Politics - Winter 1999

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[POLI-114-01][POLI-162-01]

Politics 114-THINKING GREEN: Politics, Ethics, Political Economy

Time: MW 5-6:45 PM
Instructor: Ronnie Lipschutz
Phone: 9-3275
E-mail: rlipsch@ucsc.edu

What does it mean to "think Green?" Are Green politics and
environmentalism the same? If not, how do they differ? What are the
philosophical bases of Green thought? Was Hobbes a closet Green? Do Green
political parties have any chance of gaining power, or are they doomed to
opposition? What does it mean to be biocentric? Is sustainable
development feasible or a fantasy? What do Green political programs
propose to do? This is a course on Green political thought and practice.
In it, we shall examine the origins and content of ecological politics,
ethics and political economy, and ask whether they offer a "realistic"
alternative to neo-liberalism and other political ideologies.

The workload for the course is substantial. In addition to intensive
reading, students will be expected to write four papers of five pages in
length that analyze and critique the readings, and draw on additional
materials, as well. Part of the course will consist of lectures, but there
will be substantial discussion of the materials in class and section, and
everyone is expected to contribute to them through oral presentations.

Required Texts

Edward Abbey, The Monkey Wrench Gang (Avon, 1997).
Ernest Callenbach, Ecotopia (Bantam, 1990).
David Arnold, The Problem of Nature (Blackwell, 1996)
Timothy Luke, Ecocritique (Univ. of Minn. Press, 1997).
Al Gore, Earth in the Balance (Plume, 1993).
E.F. Schumacher, Small is Beautiful (Perennial, 1975).
David Pepper, Eco-socialism (Routledge, 1993).
Michael E. Zimmerman, et. al, Environmental Philosophy (Prentice-Hall,
1998, 2nd ed.)

Highly Recommended

Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature (Harper & Row, 1980).
Joan Bennett & William Chaloupka (eds), In the Nature of Things (Minnesota,
1993).
Ariel Salleh, Ecofeminism as Politics (Zed, 1997)

Part 1 (1/4-1/20): Thinking Green: Ontologies & Epistemologies

1. The historical roots of Green thought
Required reading:
Abbey, The Monkeywrench Gang
Callenbach, Ecotopia
Additional reading:
Merchant, The Death of Nature
Anna Bramwell, A History of Ecology in the 20th Century (Yale, 1989)

2. Genealogies
Required reading:
Arnold, The Problem of Nature
Additional reading:
Andrew Dobson, Green Political Thought (Routledge, 1995, 2nd ed.)
Robyn Eckersley, Environmentalism and Political Theory (SUNY Press, 1992).
Robert Goodin, Green Political Theory (Polity Press, 1992)

3. Is Nature natural?
Required reading:
Karen Litfin, Ozone Discourses (Columbia, 1994), ch. 1-2.
Carolyn Merchant, "Ecology and History," ch. 1 in Ecological
Revolutions--Nature, Gender, and Science in New England (UNC Press, 1989).
Luke, Ecocritique, Introduction; ch. 4-5.
Additional reading:
Rene Dubos, The Wooing of Earth (Scribner, 1980).
Will Wright, Wild Knowledge (Minnesota, 1992).
Kim Stanley Robinson, Blue Mars

4. Should rocks have rights?
Required reading:
Zimmerman, et al, "Part One: Environmental Ethics.", pp. 7-86.
Additional reading:
Neil Evernden, The Social Creation of Nature (Johns Hopkins, 1992).
Christopher Stone, Should Trees have Standing? (Kaufmann, 1974)
Tom Regan (ed.), Earthbound (Waveland Press, 1990)
Edith Brown Weiss, In Fairness to Future Generations (UNU Press, 1989)
Roderick Nash, The rights of nature: a history of environmental ethics
(University of Wisconsin Press, 1989).
J. Baird Callicott, Earth's insights: a survey of ecological ethics from
the Mediterranean basin to the Australian outback (UC Press, 1994).

Part 2 (1/25-2/10): Nature & Culture: Too much or not enough?

1. The state of nature & the nature of the state
Required reading:
Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (any edition), ch. 13-15, 17.
Jean Jacques Rousseau, Inequality
John Locke, "Of Property," The Second Treatise, Ch. 5.
Garrett Hardin, "The Tragedy of the Commons," Science 162 (Dec. 13,
1968):1243-48.
Additional reading
Robert L. Heilbroner, An inquiry into the human prospect (Norton, 1991,
3rd ed.)
William Ophuls & A. Stephen Boyan, Jr., Ecology and the politics of
scarcity revisited (W.H. Freeman, 1992).

2. "Let's make a deal!" --liberal perspectives
Required reading:
Zimmerman, et al, pp. 345-74, 386-406.
Gore, Earth in the Balance .
Luke, Ecocritique, ch. 3, 6.
Additional reading:
The Liberation of the Environment, Daedalus 125,#3 (Summer 1996).
Mark Sagoff, The Economy of the Earth (Cambridge, 1988).
Samuel P. Hays, Conservation and the Gospel of Efficiency (Atheneum, 1980).

3. Sustainable development for whom?
Required reading:
E.F. Schumacher, Small is Beautiful (Perennial, 1975).
Zimmerman, et al, pp. 375-85.
Additional reading:
World Commission on Environment & Development, Our Common Future.
Herman Daly, Steady-State Economics (Island Press, 1991, 2nd ed.)
Johan Holmberg (ed.), Making Development Sustainable (Island Press, 1992).
Lester Milbrath, Envisioning a Sustainable Society (SUNY Press, 1989).

