PSCI 7024:
Seminar in Political Theory
Topic: Environment
and Political Theory
Spring
semester 2007 • M 3:35-6:05 pm • KETCH 116
Instructor: Steve Vanderheiden
Office: Ketchum 21 • Office Hours: M 11-12,
W 9-10, and by appointment
E-mail:
steven.vanderheiden@colorado.edu
• Phone: 303-492-7440
Course description:
This
is a course in contemporary political theory, as it informs and is informed by
concepts and issues in environmental politics.
Part of our focus shall be on the examination of “green” or
“environmental political theory,” which supposes that ecological problems and
concepts challenge and ultimately must transform normative political concepts
like democracy and citizenship, and promises an alternative to those existing
political ideologies that are not up to this challenge. Here, we shall examine the critique leveled
against liberalism most carefully, considering whether or not it can adequately
respond to this ecological challenge. Another thematic section applies key
normative concepts and theories (including justice and responsibility) to
several current environmental problems, weighing both their critical insights
and analytical shortcomings in this applied context. Next, we shall weigh several normative claims
surrounding consumerism and resource consumption, paying attention to how
political theory can lend support to unsustainable patterns of behavior and how
it might transform them. Finally, we
shall consider questions of strategy, political and theoretical. Although most required texts have an
explicitly environmental theme, this course examines theories and issues that
comprise the core of contemporary normative political theory, providing
students with background in key concepts and approaches in both required and
recommended readings. Hence, no advanced
background in or knowledge of either political theory or environmental politics
is required—students need only be willing to see how these substantive areas of
knowledge are linked, and how each provides critical insights into the other.
Course requirements and
grading:
Each
seminar participant is responsible for writing three short (2-3 page) response
papers, one journal-length seminar paper, and presenting their seminar paper in
a mock conference panel during the last week of class. These assignments are described below:
Response papers: Prior to the second week,
each student will sign up for three weekly topics (with no more than two
students claiming each topic), from which response papers are to be drawn. Papers should not merely summarize the
readings for the week, but should critically discuss one or more of the
assigned texts, raising questions or issues from the arguments or
analyses. Since these papers are short
(2-3 double-spaced pages), they offer an opportunity to try out arguments that
might be made in the seminar paper, absent the commitment to develop them into
a full paper. Papers are due in the
class meeting for a given week’s topic.
Seminar paper: The seminar paper should
represent original research and should follow the formatting conventions of a
major journal to which it might be submitted.
For information on various formats, see Environmental Politics, Political
Theory, and The American Political
Science Review (note that other journals relevant to the seminar’s topic
may use variations on one of these formatting styles). Papers need not necessarily be submitted for
publication to the journal for which they are written, but they must be prepared for submission by using the
appropriate text and referencing styles.
Paper topics must be approved by the instructor in advance, and students
will have the opportunity to revise papers from optional (but highly
recommended) drafts and mandatory presentations. Seminar papers are due on May 5. More information on the seminar paper
assignment can be found on the course page in CULearn.
Paper presentation: Students will be required
to present their seminar papers during the final seminar meeting, following the
format of a conference panel presentation.
Guidelines for preparing paper presentations will be given during week
12, and placed in CULearn.
Grading: In addition, students are
expected to attend all seminar meetings, having prepared for them by reading
all required materials, and to actively participate in seminar discussion. Overall, then, the final grade will be
calculated from the following weighted distribution:
Response papers (3) 15%
Seminar paper 50%
Paper presentation 10%
Participation 25%
Students
must complete all required components in order to receive a passing grade for
the course. Incompletes are available
only under extraordinary circumstances and
with the prior consent of the instructor.
Detailed comments on the final version of seminar papers will be
available one week after the paper’s due date, and the instructor encourages
all students to further revise papers to prepare them for conference
presentation and/or journal submission.
Texts:
Five required texts for this course are available
for purchase at the CU bookstore:
Crocker & Linden, eds., Ethics of Consumption
Andrew Dobson, Green
Political Thought, 4th edition
Dobson & Eckersley, eds., Political Theory and the Ecological Challenge
Robyn Eckersley, The
Bruno Latour, Politics
of Nature
In addition, a wide range of required and
recommended readings can be found online, either linked directly from the
online version of the syllabus in CULearn
(many of these are in online databases that require either a CU network or VPN
to access), placed on electronic reserve through the CU library, or in the
CULearn site for the course.
