Geography 635 Winter 2010

T-Th 12:30-2:18 1080 Derby Hall

Geography 635

Globalization and Environment

This course is about international dimensions of environmental issues, including the effect of economic globalization on the environment and the globalization of environmental conservation. We will cover different aspects of globalization, including free trade and global production chains, and how these contribute to environmental transformations. We will use globalization of food as an example of globalization that affects the environment. Focus on globalization of food also provides information about how globalization developed. Following this, we will cover responses to environmental problems, with an emphasis on international conservation efforts. We will examine the development of global environmentalism through international environmental conferences and protocols. Global environmentalism has culminated in the notion of sustainable development, which attempts to bring together economic globalization and global conservation. The final part of the course will examine this new era of green neoliberalism. Throughout the course we will examine ways that relationships between more and less developed regions of the world influence variation in environmental impacts and responses. Note that this syllabus is subject to change. Professor: Becky Mansfield Office: 1160 Derby Hall Phone: (24)7-7264 Email: mansfield.32@osu.edu Office hours: Tuesdays 2:30-3:30 pm, or by appointment Course format: This course is organized around interactive lectures, including small and large group discussions. There will be short lectures, but the emphasis is on student involvement in discussions and other activities. Students should feel free to ask questions and offer comments at all times. Reading materials: There are two texts and a set of articles for this course. The texts are available at campus area bookstores; the articles are available on Carmen in the content section. The texts are: 1. Ellwood, Wayne. 2006. The No-Nonsense Guide to Globalization. Oxford: New Internationalist. ISBN: 0300119747 2. Goldman, Michael. 2006. Imperial Nature: The World Bank and Struggles for Social Justice in the Age of Globalization. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN: 1904456448

Course requirements: Participation Pop quizzes Midterm (in-class, on Feb 11) Research essay (DUE FEB 25) Take-Home Final (DUE MARCH 18)

15% 15% 20% 25% 25%

Participation (15%): All students are expected to come to class daily having done the days readings, ready to participate in discussions and related activities. This portion of your grade will be based on your daily presence in class your contributions to the class. Meeting with me to discuss class material also counts toward participation. Regular attendance is the minimum required to receive a passing grade for participation. Pop quizzes (15%): There will be an unspecified number of pop quizzes. Quizzes may be of two kinds. The first kind is a closed-book quiz exclusively on the readings for that day. These will be designed to be fairly easy for anyone having completed the readings. The second kind is an in-class, open-book, group activity using course materials to answer specified questions. Your lowest grade will be dropped. Midterm (20%): The midterm exam will be in-class, closed book. It will consist of definitions, short answers, and essay questions. Research Essay (25%): DUE THURSDAY FEBRUARY 25 in class. This assignment asks you to apply course concepts, vocabulary, and readings to analyze your role in globalization and environment by researching a food item (of your choice) that you have recently eaten. The assignment requires that you do outside research and write an essay. You will be graded on the quality of the research and analysis, the extent to which you use course concepts and how well you use them, and your writing. An assignment with detailed instructions will be distributed in class. Final (25%): DUE THURSDAY MARCH 18 at 11:30am. The final exam will consist of 1-2 take-home essays. The final will focus on material covered after the midterm, but will require you to address and integrate themes from the entire course. Course policies: Grading policies: Attendance: participation is based on attendance. If you are regularly absent, your participation grade will reflect your absences, even if you participate well on the days you do attend. Quizzes: missed quizzes cannot be made up. If you show up late for class on a quiz day, you will not be given extra time to take the quiz. (Remember, your lowest grade will be dropped.) Midterm: Exams can only be made up if you have an emergency such as a medical problem or death in the family. You will need to document the emergency. Research Essay and Final Exam: late essays will lose one point (out of 25) for every day they are late. To avoid losing points, you must make arrangements AHEAD OF TIME.

