Readings

Ses # Readings
Introduction: Linking Environments, Politics, and Societies in the 21st Century
1 No assigned readings
2

Pretty, Jules, Andrew Ball, et al. “Introduction to Environment and Society.” Chapter 1 in The Sage Handbook of Environment and Society. Sage Publications, 2007. ISBN: 9781412918435

World Economic Forum. “Beyond the Anthropocene | Johan Rockstrom.” Feb. 14, 2017. YouTube.

Recommended:

Benson, Michael. “Gorgeous Glimpses of Calamity.” New York Times. Aug. 16, 2013.

Historically Assessing the Water-Energy-Food Nexus / Crisis
3

Biggs, Eloise, Elanor Bruce, et al. “Sustainable Development and the Water-Energy-Food Nexus: A Perspective on Livelihoods.” Envronmental Science & Policy 54 (2015): 389–397.

Paskal, Cleo. The Vulnerability of Energy Infrastructure to Environmental Change. Chatham House, 2009.

4

Taylor, Peter Leigh and David A. Sonnenfeld. “Water Crises and Institutions: Inventing and Reinventing Governance in an Era of Uncertainty.” Society & Natural Resources 30, no. 4 (2017): 395–403.

Buy at MIT Press Davis, Diana. The Arid Lands: History, Power, Knowledge. MIT Press, 2016. Chapter 1. ISBN: 9780262034524

Going Global and Comparative: Comparative Environmental Governance
5

Buy at MIT Press Steinberg, Paul and Stacy VanDeever. Comparative Environmental Politics: Theory, Practice, and Prospects. MIT Press, 2012. Chapters 1–3.  ISBN: 9780262693684

Buy at MIT Press Steinberg, Paul. Environmental Leadership in Developing Countries: Transnational Relations and Biodiversity Policy in Costa Rica and Bolivia. MIT Press, 2001. Chapter 1–2. ISBN: 9780262692663

Recommended:

Buy at MIT Press Duit, Andreas. State and Environment: The Comparative Study of Environmental Governance. MIT Press, 2014. ISBN: 9780262525817

Irrigation, Agriculture, and the Green Revolution
6  No assigned readings
7 Fiege, Mark. Irrigated Eden: The Making of an Agricultural Landscape in the American West. University of Washington Press, 2000. ISBN: 9780295980133
Fishing Industries, the Blue Revolution, & Ocean Ecosystems
8

Jorgensen, Dolly, Finn Arne Jorgensen, and Sara Pritchard, eds. “Environmentalists on Both Sides: Enactments in the California Rigs-to Reefs Debate.” In New Natures: Joining Environmental History with Science and Technology Studies. University of Pittsburgh Press, 2013. ISBN: 9780822962427

Cushman, Gregory. Guano and the Opening of the Pacific World: A Global Ecological History. Cambridge University Press, 2014. Chapter 9. ISBN: 9781107655966

9

Layzer, Judith. “The New England Fishereis Crisis.” Chapter 8 in The Environmental Case: Translating Values into Policy. CQ Press, 2015. ISBN: 9781452239897

Recommended:

Cruz-Torres, Maria Luz and Pamela McElwee eds. “Contested Livelihoods: Gender, Fisheries, and Resistance in Northwestern Mexico.” In Gender and Sustainability: Lessons from Asia and Latin America. University of Arizona Press, 2017. ISBN: 9780816537952

Water & Food Security
10 No assigned readings
11 No assigned readings
Power & Hydropower
12

Tucker, Richard. “Containing Communism by Impounding Rivers: American Strategic Interest and the Global Spread of High Dams in the Early Cold War.” In Environmental Histories of the Cold War. Edited by J.R. McNeil and Corinna Unger. Cambridge University Press, 2013. ISBN: 9781107694353

Obeng, Letitia. “Should Dams Be Built? The Volta Lake Example.” Ambio 6, no. 1 (1977): 46–50.

Buy at MIT Press Tironi, Manuel, et al. “Neoliberalism as Political Technology: Expertise, Energy, and Democracy in Chile.” In Beyond Imported Magic: Essays on Science, Technology, and Society in Latin America. Edited by Eden Medina et al., MIT Press, 2014, pp. 305–330. ISBN: 9780262526203

13 No assigned readings
Urban Water Infrastructure & Waste Management
14 Steinberg, Theodore. “Introduction.” In Nature Incorporated: Industrialization and the Waters of New England. University of Massachusetts Press, 1994. ISBN: 9780870239434
15 No assigned readings
Water Law, Markets, & Neoliberalism
16

Bauer, Carl. “Bringing Water Markets Down to Earth: The Political Economy of Water Rights in Chile, 1976–95.” World Development 25, no. 5 (1997): 639–656.

