Geography 430
Autumn 2004
Tu-Th 10:30-12:18
1080 Derby Hall
This
course is the introduction to the People-Society-Environment track in
Geography. The course introduces
students to the long-established study of relationships between humans
and
nature, which is one of the core traditions within Geography as a
discipline. This course will focus on
how geographers have understood human-nature relations, and we will
also
examine how others—philosophers, policy makers, environmentalists—have
thought
about this relationship. We will look
at how people have thought about nature in different times and
circumstances
(mainly in the US and Europe over the past 150 years), and how that
influences
people’s actions toward the environment and other people.
Is the earth made for humans to use? Are
people a part of nature? Is nature
socially constructed? Does solving
environmental problems require
that we change how we think about nature?
Does nature shape human activity, culture, and politics? How do ideas about nature reflect and
influence our ideas about race and gender?
These are longstanding questions not only in Geography and
Environmental
Studies but in a variety of other fields, from Philosophy to Ecology. The goal of the course is to introduce
students to key concepts and recurring themes in these enduring debates.
Professor: Becky Mansfield
Email: mansfield.32@osu.edu
Phone: 247-7264 (on campus:
7-7264)
Office: 1160 Derby Hall
Office
hours: by
appointment
Course
format:
Because
the course is small, it will be run more like a seminar than a lecture
course. This means that class will be
based primarily on discussion and other activities that require active
involvement of all students. As a
result, students are also expected to do all assigned readings before
class.
Readings:
Readings
include one book, available at the
campus bookstore (and possibly other campus-area bookstores):
Castree, Noel, and Bruce Braun, eds. 2001. Social
Nature: Theory, Practice, and Politics. Malden: Blackwell
The
majority of the readings are in a course packet, available from Zip Publishing.
In
addition, you will need to obtain (either buy or get from the library)
a book
for a book review assignment; a list of options will be given later in
the
term.
Course
requirements:
Attendance
and participation: 20%
Midterm
exam:
25%
Book
review:
25%
Final
project:
30%
Attendance
and participation are
required and will be graded.
Making an appointment to talk with me about course material
counts as
participation. The midterm exam will
be in-class, covering all material through October 14.
For the book review you will read a
book related to course themes and then write an essay about the book
using
concepts and perspectives from the course.
For the final project you will collect “found objects”
(such as
magazine ads, your own photos, video clips, song lyrics, t-shirts, or
just
about anything else) and write an essay about your collection using
concepts
and perspectives from the course. More
complete assignments will be passed out later in the term.
Note:
SN refers to the course text, Social Nature
Sept
23: Introduction: Worldviews, Placing Humans and Nature
Sept
28: History of Human-Nature Relations, Domination of Nature
Read: Glacken (1967); Marsh (1864)
Sept
30: Dualism between Humans and Nature
Read: Merchant (1992)
Oct 4: Last day to register
to vote in the November election: Register now and vote on Nov. 2
Oct
5: Dualism: Primitive and Civilized People
Read: Soper (1995); SN pp. 87-90,
98-107
(Gregory); SN pp. 64-69, 74-80 (Anderson); Benton and Short
(“Invented
Indian”) (1999)
Oct
7: Environmental Determinism
Read: Semple (1911)
Oct
12: Human Agency: The Cultural Landscape
Read: Sauer (1925); Rose (1992)
Oct
14: Cultural Ecology
Read: Robbins (2004)
Oct
19: MIDTERM EXAM
Oct
21: Conservation
Read: Benton and Short (“No Holier Temple”)
(1999);
Roosevelt (1901); Pinchot (1910); Adams (2001)
Oct
26: Preservation
Read: Runte (1979); Muir (1901); Leopold
(1949)
Oct
28: Modern Environmentalism
Read: Sauer (1956); Carson (1962); Boulding
(1966);
Ehrlich (1969) and Dowie (“Earth Days”) (1996);
Nov
2: ELECTION DAY: VOTE! Reformist
Approaches
Read: Dowie (“Culture of Reform”) (1996);
Earth
Works Group (1989); Chang (2003)
Nov
4: Radical Approaches
Read: Devall and Sessions (1985); Seager
(1993);
King (1989)
Nov
9: Social Construction of Nature
Read: SN Ch 2 (Demeritt)
Nov
11: VETERAN’S DAY, NO CLASSES
Nov
16: Wilderness Debates
Read: Cronon (1995); SN Ch 3 (Braun)
Nov
18: Marxism and “Second Nature”
Read: SN Ch 10 (Castree)
Nov
23: Environmental Justice
Read: Gibbs (1993); Bryant (2003); Bullard
(2002);
Cole and Foster (2001)
Nov
25: THANKSGIVING, NO CLASSES
Nov
30: Political Ecology
Read: SN ch 8 (Bryant); SN ch
7
(Blaikie)
Dec
2: Hazards
Read: SN ch 9 (Pelling)
FINAL
PROJECT DUE MONDAY DECEMBER 6 AT 12:00 PM (NOON) in my mailbox in 1035 Derby
(if your project is too large to fit in my box, take it to the
Geography office
across the hall in room 1036)