Class 1: Introduction
Christos Zografos, PhD
Institute of Environmental Science & Technology (ICTA)
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain
christos.zografos@uab.cat
Environmental Change and Governance
MA Environmental Humanities 2011-12
Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic

Introduction
•Purpose of this class:
–Introduce course
–Introduce some key terms for course
–
•Why you should know these:
–Know what is expected and by when
–Background to develop rest of course
–
•Class outline
–Introduction to the course
–The political nature of environmental change; environmental governance
–Quickly take you through topics to be presented in classes
•
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But before, let’s introduce ourselves!
•CZ:
–Current post
–Education
–Thesis
–Research interests
•
•What about you?
–Where do you come from?
–Background (academic, professional)
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INTRODUCTION TO THE COURSE
•Block 1
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Course aims
•Mission statement: ‘convince’ that “environmental change and governance are and should be
political”
•If this is so, provide students with ‘tools’ necessary for using/ applying ‘political’ perspective
to conduct research:
–Explain environmental change (conflict) and study environmental governance
–‘Tools’: concepts; ideas: how to analyse data; research methodology
–
•Environmental Social Science: political ecology, ecological economics, and environmental history
–
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Learning outcomes
•After the end of the module, students should be in a position to:
•
1.Explain how power and politics are useful for understanding and studying environmental change
2.Explain the relevance of value plurality and deliberative democracy for improving environmental
governance
3.Use case study research to conduct research in environmental social science
4.
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Structure of classes
•Classes 2, 3, 5, 6, 7
–read reading + answer question
•Upload answers 2 h before class
–In class: discuss answers
–* Class 2 and 3: one day for reading!
–* Class 5: two days for reading
–* Class 6: 2 readings, but short and not scientific papers + weekend
–* Class 7: dense reading, but nearly ½ of it explained in Class 6
•Class 4: watch video - class discussion
•Class 8: no reading (methodology)
•Class 9: Student presentation
–* Two days to prepare (no reading for Class 8)
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–    block: political ecology & env history
–    block: ecological economics
–    methodology class
–     video class
–     student presentations

Course evaluation
•Essay (50%)
•Max 3,000 words (excluding references)
•Deadline: Friday 3 February 2012
–Late up to one week: 25% penalty
–Late beyond one week: ‘Fail’
•Erasmus students: need grades before? Contact me
•Collective essay
–groups 2-4 students per group
–group will produce one essay
–form groups until Class 3: Wednesday 9 November 2011 + email me
–Choose topic before Class 6 Sunday 13 November 2011 + email me
•Collective mark
•Choose topic (PE, EE)
•Performance criteria
•Hints on how to do research and write collective paper: will also discuss in last class
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•Student presentation (25%)
•Last class (Class 9: Friday 18 November)
•10 + 5 min power point: what research for essay?
–What specific topic
–How will you work (e.g. data collection)
–How you will collaborate for writing
•Ways how to do this: will also discuss in last class
•Evaluation (collective mark) but also feedback (tutor)
•
•Class participation (25%)
•student commitment and performance in answering class assignment
•Also: eager to participate and constructive comments

Other
•Can reach me through my email christos.zografos@uab.cat
•
•Help with English (unknown words): http://dictionary.cambridge.org/
•
•Do you have any questions re: course programme, structure, outputs, etc.?
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POLITICAL ‘NATURE’ OF ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE
•Block 2
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Political ecology (Simsik, 2007)
•Academic field that seeks to understand relationship human societies – nature
•
•Posits that environmental change is intrinsically political
–And so are its implications, e.g. conflict
–
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CLASS QUESTION 1
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•Environmental change has political causes/ driving forces
–Political decisions are key for producing environmental change – where do we see this in text?
–Political struggle is key for changing nature – where do we see this in text?
–
•Solutions to environmental problems have political repercussions
–someone loses, someone gains – where do we see this in text?
•“Environmental change is political”
•
•Can you see this in the text I passed you (Robbins, 2004, xv-xvi)?
•
•Where and how?
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Environmental change
•Landscape change generates particular costs and benefits, which tend to be distributed unequally
(‘winners’ and ‘losers’ of environmental change)
•
–In course of EC ‘winners’ attempt to shift the costs incurred for obtaining their benefits to the
‘losers’ (cost-shifting): e.g. landfill sites
–
–This generates (environmental) conflict: ‘losers’ from landscape change reclaim and struggle for a
re-distribution of costs and benefits (EC = EDC)
–
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Political ecology (PE)
•Changes in ecology and landscape are not a-political
–e.g. eco-scarcity position : environmental conflict is the result of limited/ scarce (not enough)
natural resources available for satisfying human needs
–
•Instead PE says change is political: environmental conflict is a result of specific public
decisions, which are not unavoidable (matter of choice)
–Decisions artificially create NR scarcity and conflict
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Political ecology (Simsik, 2007)
•Seeks to describe dynamic ways in which:
–political and economic power shapes ecological futures
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•…but also dynamic ways in which
–ecologies shape political and economic possibilities
•Robbins: “But there is something more… [end]”
–will see this with class 5
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Political
•But what exactly do we mean by ‘political’?
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•“Political”: practices + processes through which power is yielded + negotiated (Paulson et al.,
2005)
qYield: “give up control or responsibility of something” (Cambridge Dictionary)
Ø
ØPower: key analytical term in politics
Ø
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Power: three basic aspects
•Ability to control (environs and others’ behaviour)
–Max Weber: “chance of a man or a number of men to realise their own will in a social action even
against the resistance of others”
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•Authority
–Power as capacity to do (e.g. capacity to influence someone’s decisions)
–Power as right to do: legitimate capacity (e.g. state power); rests on consent of those upon whom
it is exercised
–
•Politics: the study of power
–Other definitions: “art of government”, etc.
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CLASS QUESTION 2
•
•
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•Power in PE: a social relation built on asymmetrical distributions of resources and risks
(Hornborg, 2001)
•
•Asymmetrical distribution risks/ resources
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•Environmental implications?
•Socio-political implications?
•
•
•How “ability to control” happens?
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Type of research that tries to…
•…reveal winners and losers, hidden costs and differential power that produces unequal social and
environmental outcomes
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•…address research questions, such as:
–What causes ecological/ landscape degradation (e.g. forest loss)?
–Who benefits and who loses from ecological change (e.g. biodiversity conservation)?
–What political movements grow out of environmental change (e.g. local land use transitions)?
–
–
•…identify causes rather than symptoms of environmental problems/ issues (e.g. soil erosion,
landlessness, resource conflict, biodiversity or human health decline)
•
•Robbins (2004)

