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Semester 2

Anthropology and Environment (SCAN10066)

Subject

Social Anthropology

College

CAHSS

Credits

20

Normal Year Taken

3

Delivery Session Year

2023/2024

Pre-requisites

Visiting students must have completed at least 3 Social Anthropology courses at grade B or above. We will only consider University/College level courses.

Course Summary

Why do human cultures engage differently with their natural environments and how do they understand processes of environmental sustainability and climate change? This course examines anthropological approaches to diverse human understandings of and interactions with their changing environments, and it brings an anthropological approach to understanding the socio-cultural, socio-political, and socio-economic implications of environmental challenges and related development, conservation, and human rights issues.

Course Description

*Academic Description*: This course examines anthropological approaches to diverse human understandings of and interactions with their changing environments and brings an anthropological approach to understanding the socio-cultural, socio-political, and socio-economic implications of environmental challenges and related development, conservation, and human rights issues. Introductory sessions critically examine the history of anthropological entanglements with the environment and anthropological models of human-environment relations: from ecological determinism to cultural constructivism and phenomenology, and the anthropocene. The remainder of the course explores problem-centred and solution-driven approaches to pressing environmental problems with socio-cultural, socio-political, and socio-economic implications. *Outline Content*: Indicative sessions include: History of anthropological entanglements with the environment: from ecological determinism to cultural constructivism, phenomenology, and the anthropocene; Anthropological models of human/environment relations; Native/non-native species and anti-immigration politics; Belonging and migration: metaphors of rootedness and uprooting; Ethnobotany, medicinal plants, and intellectual property rights (IPR); Horticultural therapy in healing processes; Nature, biodiversity, and urban landscapes; Organic farming, pesticides, and Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs); Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and the Tragedy of the Commons; The international politics and economics of resource extraction; Cultures of (renewable) energy; Local responses to global climate change; The paradoxes of militarised landscapes; People and parks: Terrestrial and Marine Protected Areas; The broken promises of ecotourism. *Student Learning Experience* The course as a whole - including the reading list and key readings, lecture topics, ethnographic and documentary films, class debates, online discussions, case studies, and essay topics - has a wide geographical scope, drawing on diverse examples from around the world. The course entails a weekly two-hour session divided into a lecture and participative group work, and a fortnightly one-hour seminar for close discussion of key readings. Participation - i.e. contributions to group work and seminars, plus submission of short reflections on the weekly discussion readings - is assessed (10%). Students are also assessed via two pieces of coursework: a mid-term short case study in the style of an Environmental & Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) on the environmental and social implications of a development project (20%), and an end-term longer summative essay in the form of a discursive anthropological essay engaging with the relevant bodies of anthropological literature and makes connections between theory, research, and public policy (70%). This is a cross-disciplinary course rooted in anthropology, and is open to students with backgrounds across the social sciences, natural sciences, and humanities.

Assessment Information

Written Exam 0%, Coursework 90%, Practical Exam 10%

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