|
Geography Program, Huxley College of the Environment Western Washington University
EGEO 461 (4cr) Natural Resource Management
Fall 2009
MW 2-3:50 pm, AH 30
InstructorDavid Rossiter, AH 232, 360 650 3603, david.rossiter@wwu.edu
Office hours MW 12-2pm or by appointment
Course summary
This course explores the ways in which North American societies have identified and used the physical environment in the pursuit of personal and collective wealth and security. It is based upon the idea that, at root, natural resources are produced by political, economic, social, and cultural contexts; they are not pre-existing things. Thus, the course is designed to give students an overview of how these contexts have shaped management at a variety of scales in both the United States and Canada. By the end of the course, students should be able to identify the ways in which the development of political institutions, economic structures, social systems, and cultural communities has produced current regimes of natural resource management in North America.
Readings
Required readings for the course consist mainly of recent articles from scholarly journals; these are available electronically through Western’s regular library catalogue. A few readings will be available through Blackboard, as indicated below. Students are responsible for accessing, downloading, and reading the relevant article(s) before each week begins. The required readings will provide a common basis for our discussions. However, lectures will also draw on ideas and examples not present in the assigned articles. Readings (optional) pertaining to these will be indicated in the relevant lectures for students who wish to obtain them in order to pursue particular topics in greater depth.
Evaluation
Short Essay # 1: “A Regional History of a Resource,” due October 26 – 25%
Short Essay #2: “The Recent Politics of a Resource,” due November 23 – 35%
Final Exam: Take-home essay questions, due during finals week – 40%
NOTE: Late assignments will be subject to a 5% per day penalty, including weekends. Exceptions will be made for students with a documented personal issue (ie. medical, family).
LECTURE and READING SCHEDULE
September 23
Introduction and a little background
September 28 & 30
Two resource regimes: agrarian and staples
Required readings:
Deborah P. Dixon and Holly M. Hapke, “Cultivating discourse: the social construction of agricultural legislation” in Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 93(1), 2003, pp. 142-164.
Roger Hayter and Trevor J. Barnes, “Canada’s resource economy” in The Canadian Geographer / le Géographe canadien, 45(1), spring 2001, pp. 36-41.
October 5 & 7
Knowing nature through science
Required readings:
Christopher F. Meindl, Derek H. Alderman, and Peter Waylen, “On the importance of environmental claims-making: the role of James O. Wright in promoting the drainage of Florida’s everglades in the early twentieth century” in Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 92(4), 2002, pp. 682-701.
Scott Kirsch, “John Wesley Powell and the mapping of the Colorado Plateau, 1869-1879: survey science, geographical solutions, and the economy of environmental values” in Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 92(3), 2002, pp. 548-572.
October 12 & 14
Nature under capitalism
Required readings:
R. A. Clapp, “The resource cycle in forestry and fishing” in The Canadian Geographer / le Géographe canadien, 42(2), summer 1998, pp. 129-144.
Richard A. Walker, “California’s golden road to riches: natural resources and regional capitalism, 1848-1940” in Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 91(1), 2001, pp. 167-199.
October 19 & 21
Saving nature: conservation and preservation
Required reading:
Sandra Patano and L. Anders Sandberg, “Winning back more than words? Power, discourse and quarrying on the Niagara Escarpment” in The Canadian Geographer / le Géographe canadien, 49(1), spring 2005, pp. 25-41.
David A. Rossiter, “Negotiating Nature: colonial geographies and environmental politics in the Pacific Northwest” in Ethics, Place, and Environment 11(2), 2008, pp. 113-128. (available through Blackboard)
October 26 & 28 SHORT ESSAY #1 DUE OCTOBER 26
Whose resources are we talking about, anyway?
Required readings:
David A. Rossiter, “Producing Provincial Space: crown forests, the state, and territorial control in British Columbia” in Space and Polity 12(2), 2008, pp. 215-230. (available through Blackboard)
Caroline Desbiens, “Producing North and South: a political geography of hydro development in Québec” in The Canadian Geographer / le Géographe canadien, 48(2), summer 2004, pp. 101-118.
November 2 & 4
Resource communities Required readings:
Soren C. Larson, “Place identity in a resource-dependant area of northern British Columbia” in Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 94(4), 2004, pp. 944-960.
Ben Bradshaw, “Questioning the credibility and capacity of community-based resource management” in The Canadian Geographer / le Géographe canadien, 47(2), summer 2003, pp. 137-150.
November 9 (no class Nov. 11)
The market rules: neo-liberalism and nature
Required reading:
James McCarthy, “Neoliberalism and the politics of alternatives: community forestry in British Columbia and the United States” in Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 96(1), 2006, pp. 84-105.
November 16 & 18 (Guest Speaker, Nov 16: Stephen Blank)
Securing hegemony: energy and environment in North America
P. Ciccantell, “NAFTA and the reconstruction of US hegemony: The raw materials foundations of economic competitiveness” in Canadian Journal of Sociology. 26(1), 2001, pp. 57-87.
K.L. Schlosser, “US national security discourse and the political construction of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge” in Society & Natural Resources, 19(1), 2006, pp. 3-18.
November 23 (no class Nov. 25) SHORT ESSAY # 2 DUE NOVEMBER 23
Critiquing the ‘System’ and its spaces
William T. Hipwell, “A Deleuzian critique of resource-use management politics in Industria” in The Canadian Geographer / le Géographe canadien, 48(3), fall 2004, pp. 356-377.
November 30 & December 1
Review and rap-up
|