IZ050 Political ecology and environmental change

Faculty of Science
Autumn 2016
Extent and Intensity
0/0/0. 1 credit(s). Type of Completion: z (credit).
Teacher(s)
Dr. Christos Zografos (lecturer), RNDr. Petr Daněk, Ph.D. (deputy)
RNDr. Petr Daněk, Ph.D. (assistant)
Guaranteed by
RNDr. Petr Daněk, Ph.D.
Department of Geography – Earth Sciences Section – Faculty of Science
Contact Person: RNDr. Petr Daněk, Ph.D.
Supplier department: Department of Geography – Earth Sciences Section – Faculty of Science
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
In the serie of two lectures, Christos Zografos will explore some key ways in which power influences environmental change and governance, from an environmental social science perspective. The lectures draw on the disciplines of political ecology, ecological economics, and environmental history that explain how environmental change is produced and what are its social implications. The purpose is to develop a critical understanding of environmental change and the relevance of power and politics in incurring this.
Syllabus
  • The first lecture will introduce the field of political ecology. A key characteristic of the field is that it studies and analyses the way in which relations of power shape environmental transformations. The lecture will use examples from case studies in the field to illustrate how various understandings of how power works are used in political ecology.
  • The second lecture will present a critical study (informed by political ecology theories) of the social dimensions of the relation between climate change and security. The lecture will explain the key ideas in the scientific literature about the climate change – security relation, and present the results of a major research project on the topic (whose research was coordinated by the lecturer), the CLICO project (www.clico.org). It will moreover familiarise students with the work done in large, EU-funded research projects.
Assessment methods
Those lectures come with 1 credit. To obtain the credit, you must attend both lectures, read a text and answer a question (see below) in a short essay of no more than 1,000 words. You should email the essay to both the lecturer (czografos@gmail.com) and Dr. Petr Daněk (danek@sci.muni.cz), by 2nd December. The essays will be corrected by 23th December.
Language of instruction
English
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
Study Materials
The course is taught only once.
Information on the per-term frequency of the course: úterý 8. listopadu 2016, 16:00-17:30 hod. (posluchárna Z3), čtvrtek 10. listopadu 2016, 12:00-13:30 hod. (posluchárna Z3).
The course is taught: in blocks.
General note: Zápočet bude udělen na základě písemného elaborátu podle pokynů moderujícího (1 kr.) a to pouze předem registrovaným posluchačům na základě prezenční listiny (účast na obou přednáškách).
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