Operation of power
•Section 1 of course (classes 2-5) focus on explaining “how does power operate?” in ref:
environment
–Illustrate some ways in which power operates
•
•Important to know because:
–In PE: politics (power) ‘determine’ (sic: shape) environmental change
–Ways in which power is negotiated + yielded shape environmental change
–When doing research in PE have to show: how does that happen?
–By presenting PE way of studying how environmental change occurs: you acquire knowledge to explain
how does power operate in other contexts (e.g. your case study, etc.)
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Operation of power
•In this course, we examine three main approaches:
•
•Power forces from the outside (class 2)
–Traditional view: dominance, hegemony, subjugation, marginalisation, neglect
–
•Power is exercised within individuals (class 3)
–people internalise power by learning, accepting, not breaking and monitoring other’s behaviour
towards rules of how to act (governmentality)
–
•Power not only characteristic of social but also ‘natural’ systems (classes 4 & 5, environ
history)
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ENVIRONMENTAL GOVERNANCE
•Block 3
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Normative implications
•Possible normative implications or reactions
–Section 2 (classes 7 + 8, ecological economics)
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•Ways:
–‘balance’ (sic) power within formal system of environmental decision-making
–Deal with “asymmetrical power”
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•Socio-Ecological Economics (SEE) ‘sub-field’
–environmental decision-making processes
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Public decisions on environmental issues
•
•“While states ultimately continue to make and enforce … law, they are increasingly dependent upon
multilateral institutions, organized science, NGOs and social movements, and business and industry
for formulating their views and for conducting policy” (Kanie & Hass, 2004)
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Environmental governance
•To understand and study this process, concept of governance has emerged
–Governance as different from government: governance includes the actions of those disparate groups
(i.e. not only actions of government) when studying policy formulation
•Environmental governance: “a set of regulatory processes, mechanisms and organizations through
which political actors influence environmental actions and outcomes” (Lemos & Agrawal, 2006)
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Environmental governance
•When a public decision re: environment is formulated non-state political actors:
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–Do interfere and influence decision
•During decision-making (e.g. protest, lobby)
•During implementation (e.g. block, sabotage)
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–Must influence decision: their opinions should be taken into account: good EG
•in a society where environmental decisions are taken democratically
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Issue
•How could we ‘balance’ (sic) power within the formal system of environmental decision-making, and
go at least some way in dealing with the issue of “asymmetrical power”?
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Rationality
•First issue we consider (class 7):
–Start: a key/ influential method/ logic to make public environmental decisions: CBA
•used and proposed by economists in order to make sound environmental decisions
–Look at key assumptions behind logic: what it means to make ‘rational’ decisions
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•Consider shortcomings of this logic and its implications
–How ecological economics criticises this and goes deeper into one alternative type of rationality
proposed by the field (SEE)
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Deliberative ecological economics
•Ecological economics suggests re: ways round limitations (class 8)
–be inclusive of multiple values in environmental decision-making
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•Consideration of deliberative democracy (deliberative ecological economics)
–Present approach
–Discuss limitations
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Methodology class
•Finally class 8 on methodology: Case Study Research
•Objective: students acquire specific, practical, and applied instruments to conduct research on
some aspects and research areas mentioned in the course
–Study influence of power and politics in specific example of environmental change, conflict, etc.
•Word of caution: more tools (e.g. SMCA for EE, ethnography for PE)
–CSR fits timeline of masters degree research project (5-6 months)
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Next class
•Read: Brownlow, A. 2006. An archaeology of fear and environmental change in Philadelphia. Geoforum
37, pp. 227-245
•
•Question:
–Brownlow (2006) argues that “…the uncontrolled growth of weeds and their emerging dominance in the
landscape do appear to symbolize disorder, decay, and the absence of control that accompany years
of political and fiscal neglect. Socially speaking, the significance of weeds is not what they do
but, rather, what they represent; the same can be said for the abandoned autos, heaps of garbage,
discarded needles, condoms, and drug paraphernalia, and broken glass that are pervasive throughout
the park” (p. 242).
–Why, according to Brownlow, have disorder and decay fallen upon Cobbs Creek? Do you know of any
other examples where the same thing has happened?
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•Bring your 500 word (maximum!) answer tomorrow in class
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