Instructions will be provided each week for accessing the following
week’s reading materials.
University
and course policies:
Disability
accommodations: If you qualify for accommodations because of a
disability, please submit to me a letter from Disability Services in a timely
manner so that your needs may be addressed. Disability Services determines
accommodations based on students’ documented disabilities. Contact:
303-492-8671, Willard 322, http://www.Colorado.EDU/disabilityservices
Religious
observances: Campus policy regarding religious observances
requires that faculty make every effort to reasonably and fairly deal with all
students who, because of religious obligations, have conflicts with scheduled
exams, assignments or required attendance. Students needing to miss class
or exams for religious observances must inform the instructor during the first
two weeks of the term. See http://www.colorado.edu/policies/fac_relig.html
Classroom
behavior: Students and faculty share responsibility for
maintaining an appropriate learning environment. Students who fail to adhere to
such behavioral standards may be subject to discipline. Faculty have the professional
responsibility to treat all students with understanding, dignity and respect,
to guide classroom discussion and to set reasonable limits on the manner in
which they and their students express opinions. Professional courtesy and
sensitivity are especially important with respect to individuals and topics
dealing with differences of race, culture, religion, politics, sexual
orientation, gender, gender variance, and nationalities. Class rosters
are provided to the instructor with the student's legal name. I will gladly
honor your request to address you by an alternate name or gender pronoun.
Please advise me of this preference early in the semester so that I may make
appropriate changes to my records. See the polices at http://www.colorado.edu/policies/classbehavior.html and
at
http://www.colorado.edu/studentaffairs/judicialaffairs/code.html#student_code
Discrimination
and harassment: The CU Boulder policy on Discrimination and
Harassment, the
Honor
code: All students of CU Boulder are responsible for
knowing and adhering to the academic integrity policy of this institution.
Violations of this policy may include: cheating, plagiarism, aid of academic
dishonesty, fabrication, and threatening behavior. All incidents of
academic misconduct shall be reported to the Honor Code Council
(honor@colorado.edu; 303-725-2273). Students found to be in violation of the
academic integrity policy will be subject to both academic sanctions from the
faculty member and non-academic sanctions (including but not limited to
university probation, suspension, or expulsion). More information on the Honor
Code can be found at http://www.colorado.edu/policies/honor.html and
http://www.colorado.edu/academics/honorcode/
Excused
absences: At the instructor’s discretion, students may be
given opportunities to make up points missed as the result of documented
illnesses (with a dated note from a health care provider) or other emergencies,
religious observances, or official university activities. Wherever possible, students should inform the
instructor in advance of such absences in order to make necessary
arrangements. Absences resulting from
discretionary events (such as non-emergency health care, non-essential travel,
etc.) cannot qualify as excused. The
instructor reserves the right to distinguish excusable from non-excusable
reasons for missing class.
Seminar reading and
discussion schedule:
1.
Introduction: environment and political theory (1/14/08)
Required:
Robyn Eckersley, “Politics,” in A Companion to Environmental Philosophy, ed. by Dale Jamieson (Blackwell, 2003): 316-30, in CUL
Terence
Ball, “Green Political
Philosophy,” Routledge Encyclopedia
of Philosophy, online
Recommended:
Alan Carter, “Towards a
Green Political Theory,” in The Politics
of Nature: Explorations in Green Political Theory, ed. by Dobson and
Lucardie (Routledge, 1993): 39-62, in CUL
John Dryzek, The Politics of the Earth (
Robyn Eckersley, Environmentalism and Political Theory:
Toward an Ecocentric Approach (SUNY Press, 1992)
Tim Hayward, Political Theory and Ecological Values
(Palgrave Macmillan, 1998)
Douglas Torgerson, The Promise of Green Politics (Duke
University Press, 1999)
2.
