ASTK12596U Seminar: Glocal Environmental Governance
In 2010 James Lovelock, globally respected environmental thinker and independent scientist, concluded that humans are too stupid to prevent climate change from radically impacting on our lives over the coming decades. The failures and successes of human attempts to govern accelerating environmental change is the political challenge of our era. The course will examine the theoretical, empirical and normative aspects of glocal environmental governance. The course will first consider the dominant paradigms, theories and concepts of glocal environmental governance. Second, the analytical tools developed in the introduction will be used to examine a series of cases in glocal environmental governance, including lifestyle/consumption, pollution mitigation, biodiversity maintenance, and climate change. The course concludes by returning to Lovelock’s assertion and asking whether and how humans are able to engage in glocal environmental governance capable of averting ecotastrophe.
Preliminary plan:
Introduction:
- Understanding glocal environmental governance
Consumption
- overview – Our Promised Land
- cases in (over) consumption
Pollution
- overview – Towards Wall-E’s World
- cases in pollution management
Biodiversity
- overview – the Avatar of Biodiversity
- cases in biodiversity maintenance
Climate Change
- overview – Today is the Day After Tomorrow
- cases in climate change mitigation
The seminar consists of nine 3-hour sessions placing a heavy emphasis on active learning through case study work. The seminar begins by introducing the differing understandings of glocal environmental governance, in particular market liberal, institutional, bioenvironmental, and deep ecological views. The main emphasis of the course will be on four differing dimensions of glocal environmental governance – consumption, pollution, biodiversity, and climate change. In each of these areas the seminar will first explore the broad developments and discourses of glocal environmental governance. Second, in each area students will engage with selected case studies in order to explore both the theoretical and policy details.
Questions raised in the course include more empirical issues
such as what are the predominant challenges of glocal environmental
governance? How can we best understand different approaches to
glocal environmental governance? How are the challenges of
consumption, pollution, biodiversity, and climate change
represented in popular culture? What are the differing paths
to a green world? Are humans too stupid to govern climate change?
The course will strengthen the ability to analyse and evaluate the glocal environmental governance in general, and more specifically in the areas of consumption, pollution, biodiversity, and climate change. By using analytical tools from political science, the course is relevant for employment in public policy and administration, international organisations, the EU, NGOs and journalism.
The aim of the course is to enable the student to:
- Describe how glocal, environmental, and governance are deeply interdependent
- Present central theoretical perspectives of market liberalism, institutionalism, bioenvironmentalism, and deep ecology.
- Understand the role of consumption and sustainable lifestyles in glocal environmental governance.
- Understand the role of pollution and precautionary behaviour in glocal environmental governance.
- Understand the role of biodiversity and ecosystem services in glocal environmental governance.
- Understand the role of climate change and adaption in glocal environmental governance.
Preliminary list of literature:
Biermann, Frank, and Philip Pattberg (eds.) Global Environmental Governance Reconsidered (Boston: MIT Press, 2012).
Crow, Deserai, and Maxwell Boykoff (eds.) Culture, Politics and Climate Change: How Information Shapes our Common Future (London: Routledge, 2014).
Bulkeley, Harriet, and Peter Newell, Governing Climate Change, 2nd edn. (London: Routledge, 2014).
Chasek, Pamela, David Downie, Janet Brown, Global Environmental Politics, 6th edn. (Boulder: Westview Press, 2013).
Christoff, Peter, and Robyn Eckersley, Globalization and the Environment (Rowman and Littlefield, 2013).
Clapp, Jennifer, and Peter Dauvergne (2011) Paths to a Green World: The Political Economy of the Global Environment, 2nd edn. (Boston: MIT Press).
Conca, Ken, and Geoffrey D. Dabelko (eds.) Green Planet Blues: Critical Perspectives on Global Environmental Politics, 5th edn. (Boulder: Westview Press, 2014).
Connelly, James, Graham Smith, David Benson, and Clare Saunders, Politics and the Environment: From Theory to Practice, 3rd edn. (London: Routledge, 2012).
Gupta, Aarti, and Michael Mason (eds.) Transparency in Global Environmental Governance: Critical Perspectives (Boston: MIT Press, 2014).
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Climate Change 2013 – The Physical Science Basis: Working Group I Contribution to the Fifth Assessment Report (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014).
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Climate Change 2014 – Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability: Working Group II Contribution to the Fifth Assessment Report.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Climate Change 2014 – Mitigation of Climate Change: Working Group III Contribution to the Fifth Assessment Report.
Lovelock, James, The Vanishing Face of Gaia: A Final Warning (Basic Books, 2010).
Morin, Jean-Frédric, and Amandine Orsini (eds.) Essential Concepts of Global Environmental Governance (London: Routledge, 2014).
A detailed list of core and required readings will be provided at the start of the course.
- Category
- Hours
- Class Instruction
- 28
- Exam
- 79
- Preparation
- 168
- Total
- 275
- Credit
- 10 ECTS
- Type of assessment
- Written assignmentIndividual written exam
- Marking scale
- 7-point grading scale
- Censorship form
- No external censorship
Criteria for exam assesment
- Grade 12 is given for an outstanding performance: the student
lives up to the course’s goal description in an independent and
convincing manner with no or few and minor shortcomings
- Grade 7 given for a good performance: the student is
confidently able to live up to the goal description, albeit with
several shortcomings
- Grade 02 is given for an adequate performance: the minimum acceptable performance in which the student is only able to live up to the goal description in an insecure and incomplete manner
Course information
- Language
- English
- Course code
- ASTK12596U
- Credit
- 10 ECTS
- Level
- Full Degree Master
- Duration
- 1 semester
- Placement
- Autumn
- Schedule
- C (Mon 13-17 + Wednes 8-17)
- Study board
- Department of Political Science, Study Council
Contracting department
- Department of Political Science
Course responsibles
- Ian James Manners (11-4b6370304f637070677475426b6875306d7730666d)