen O’Brien
215 Harriet Holters Hus
Tel. 22 85 84 80
Email: karen.obrien@sgeo.uio.no
This course will focus on global environmental change from a social science perspective.
Human activities are transforming the Earth System, resulting in climate change, biodiversity
loss, ozone depletion, land cover changes, and changes to the global water system. Most of
these changes have been framed, analyzed, and addressed as environmental issues related to
the biogeophysical sciences, with contributions from the social sciences on issues such as
population and economic trends, costs and benefits, and livelihood analyses. Nevertheless,
there is a growing recognition that global environmental change is socially-driven, and closely
related to issues of equity, justice, power and politics. Understanding how societal structures
and transformations influence and interact with environmental changes is critical to efforts to
respond to them. Five themes will be emphasized: 1) discourses and narratives on global
environmental change; 2) environment and development and an alleged North-South divide;
3) globalization and environmental change; 4) human security perspectives; and 5) political
and social responses to environmental change. Approaches linked to political ecology, the
sociology of scientific knowledge, the coupled human-environment system, ecological
economics, and environmental politics will be discussed. Students will gain a critical
perspective on climate change and other environmental changes, and an awareness of
opportunities for human geographers and social scientists to contribute to research and policy
debates. The course will be organized as short weekly lectures, followed by discussion. Two
international guest lecturers will be invited to present course themes in greater detail during
the semester. The course evaluation will be based on a written paper.
Course Outline
August 30: Placing the Planet: The Reception of the Human Environment
Lecture by Sheila Jasanoff, Harvard University
Note: the lecture will take place in 101 Harriet Holters Hus
September 6: What do we mean by global environmental change?
(Introduction, objectives and organization of the seminar)
Readings: Steffen et al., 2004; McCarthy et al. 2001; Hassan et al. 2005
September 13: No class
September 20: Discourses on global environmental change
Readings. Adger et al. 2001; Forsyth chapters 1 and 4; Berkhout et al. 2001
September 27: The social construction of environmental change
Readings: Demeritt, 2001; Braun 2006; Newell 2005
October 4: No class (høstferie)
October 11: Problems - what problems? Environmental scepticism
Readings: Lomborg 2001; Jacques 2006; Forsyth chapter 2
October 18: Globalization and Global Environmental Change
Readings: Conca 2002; O’Brien and Leichenko 2000
October 25: Who wins, who loses, and who cares?
Readings: O’Brien and Leichenko 2003; Turner et al. 2001a and 2001b, Luers and Eakin (will
be distributed in class)
November 1: Environment and development: Questioning the North-South divide
Readings: Gupta 2000 (will be distributed in class); Newell 2005; Williams 2005
November 8: Economic perspectives on environmental change
Readings: Balmford et al. 2002; Costanza et al. 1997; Cline 2004
November 15: Global environmental change as an issue of human security
Readings: Gasper 2005; Barnett 2003; O’Brien 2006
November 22: Responding to Environmental Change
Readings: Brown 2003; Rayner 2006; Bryant 2001
November 29: Sustainable Development 20 Years Later
Readings: Kemp 2005; Robinson 2004; Schipper and Pelling 2006
Course Papers Due on December 15, 2006
Reading List:
Adger, W. Neil, Tor A. Benjaminsen, Katrina Brown, and Hanne Svarstad. 2001. Advancing
a Political Ecology of Global Environmental Discourses. Development and Change 32: 681715. (35 pages)
Balmford, Andrew, et al. 2002. Economic Reasons for Conserving Wild Nature. Science 297:
950-953. (4 pages)
Barnett, Jon. 2003. Security and Climate Change, Global Environmental Change 13: 7-17.
Berkhout, Frans, Leach, Melissa, and Ian Scoones. 2001. Shifting perspectives in
environmental social science. Pages 1-31 in Berkhout, leach and Scoones (eds), Negotiating
Environmental Change: New Perspectives from Social Science. Edgar Elgar, London. (31
pages)
Braun, Bruce. 2006. Towards a New Earth and a New Humanity: Nature, Ontology, Politics.
Pages 191-222 in N. Castree and D. Gregory (eds), David Harvey: A Critical Reader.
Blackwell Publishing, Oxford. (32 pages)
Brown, Donald. 2003. The Importance of Expressly Examining Global Warming Policy
Issues through an Ethical Prism." Global Environmental Change, 13: 229-234. (7 pages)
Bryant, Raymond L. 2001. Political Ecology: A Critical Agenda for Change? Pages 151-169
in N. Castree and B. Braun (eds), Social Nature: Theory, Practice, and Politics, Blackwell
Publishers, Oxford. (19 pages)
Cline, William R. 2004. Climate Change. Pages 13-43 in B. Lomborg (ed), Global Crises,
Global Solutions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (31 pages)
Conca, K. 2002. Consumption and Environment in a Globalizing Economy. Pages 133-154 in
Princen et al. (eds). Confronting Consumption. (22 pages)
Costanza, Robert, et al. 1997. The Value of the World’s Ecosystem Services and Natural
Capital. Nature 387: 253-260. (8 pages)
Demeritt, David. 2001. The Construction of Global Warming and the Politics of Science.