Ecology
as ideology (1/28/08)
Required:
Roger Scruton, “Conservatism,” in
PTEC
Marcel Wissenburg, “Liberalism,”
in PTEC
Derek Bell, “How can Political Liberals be Environmentalists?” Political Studies 50 (September 2002): 703-24
Mary Mellor, “Socialism,” in PTEC
Val Plumwood, “Feminism,” in PTEC
Andrew Dobson, Green Political Thought, 4th edition (Routledge, 2007)
Recommended:
John Barry, Rethinking Green Politics: Nature, Virtue and Progress (Sage, 1999)
Alan Carter, The Politics of the Environment (
Robert Goodin, Green Political Theory (Polity Press,
1992)
Marcel Wissenburg, Green Liberalism: The Free and Green Society
(Routledge, 1998)
3.
Democracy
(2/4/08)
Required:
Terence Ball, “Democracy,” in PTEC
Michael Saward, “Representation,” in PTEC
Richard Dagger, “Freedom and Rights,” in PTEC
John Dryzek, “Political and Ecological Communication,”
Environmental
Politics 4 (Winter 1995): 13-30
Robyn Eckersley, “Greening Liberal Democracy: The
Rights Discourse Revisited,” Democracy & Green Political Thought, ed. by Doherty and de Geus (Routledge, 1996):
212-36, CUL
Robert Goodin, “Enfranchising All Affected Interests, and
Its Alternative,” Philosophy & Public Affairs 35 (Winter 2007): 40-68
Robyn Eckersley, “From Cosmopolitan Nationalism to
Cosmopolitan Democracy,” Review of International Studies 33 (October 2007): 675-92
Recommended:
Walter Baber and Bob Bartlett, Deliberative Environmental Politics: Democracy and Ecological Rationality (The MIT Press, 2005)
Brian
Doherty and Marius de Geus, Democracy
& Green Political Thought (Routledge, 1996)
Robyn Eckersley, “Liberal
Democracy and the Rights of Nature: The Struggle for Inclusion,” Environmental Politics 4 (Winter 1995):
169-98
Ben A. Minteer and Bob
Pepperman Taylor, eds., Democracy and the
Claims of Nature (Rowman & Littlefield, 2002)
Robert Paehlke, Democracy’s Dilemma (The MIT Press,
2003)
4.
Citizenship
(2/11/08)
Required:
Daniel Deudney, “Security,” in PTEC
Avner de-Shalit, “Nationalism,” in PTEC
Andrew Dobson, “Citizenship,” in PTEC
John Barry, “Vulnerability and Virtue: Democracy, Dependency, and Ecological Stewardship,” in Democracy and the Claims of Nature, ed. by Minteer and Pepperman Taylor (Rowman & Littlefield, 2002): 133-52, in CUL
Alex
Latta, “Locating
Democratic Politics in Ecological Citizenship,” Environmental Politics 16 (June 2007): 377-93
Andrew
Light, “Urban
Ecological Citizenship,” Journal of
Social Philosophy 34 (2003): 44-63
Kate Soper, “Rethinking
the ‘Good Life’: The Consumer as Citizen,” Capitalism, Nature, Socialism 15 (September 2004): 111-16
Recommended:
Andrew
Dobson, Citizenship and the Environment (
“Environmental
Citizenship: The Goodenough Primer” (from
Environmental Politics,
special
issue on ecological citizenship (April 2005)
5.
The
state (2/18/08)
Required:
Andrew Hurrell, “The State,” in PTEC
Robyn Eckersley, The
Recommended:
John Barry and Marcel Wissenburg, eds. Sustaining Liberal Democracy (Palgrave, 2001)
Alan
Carter, “Some
Theoretical Foundations for Radical Green Politics,” Environmental Values
13 (August 2004): 305-28.
Dryzek,
Downs,
Christian Hunold and John Dryzek, “Green
Political Theory and the State: Context is Everything,” Global Environmental
Politics, 2 (August 2002): 17-39, in CUL
Andrew Hurrell, “A
Crisis of Ecological Viability?” Political
Studies 42 (August 1994): 146-65
6.
