The Political Ecology of Development

Subject 121-525 (2009)

Note: This is an archived Handbook entry from 2009. Search for this in the current handbook

Credit Points: 12.50
Level: 9 (Graduate/Postgraduate)
Dates & Locations:

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2009:

Semester 1, - Taught on campus.
Pre-teaching Period Start not applicable
Teaching Period not applicable
Assessment Period End not applicable
Last date to Self-Enrol not applicable
Census Date not applicable
Last date to Withdraw without fail not applicable


Timetable can be viewed here. For information about these dates, click here.
Time Commitment: Contact Hours: A 2-hour seminar per week
Total Time Commitment: 2 contact hours/week , 8 additional hours/week. Total of 8.5 hours per week.
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: None
Recommended Background Knowledge: None
Non Allowed Subjects: None
Core Participation Requirements:

For the purposes of considering request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Student Support and Engagement Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Overview, Learning Outcomes, Assessment and Generic Skills sections of this entry.

It is University policy to take all reasonable steps to minimise the impact of disability upon academic study, and reasonable adjustments will be made to enhance a student's participation in the University's programs. Students who feel their disability may impact on meeting the requirements of this subject are encouraged to discuss this matter with a Faculty Student Adviser and Student Equity and Disability Support: http://services.unimelb.edu.au/disability

Coordinator

Assoc Prof Simon P J Batterbury

Contact

Sandra Carter
Phone: ext. 49396
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.
Objectives:
  • comprehend the political ecology approach to the study of international development (through participation, reading, and research);
  • understand the driving forces of resource pressures, be able to articulate the causes and causal causal chains (a feature of the approach) linking processes at multiple scales (both human and environmental);
  • demonstrate acquired knowledge in seminar contributions and through an assessed essay, and develop familiarity with the rich literature of political ecology.
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.
Breadth Options:

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.
Fees Information: Subject EFTSL, Level, Discipline & Census Date
Generic Skills:
  • have skills
Related Course(s): Master of Development Studies (Gender & Development)
Master of Development Studies(CWT)

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