4. People: Boon or Burden?
Required reading:
Thomas R. Malthus, An Essay on Population (any edition)
Additional reading:
Norman Myers & Julian Simon, Scarcity or abundance? (Norton, 1994).
Paul Ehrlich, The Population Bomb (Ballantine, 1968).
Paul & Anne Ehrlich, The Population Explosion (Simon & Schuster, 1990).
Julian Simon, The ultimate resource 2 ( Princeton University Press, 1996,
rev. ed.

Part 3 (2/16-3/10): "Radical" Ecologies

1. Deep Ecology & Earth First!
Required reading:
Zimmerman, et al, "Part One: Environmental Ethics," pp. 87-144
Zimmerman, et al, "Part Two: Deep Ecology," pp. 165-261.
Luke, Ecocritique, ch. 2-3.
Additional reading:
Michael Zimmerman, Contesting Earth's Future (UC Press, 1994).
Warwick Fox, Toward a transpersonal ecology (SUNY Press, 1995).
George Sessions & Bill Devall, Deep Ecology (Peregrine Smith, 1985).
George Sessions (ed.), Deep Ecology for the 21st Century (Shambala, 1995).
Luc Ferry, New Ecological Order (Chicago, 1995).
Peter C. van Wyck, Primitives in the Wilderness (SUNY Press, 1997).

2. Ecofeminism
Required reading:
Zimmerman, et al., "Part Three: Ecofeminism," pp. 263-344.
Additional reading:
Salleh, Ecofeminism as Politics
Joni Seager, Earth Follies (Routledge, 1993).
Carolyn Merchant, Earthcare (Routledge, 1996).
Maria Mies & Vandana Shiva, Ecofeminism (Fernwood/Zed, 1993)
Val Plumwood, Feminism and the mastery of nature (Routledge, 1993).

3. Eco-socialism & social ecology
Required reading:
Pepper, Eco-socialism.
Murray Bookchin, "Introduction to the 1991 Edition--Twenty Years Later,"
The Ecology of Freedom (Montreal: Black Rose Books, 1991), pp. xiii-lxi.
Luke, Ecocritique, ch. 7,9.
Additional reading:
Barry Commoner, Making Peace with the Planet (Pantheon, 1990)
Murray Bookchin, Re-enchanting Humanity (Cassel, 1995).

4. Postmodern ecology
Required reading:
Timothy Luke, "Ecocritique in Context: Technology, Democracy & Capitalism
as Environment," Paper presented to the IGCC/MacArthur Scholars Seminar on
International Environmental Policy, Newport Beach, CA, May 31-June 1, 1998.
Michael Soulé & Gary Lease, Reinventing Nature? Responses to Postmodern
Deconstructionism (Island Press, 1995), ch. 1, 9.
Zimmerman, et al., pp. 145-64.
Additional reading:
David Rothenberg (ed.), Wild Ideas (Minnesota, 1995).
David Harvey, Justice, Nature and the Geography of Difference (Blackwell,
1996).
Donna Haraway, Simians, Cyborgs & Women (Routledge, 1991)

5. Eco-development & environmental justice
Required reading:
Excerpts from Wolfgang Sachs, The Development Dictionary (Zed, 1992)
Gustavo Esteva, "Development," pp. 6-25
Majid Rahnema, "Participation," pp. 116-31
Vandana Shiva, "Resources," pp. 206-18
Claude Alvares, "Science," pp. 219-32.
Additional reading:
Fen Osler Hampson & Judith Reppy (eds.), Earthly Goods--Environmental
Change and Social Justice (Cornell, 1996).
Richard Hofrichter (ed.), Toxic struggles: the theory and practice of
environmental justice (New Society Publishers, 1993).
Politics 162: Global Governance
Instructor: Isebill V. Gruhn

States are, for many purposes, still the dominant actors in International Affairs. However, today Inter-Governmental Organizations (IGOs; for example the UN, the EU, NAFTA, NATO, WTO, etc.) and International Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs; for example Green Peace, Amnesty International, the International Red Cross; Doctors Without Borders, etc.) and Transnational Corporations play exceedingly important roles in the economic, scientific-technological, security, humanitarian cultural life of contemporary society. This course is focused on the role of actors other than states and their role in contemporary international affairs and global governance. Written work will include several short take-home essay assignments and one ten-page research paper.

Required Texts:

1. The United Nations and Changing World Politics by Thomas Weiss, David Forsythe and Roger Coat, 2nd edition, Westview Press, 1997, paperback.
2. The Retreat of the State: The Diffusion of Power in the World Economy by Susan Strange, Cambridge University Press, 1996; reprinted 1997, paperback.
3. Activists Beyond Border by Margaret Keck and Kathryn Sikkink, Cornell University Press, 1998, paperback.
4. Winning the Peace: America and World Order in the New Era by John Gerard Ruggie, A Twentieth Century Fund Book, Columbia University Press, 1996, paperback.
5. People in Peril: Human Rights, Humanitarian Action and Preventing Deadly Conflict by John Stremlau, Carnegie Commission Report, 1998. (This document will not have to be purchased. Copies to be distributed in class.)

Revised 7/28/04.