Nature
(2/25/08)
Required:
Bruno Latour, The Politics of Nature (
William Cronon, “The Trouble with Wilderness,” in Uncommon Ground: Rethinking
the
Recommended:
John Meyer, Political Nature (The MIT Press, 2001)
Kate
Soper, What is Nature? (Blackwell, 1995)
Paul
Robbins, Political Ecology: A Critical Introduction (Blackwell, 2004)
Timothy
W. Luke, Ecocritique: Contesting the Politics of Nature, Economy, and
Culture (University of Minnesota Press, 1997)
7.
Justice
(3/3/08)
Required:
David Miller, “Justice,” from Political Philosophy: A
Very Short Introduction (
James Sterba, “Justice,” in PTEC
David Schlosberg, “Reconceiving Environmental Justice: Global Movements and Political
Theories,” Environmental Politics
13 (2004): 517-40
Schlosberg, “The Justice of Environmental Justice,” in Light &
deShalit, Moral
and Political Reasoning in Environmental Practice (The MIT Press, 2003)
Marcel Wissenburg, “The Idea of Nature and the Nature of Distributive Justice,” in The Politics of Nature: Explorations in Green Political Theory, ed. by Dobson & Lucardie (Routledge, 1993): 3-20, in CUL
Recommended:
Brian Barry, Why Social Justice Matters (Polity Press, 2005)
Brian Baxter, A Theory of Ecological Justice
(Routledge, 2004)
Andrew Dobson, Justice and the Environment (Oxford
University Press, 1999)
Andrew Dobson, ed. Fairness and Futurity: Essays on Environmental
Sustainability and Social Justice (Oxford University
Press, 1999)
John Rawls, Justice as Fairness: A Restatement (Belknap Press, 2001)
Kristen Schrader-Freschette, Environmental Justice:
Creating Equality, Reclaiming Democracy
(
David Schlosberg, Defining Environmental
Justice: Theories, Movements, and Nature (
8. Responsibility
(3/10/08)
Required:
Onora Nell (O’Neill), “Lifeboat Earth,”
Philosophy & Public Affairs 3 (Spring 1975): 273-92
Iris
Marion Young, “Responsibility
and Global Labor Justice,” Journal of Political Philosophy 12
(December 2004): 365-88
Michael
Maniates, “Individualization:
Plant a Tree, Ride a Bike, Save the World,” Global
Environmental Politics 1 (2002): 31-52, in CUL
Ken
Conca, “Consumption and Environment in a Global Economy,” Global
Environmental Politics 1 (August 2001): 53-71, in CUL
David
Miller, “Holding
Nations Responsible,” Ethics 114 (January 2004): 240-68
Stephen
Gardiner, “A
Core Precautionary Principle,” Journal of Political Philosophy 14
(March 2006): 33-60
Recommended:
Joel Feinberg, Doing and Deserving
(Princeton University Press, 1974)
Thomas Nagel, Mortal Questions (Cambridge
University Press, 1979)
Derek Parfit, Reasons and Persons (Oxford
University Press, 1986)
Peter Unger, Living High and Letting Die
(Oxford University Press, 1999)
Michael Zimmerman, An Essay on Moral
Responsibility (Rowman & Littlefield, 1988)
9.
Climate
(3/17/08)
Required:
Steve Vanderheiden, Atmospheric Justice: A
Political Theory of Climate Change (
Peter F. Cannavò, “In the Wake
of Katrina: Climate Change and the Coming Crisis of Displacement,” in Political Theory & Global Climate Change
(The MIT Press, 2008), in CUL
Timothy W.
Luke, “Climatologies as Social Critique: The Social Construction/Creation of
Global Warming, Global Dimming, and Global Cooling,” in Political Theory & Global Climate Change (The MIT Press, 2008),
in CUL
Recommended:
Stephen Gardiner, “A Perfect Moral Storm: Climate Change, Intergenerational Ethics, and the Problem of Corruption,” Environmental Values 15 (August 2006): 397-413
Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change, Climate
Change 2007 (fourth assessment report)
Edward
A. Page, Climate Change, Justice, and Future Generations (Edward Elgar,
2007)
Henry
Shue, “Global
Environment and International Inequality,” International Affairs 75
(July 1999): 531-45
10.
