Community and the Politics of Places

Catalog description

This course investigates what community means, how communities organize themselves around place, and how these places are integral/included/participants in community, in particular as sources of energy and resources for extraction. We will take orientation from the argument developed by Daniel Kemmis, former minority leader in the Montana House of Representatives and Mayor of Missoula, who articulated a collective, cooperative model for place-based governance in the American West. We'll then consider this model and some of its critics in three key areas where place has mattered, for better or for worse: Appalachia and coal; Athabasca and oil; and Alaska and nuclear power. Each case will offer an opportunity to think through the meaning and politics of community as well as to develop frameworks of power analysis that can illustrate how change might occur. Prerequisite: One Social Science course or permission of instructor