PROGRAM IN ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY AND CULTURE

The concept of environmental justice in the United States emerged in the early 1980s as African-American residents fought hazardous waste sites planned in and around their communities. Since then, the environmental justice perspective has been expanded to include the struggles of other minority groups disenfranchised on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender or class. In the first part of the course, students will learn about the history of the environmental justice movement in the US and its development. Next, the course will take a closer look at environmental justice in Chicago, both past and present.  A mandatory field trip to a local environmental justice organization is part of the course.

This course explores the ongoing socio-political challenges of addressing environmental problems. Drawing primarily on research in political science and political ecology, we will analyze the diverse types of social dilemmas that produce environmental problems. We begin by examining the nature of environmental problems through different theoretical frameworks, including collective action, distributive, and ideational explanations of environmental problems. We then explore three core debates in environmental politics that interrogate the role of science, ethics, and economics in shaping environmental policy solutions. In the third part of the course we shift our gaze to evaluate different policy approaches to solving environmental problems. Throughout the course, we will pay particular attention to the values conflicts that shape environmental policy and how politicians respond. This course is designed to give students an understanding of important conceptual issues in environmental politics and policy. The course is comprised of interactive lectures and discussion sections. The lectures will provide an opportunity for students to contemplate different approaches to explaining and addressing environmental challenges. Discussion sections will challenge students to delve more deeply into a particular topic by applying concepts introduced in readings and lectures to a specific US-based case, as well as seek to understand the critical variables that explain how a case evolved. Note that this course is not an environmental law class. As such, you should not expect a full survey of environmental policies in the US. Instead, our treatment of US environmental policies is designed to assist students in understanding and applying concepts so that they may independently understand and evaluate a variety of environmental problems and solutions.

Independent project in student's area of interest. Readings and conferences.

Comprehensive term paper required. Prerequisite: consent of program director.