The Political Ecology of Development
Subject 121-525 (2008)
Note: This is an archived Handbook entry from 2008.Search for this in the current handbookSearch for this in the current handbook
| Credit Points: | 12.500 |
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| Level: | Graduate/Postgraduate |
| Dates & Locations: | This subject is not offered in 2008. |
| Time Commitment: | Contact Hours: A 2-hour seminar per week Total Time Commitment: . |
| Prerequisites: | Admission to a postgraduate coursework program or fourth year honours in development studies, environmental studies, planning, gender and development, resource management, geography or anthropology, or permission of the subject coordinator. |
| Corequisites: | . |
| Recommended Background Knowledge: | . |
| Non Allowed Subjects: | . |
| Core Participation Requirements: | . |
Coordinator
Dr Simon Batterbury| Subject Overview: | The subject provides postgraduate and honours students with a critical understanding of the institutions that regulate the interactions between society and the natural environment, using a political ecology perspective. The topics explored in this subject will help students understand why development, conservation, and resource management (as an ideal, or in an actual project setting) fails or succeeds, or why environmental degradation results. Firstly, we introduce and discuss a range of explanatory frameworks that political ecologists have developed, showing how they have been applied in practice. We critically analyze a number of development initiatives that are reconstituting human-environment relationships and, in some cases, promoting new forms of 'environmental governance'. The range of topics may change each year, and some indicative ones are; supporting rural livelihoods; water management; conservation policy; urban environmental governance; gender and environment; and the outcomes of corporate misdeeds. Students will ask how different institutions, and the politics surrounding them, impose constraints upon, and present opportunities for, the promotion of sustainable and equitable development. |
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| Assessment: | An essay of 4000 words 80% (due at the end semester), an oral presentation equivalent to 1000 words 10% (during the semester), seminar participation throughout the semester 10%. |
| Prescribed Texts: | A subject reader will be available on LMS system. |
| Recommended Texts: | . |
| Breadth Options: | This subject is not available as a breadth subject. |
| Fees Information: | Subject EFTSL, Level, Discipline & Census Date |
| Generic Skills: |
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| Notes: | . |
| Related Course(s): |
Master of Development Studies (Gender & Development) Master of Development Studies(CWT) |
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