GEOG520 (HAM)
Human Dimensions of Environmental Change
30 points

Coordinator: Associate Professor John Campbell
Email: jrc@waikato.ac.nz

Paper description

The purpose of this paper is to familiarise students, at the advanced level, with aspects of one of the key paradigms in geography:  society-environment interrelations.  In doing so it is expected that the following objectives will also be met:

• An understanding of contemporary environmental problems at the local and global scales with a special concern for their human dimensions.
• An understanding of the social theoretical underpinnings of all approaches to these problems (be they ‘scientific’, ‘political’ or ‘practical’).
• An understanding of the complexity of issues that emerge when society/environment relationships are examined.

The term human dimensions of environmental change arose as a number of scholars recognised that understanding many of the global environmental problems that emerged in the late twentieth century could not be addressed solely through the biogeophysical sciences.  Many of these problems result from human activities and are likely to impact upon human communities.  Ignoring them would lead into a research cul de sac.  There is now an International Human Dimensions Programme (IHDP) which is sponsored by the International Social Science Council and the International Council for Science.

The paper provides a vehicle for the examining theories that have been developed in the context of environmental problems.  The paper has three parts.  The first part introduces debates about the relationship between nature and culture.  We will examine the tensions that exist between the ontologies of nature:  on the one hand its materiality (or ‘objective reality’) and on the other its discursivity (or social construction).  We then investigate theoretical ideas about population size and environmental conditions.  In particular we compare the contrasting ideas of two early theorists, Thomas Malthus and Karl Marx, and the enduring influence of their ideas on environmental debates.  We also explore the potential of some recent developments in political ecology.

The second part takes us to two important themes in which the human dimensions of environmental change are the focus of study.  The first area is that of natural disaster research.  We call on recent research showing that despite their description as natural, most such disasters are socially constructed.  This includes both material processes whereby certain groups of people are exposed to greater danger from extreme natural events as well as discursive processes in which vulnerable people are presented as weak and passive in the faces of the ‘forces of nature’.   The second theme is global environmental change and anthropogenic climate change in particular.  Here we will look at approaches that seek to take human dimensions into account. 

The third part of the paper belongs to the students.  This period will be devoted to seminars on issues relevant to the course content.  Students will be encouraged in the first few weeks to determine a research project topic which will culminate in a written report and the presentation of the project in a seminar setting.

A manual of readings will be available for the course from Campus Copy.

Assessment

Internal assessment/examination ratio is 1:0

There are 5 items of assessment.  These are listed below:

1.  Preparation for Class: questions and summaries                                          20%    
2.  Research Project (Seminar)                                                                       35%    
3.  Presentation                                                                                               5%
4.  Discussant's report                                                                                   10%
5.  Test                                                                                                         30%    

Timetable and Organisation:

Refer to the Online Timetable