Buy at MIT Press Schneider, Friedrich, Andrea Kolllman, and Johannes Reichl, eds. Politcal Economy and Instruments of Environmental Politics. MIT Press, 2015. Introduction and Chapter 2. ISBN:  9780262029247

17

Layzer, Judith. “The Nation Tackles Pollution: The Environmental Protection Agency and the Clean Air and Water Acts.” Chapter 2 in The Environmental Case: Translating Values into Policy. CQ Press, 2015. ISBN: 9781452239897

Gender, Race, & Water Security
18

Naiga, Resty, Marianne Penker, and Karl Hogl. “Women’s Crucial Role in Collective Operation and Maintenance of Drinking Water Infrastructure in Rural Uganda.” Society & Natural Resources 30, no. 4 (2017), 506–520.

Cruz-Torres, Maria Luz and Pamela McElwee eds. Gender and Sustainability: Lessons from Asia and Latin America. University of Arizona Press, 2017. Chapters 1, 5, and 7. ISBN: 9780816537952

Recommended:

Buy at MIT Press Lejano, Raul, Mrill Ingram, and Helen Ingram. The Power of Narrative in Environmental Networks. MIT Press, 2013. Chapters 1 and 7. ISBN:  9780262519571

Virtual Waters: Integrating Energy, Waste, Agriculture, & Climate Policy
19 No assigned reading
20

Buy at MIT Press Bryner, Gary and Robert Duffy. Integrating Climate, Energy, and Air Pollution Policies. MIT Press, 2012. Chapters 1, 2, and 7. ISBN: 9780262517874

Jones, Toby. Desert Kingdom: How Oil and Water Forged Modern Saudi Arabia. Harvard University Press, 2010. Chapter 1. ISBN: 9780674049857

Recommended

Buy at MIT Press Pollin, Robert. Greening the Global Economy. MIT Press, 2015. Chapters 1, 3, 4, and 8. ISBN:  9780262028233

Knowledge & Science in Environmental Policy
21

Buy at MIT Press Ascher, William, Toddi Steelman, and Robert Healy. Knowledge and Environmental Policy: Re-Imagining the Boundaries of Science and Politics. MIT Press, 2010. Chapters 1, 5, and 7. ISBN: 9780262514378

Norman, Emma. “Standing Up for Inherent Rights; The Role of Indigenous-led Activism in Protecting Sacred Waters and Ways of Life.” Society & Natural Resources 30, no. 4 (2017): 537–553.

22

Buy at MIT Press Whiteside, Kerry. Precautionary Politics: Principle and Practice in Confronting Environmental Risk. MIT Press, 2006. Introduction and Chapters 1 and 3. ISBN: 9780262731799

Hirsch, Richard and Benjamin Sovacool. “Wind Turbines and Invisible Technology: Unarticulated Reasons for Local Opposition to Wind Energy.” Technology and Culture 54, no. 4 (2013): 705–734. 

Recommended

Buy at MIT Press Mitchell, Ronald, William Clark, et al. eds. Global Environmental Assessments: Information and Influence. MIT Press, 2006. Chapters 1, 4, and 8–10.  ISBN: 9780262633369

Supran, Geoffrey and Naoimi Oreskes. “Opinion: What Exxon Mobile Didn’t Say About Climate Change.” New York Times, Aug. 22. 2017.

Environmental Justice, Energy Security, & Policy Change 
23

Bullard, Robert. Dumping the Dixie: Race, Class, and Environmental Quality. Routledge, 2008. Chapter 2–3. ISBN: 9780813367921

Cole, Luke and Sheila Foster. From the Ground Up: Environmental Racism and the Rise of the Environmental Justice Movement. NYU Press, 2001. Chapter 6. ISBN: 9780814715370

Recommended:

Bullard, Robert and Glenn Johnson. “Environmental Justice: Grassroots Activism and its Impact on Public Policy Decision Making.” Journal of Social Issues 56, no. 3 (2000), 555–578.

24

Romano, Sarah. “Building Capacities for Sustainable Water Governance at the Grassroots: “Organic Empowerment” and its Policy Implications in Nicaragua.” Society & Natural Resources 30, no. 4 (2017), 471–487.

Finley-Brook, Mary and Erica Holloman. “Empowering Energy Justice.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 13, no. 9 (2016): 926.

De Onis, Catalina. “Energy Colonialism Powers the Ongoing Unnatural Disaster in Puerto Rico.” Front. Comm. 3 (2018).

Race, Democracy, and Global Environmental Governance
25 No assigned reading
26 No assigned reading

Course Info

As Taught In
Spring 2018
Learning Resource Types
Written Assignments
Projects