Class 1: Introduction
Christos Zografos, PhD
Institute of Environmental Science & Technology (ICTA)
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain
christos.zografos@uab.cat
Power, politics and environmental change
MA Environmental Humanities 2012-13
Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic

Introduction
•Purpose of this class:
–Introduce course
–Introduce some key terms for course
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•Why you should know these:
–Know what is expected and by when
–Background to develop rest of course
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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
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•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, explain how to study:
–Political aspects (e.g. motivations of) environmental change
–Power dimensions of environmental governance
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•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:
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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.
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Structure of classes
•Classes 2, 3, 5, 6, 8
–read reading + answer question
•Upload answers 2 h before class
–In class: discuss answers
–Don’t give personal feedback (i.e. class), but happy to do it – please ask!
•Class 7: watch video - class discussion; no reading
•Class 4: no reading
•Class 9: simulation exercise; not marked, but crucial for essay (75%) will help you
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Course evaluation
•Essay (75%)
•Max 3,000 words (excluding references)
•Deadline: Friday 1 February 2013
–Late up to one week: 25% penalty
–Late beyond one week: ‘Fail’
•Individual or Collective essay
–Maximum 2 students per group
–group will produce one essay
–Split mark in two: both students get same mark
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•Topic
•Questions
•Performance criteria: data collection; analysis of power and politics role on different scales
•Use and misuse of start-up documents
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•Class participation (25%)
•Student commitment and performance in answering class assignment: 5% per assigment
•Also: eager to participate and constructive comments
•I don’t provide feedback to each class assignment (class answers should indicate this) but more
than happy to do so on one-to-one)
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•Grades:
•I personally mark all assignments using ECTS marking scheme: a, b, c, d, e and f: for fail
•But: for MUNI system purposes I only assign ‘Pass’ or ‘Fail’
•i.e. if you want to know more about your mark, email me
•Erasmus students: need grades before? Contact me
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Other
•Can reach me through my email christos.zografos@uab.cat
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•Help with English (unknown words): http://dictionary.cambridge.org/
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•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
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•Posits that environmental change is intrinsically political
–And so are its implications, e.g. conflict
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“Environmental change is political”
•How does power shape the “current environment in Yellowstone?”
–What does “current environment” stand for?
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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
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•Instead PE says change is political: environmental change 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
•Political
•But what exactly do we mean by ‘political’?
•“Political”: practices + processes through which power is yielded and negotiated (Paulson et al.,
2005)
•Yield: “give up control or responsibility of something” (Cambridge Dictionary)
•Power
•Politics: the study of power
–Other definitions: “art of government”, etc.
•Power: key analytical term in politics
–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”
–Social relation built on asymmetrical distributions of resources and risks (Hornborg, 2001)
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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)
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1.Resources & benefits: which?
2.Risks: what?
3.Asymmetrical distribution risks/ resources: who gets what?
4.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)?
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•…identify causes rather than symptoms of environmental problems/ issues (e.g. soil erosion,
landlessness, resource conflict, biodiversity or human health decline)
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•Robbins (2004)

Operation of power
•Section 2 of course (classes 4-8) focus on explaining “how does power operate?” or else how
political and economic power shape ecology
–Illustrate some ways in which power operates
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•In this course, we examine three main approaches:
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•Power forces from the outside (class 5)
–Traditional view: dominance, hegemony, subjugation, marginalisation, neglect
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•Power is exercised within individuals (class 6)
–people internalise power by learning, accepting, not breaking and monitoring other’s behaviour
towards rules of how to act (governmentality)
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•Power not only characteristic of social but also ‘natural’ systems (classes 7 & 8, environ
history)
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•Class 4: demonstrate political ‘nature’ of environmental issues (on an empirical case study)
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ENVIRONMENTAL GOVERNANCE
•Block 3
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Normative aspects
•Possible normative aspects of study of environmental change
–Section 1 (classes 2 + 3, 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
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•“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 2):
–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 3)
–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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Next class
•Read:
–Monbiot, G. 1994. The tragedy of enclosure. Scientific American. January 1994
–Wolfensohn, J.D. 2002. Global Priority. Our Planet 13(3). pp.4-5
•Question:
–Monbiot explains that Hardin’s model of individual action (how the herdsman acts in the commons
pasture) has provided a rational argument for multi-lateral institutions and governments to pursue
widespread privatisation of natural resources and massive transfers of communal lands to the state
or individuals around the world.
–How does Wolfensohn use Hardin’s model to explain why biodiversity declines?
–According to him (Wolfensohn), what sorts of mechanisms are established to help avoid this
decline?
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•Send me your 500-word (maximum!) answer before 16:00 tomorrow
•Bring your answer tomorrow in class
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