Globalization
(3/31/08)
Required:
Andrew Linklater, “Cosmopolitanism,” in PTEC
Charles Beitz, “Justice and International Relations,”
Philosophy
& Public Affairs 4 (Summer 1975):
360-89
Thomas Pogge, “A Global Resources Dividend,” in EC
Tim Hayward, “Thomas
Pogge's Global Resources Dividend: A Critique and an Alternative," Journal of Moral Philosophy 2 (November
2005): 317-32
Robyn Eckersley, “Communitarianism,” in PTEC
Andrew Dobson, “Thick Cosmopolitanism,” Political Studies 54 (March 2006): 165-84
Recommended:
Simon Caney, Justice Beyond Borders (
John Dryzek, Deliberative Global
Politics (Polity Press, 2006)
David Held, Global Covenant: A Social Democratic
Alternative to the
Thomas Nagel, “The Problem of Global Justice,” Philosophy & Public
Affairs 33 (April 2005): 113-47
Peter Singer, One World: The Ethics of
Globalization (
11.
Ecological
limits (4/7/08)
Required:
Kenneth Arrow, et al., “Economic Growth, Carrying Capacity, and the
Environment,” Science 268
(April 1995): 520-21
Garrett Hardin, “The Tragedy of the Commons,” Science 162 (December 1968): 1243-48
Crocker & Linden, eds., Ethics of Consumption, Parts 1-2 (§1-11), in EC
Recommended:
Herman E. Daly, “The Economics of a Steady State,” American Economic Review (1974): 15-21
Herman
E. Daly, Beyond Growth (Beacon Press, 1997)
Donella
Meadows, Jorgen Randers, and Dennis Meadows, Limits to Growth: The 30 Year
Update (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2004)
Mark
Sagoff, The Economy of the Earth (Cambridge University Press, 1988)
Steve
Vanderheiden, “Two
Conceptions of Sustainability,” Political Studies (2008)
12.
Consumerism
(4/14/08)
Required:
Crocker & Linden, eds., Ethics of
Consumption, Parts 3-4, 6 (§12-19, 23-24, 26-27), in EC
Redefining Progress, The Genuine Progress Indicator 2006 (online report)
Sut Jhally, “Advertising and the
End of the World” (video)
Recommended:
Benjamin
Barber, Consumed: How Markets Corrupt Children, Infantilize Adults, and
Swallow Citizens Whole (W.W. Norton & Co., 2007)
Kalle
Lasn, Culture Jam: The Uncooling of
Naomi Klein, No Logo (Picador, 2002)
Princen, Maniates, and Conca, eds. Confronting Consumption (The MIT Press, 2002)
Juliet
Schor, The Overspent American (HarperPerennial, 1999)
13.
Strategy
(4/21/08)
Required:
Michael
Zimmerman, “A
Strategic Direction for 21st Century Environmentalists: Free Market
Environmentalism,” Strategies 13 (May 2000): 89-110
David
Schlosberg & John Dryzek, “Political Strategies of
American Environmentalism: Inclusion and Beyond,” Society and Natural
Resources 15 (2002): 787-804
Douglas
Torgerson, “Farewell
to the Green Movement? Political Action and
the Green Public Sphere,” Environmental Politics 9:4 (2000): 1-19
Bill Chaloupka, “There
Must Be Some Way Out of Here: Strategy, Ethics, and Environmental Politics,” in
Magnusson and Shaw, eds. A Political Space: Reading the Global through
Clayoquot Sound (
Michael
Shellenberger & Ted Nordhaus, “The
Death of Environmentalism”
John
Meyer, “Does
Environmentalism Have a Future?” Dissent (Spring 2005)
Robert
Paehlke, “Environment, Equity, and Globalization: Beyond Resistance,” Global
Environmental Politics 1 (February 2001): 1-10, in CUL
John
Dryzek, “Resistance is Fertile,” Global Environmental Politics 1
(February 2001): 11-17, in
CUL
Ronnie
Lipschutz, “Ohmage to Resistance,” Global Environmental Politics 1
(February 2001): 18-22, in
CUL
Recommended:
Shellenberger
& Nordhaus, “Second Life”
Steve
Vanderheiden, “Eco-terrorism
or Justified Resistance? Radical
Environmentalism and the ‘War on Terror’,” Politics & Society 33 (September 2005): 425-47
14.
Paper
presentations (4/28/08)