Environment & Society

Catalog description

Environment & Society is a broad exploration of the foundations of Environmental Studies. It examines several of the major concepts that have been developed and refined over the years, decades and centuries to attempt to understand humanity’s relationship with nature and manage our impact on the environment. Many of the ideas we will explore in class underpin a range of environmental sub-disciplines, from environmental governance and ethics, to environmental justice and history. As such, it is one of the gateway courses to the Environmental Studies major. More specifically, the issues we will cover of the course of the semester include environmental history and concepts of nature and the environment; the rise of environmentalism; environmental skepticism; anthropogenic global change; population and consumption, ecological footprint analysis and other environmental indicators; environmental justice; public goods and collective action problems; environmental politics; environmental values; and the future of environmentalism. This course will cover a significant amount of demanding material in order to prepare students for upper-level courses.