Annals of the Association of American Geographers 91 (2): 307-337. (31 pages)
Eakin, Hallie and Amy Luers. (forthcoming). Assessing the Vulnerability of SocialEnvironmental Systems. Submitted manuscript. (will be handed out in class).
Forsyth, Tim. 2003. Critical Political Ecology: The Politics of Environmental Science.
Routledge, London.
Chapter 1: Political ecology and the politics of environmental science (pages 1-23) (22
pages)
Chapter 2: Environmental Science and Myths (pages 24-51) (28 pages)
Chapter 4: Social framings of environmental science (pages 77-102) (26 pages)
Gasper, Des. 2005. Securing Humanity: Situating ‘Human Security as Concept and
Discourse” Journal of Human Development 7(2):221-245
Gupta, Joyeeta. 2000. North-South Aspects of the Climate Change Issue: Towards a
Negotiating Theory and Strategy for Developing Countries, International Journal of
Sustainable Development, Vol. 3, No. 2, 115-135. (will be handed out in class)
Hassan, Rashid, Scholes, Robert, and Neville Ash (eds). 2005. Ecosystems and Human WellBeing: Current State and Trends. Findings of the Conditions and Trends Working Group of
the Millenium Ecosystem Assessment. Island Press, Washington.
Chapter 1: Summary: Ecosystems and their Services around the Year 2000 (pages 223) (22 pages)
Jaques, Peter. 2006. The Rearguard of Modernity: Environmental Skepticism as a Struggle of
Citizenship. Global Environmental Politics (forthcoming) (26 pages)
Kemp, René and Saeed Parto. 2005. Governance for Sustainable Development: Moving from
Theory to Practice. International Journal of Sustainable Development 8:12-30.
Lomborg, Bjørn. 2001. The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the Real State of the
World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Chapter 1: Things are getting better (pages 3-33). (31 pages)
Chapter 2: Why do we hear so much bad news? (pages 34-42) (9 pages)
Chapter 24: Global Warming (pages 258-324) (67 pages)
McCarthy et al. 2001. Climate Change 2001: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability.
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Summary for Policymakers (pages 3-17) (15 pages)
Newell, Barry, et al. 2005. A conceptual template for integrative human–environment
research. Global Environmental Change 15: 299-307. (9 pages)
Newell, Peter. 2005. Race, Class and the Global Politics of Environmental Inequality. Global
Environmental Politics 5: 70-94. (25 pages).
O’Brien, Karen L., and Robin M. Leichenko. 2000. Double Exposure: Assessing the Impacts
of Climate Change within the Context of Economic Globalization. Global Environmental
Change 10: 221-232. (13 pages)
O'Brien, Karen. L., and Robin. M. Leichenko. 2003. Winners and Losers in the Context of
Global Change. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 93: 89-103. (15 pages)
O’Brien, Karen L. 2006. Are we Missing the Point? Global Environmental Change as an Issue
of Human Security. Global Environmental Change 6:1-3. (3 pages)
Ravetz, Jerry. 2005. The Post-Normal Science of Safety. Pages 43-53 in M. Leach, Ian
Scoones, and Brian Wynne (eds.), Science and Citizens. Zed Books, London.
Rayner, Steve. 2006. What Drives Environmental Policy? Global Environmental Change 6: 46. (3 pages)
Robinson, John. 2004. Squaring the circle? Some thoughts on the idea of sustainable
development. Ecological Economics. 48: 369-384. (16 pages)
Schipper, Lisa and Mark Pelling. 2006. Disaster Risk, Climate Change and International
Development: Scope for, and Challenges to, Integration. Disasters 30:19-38. (20 pages)
Steffen, W. et al. 2004. Global Change and the Earth System. Springer-Verlag, Berlin.
Chapter 3: The Anthropocene Era: How Humans are Changing the Earth System
(pages 81-141) (61 pages)
Turner, Billie L. II, et al. 2003. A Framework for Vulnerability Analysis in Sustainability
Science. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS) 100 (14): 8074-8079. (6
pages)
Turner, Billie L. II, et al. 2003. Illustrating the Coupled Human-Environment System for
Vulnerability Analysis: Three Case Studies. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science
(PNAS) 100 (14): 8080-8085. (5 pages)
United Nations. 2002. Report of the World Summit on Sustainable Development,
Johannesburg, South Africa, 26 August – 4 September 2002. United Nations, New York.
Chapter 1: Introduction (67 pages)
Williams, Marc. 2005. The Third World and Global Environmental Negotiations: Interests,
Institutions and Ideas. Global Environmental Politics 4: 48-69. (22 pages)