To pass the course: o You must receive a total grade of at least 55%. o You must complete all major assignments. Regardless of how well you do on other parts of the course, you will not pass the course if you miss an exam, fail to turn in a project, or miss more than six (1/3) of the class sessions. PLEASE SEE ME if you are having problems that prevent you from meeting this requirement; we may be able to make alternative arrangements. Grading scale: 93-100 A; 90-92 A-; 87-89 B+; 83-86 B; 80-82 B-; 77-79 C+; 73-76 C; 70-72 C-; 67-69 D+; 55-66 D Misconduct: Cheating and plagiarism will not be tolerated. Plagiarism is defined as using another person's ideas without acknowledging from where the idea came. Plagiarism ranges from direct copying of someone else's work to presenting someone else's ideas as though they are yours. Please use citations to differentiate between your ideas and those you got from other sources (such as books and articles). Students agree that by taking this course all required papers may be subject to submission for textual similarity review to Turnitin.com for the detection of plagiarism. All submitted papers will be included as source documents in the Turnitin.com reference database solely for the purpose of detecting plagiarism of such papers. Use of the Turnitin.com service is subject to the Terms and Conditions of Use posted on the Turnitin.com site. Any student suspected of cheating or plagiarism will be reported to the Committee on Academic Misconduct.

Disability: Accommodation will be made for any student with special needs based on the impact of a disability. Please contact the instructor and also the Office for Disability Services at 292-3307, 150 Pomerene Hall.

Schedule, with topic, readings, and assignments

(a list of readings with full references is at the end) Jan 5 Jan 7 Introduction: globalization as interconnection Perspectives on globalization and environment
Read: Speth Two perspectives on globalization and environment

Jan 12

The idea of the global environment

Read: Adger et al. Selections from Advancing a political ecology of global environmental discourses Mitchell Selections from Rule of Experts: pp. 209-221

Jan 14

Defining globalization; geographical patterns of economic globalization

Read: Ellwood Ch 1, Ch 6

Jan 19

Implementing globalization: The Bretton Woods Organizations

Read: Ellwood Ch 2 Goldman Preface, pp. 1-12, and pp. 46-78 Read pp. 46-78 for large themes, not details

Jan 21

Implementing globalization: Structural adjustment

Read: Ellwood Ch 3 Goldman pp. 78-99

Jan 26 Jan 28

Case study: Structural adjustment, globalization, and agriculture in Jamaica Globalization of food
Read: Atkins and Bowler Chapters 4 and 13 of Food in Society Martin One countrys table scraps, another countrys meal

Feb 2

Colonialism and globalization of food

Read: Juma Selections from The Gene Hunters: pp. 12-25 and 37-51 Colchester Selections from Guatemala: pp. 99-115 and 127-131

Feb 4

From the Green Revolution to Biotechnology

Read: Atkins and Bowler Chapter 17 of Food in Society The Ecologist CGIAR: agricultural research for whom? The Ecologist Letter Forum, between Norman Borlaug and Vandana Shiva

Feb 9

Issues in biotechnology
Read: New York Times Room for Debate Can biotech food cure world hunger? Be sure to read the complete entry for each author; i.e. go to read more ETC Group Genetic pollution in Mexicos center of maize diversity

Feb 11

MIDTERM EXAM

Feb 16

Global environmental politics 1970s-80s: Stockholm to the Brundtland Report

Read: Re-read pp. 2-10 of Speth, Two perspectives on globalization and environment (from Jan 8) Adams Chapter 3 of Green Development

Feb 18

Sustainable development 1980s-90s: the Brundtland Report to the Earth Summit

Read: Adams Chapter 4 of Green Development Agenda 21 Scan the Table of Contents, Preamble, and Chapter 15 (Conservation of Biological Diversity) What are the themes? What kinds of goals and actions are identified? Bring a copy of Chapter 15 (printed, or on a laptop) to class for an activity.

Feb 23

Sustainable development and globalization early 2000s: the Johannesburg Summit

Read: Wapner World Summit on Sustainable Development La Via, Hoff and DeRose The outcomes of Johannesburg United Nations Global Challenge, Global Opportunity: Trends in Sustainable Development. This document was prepared just prior to the 2002 Johannesburg Summit, to lay out the issues. Scan through, paying special attention to the pages on Population and on Food and Agriculture. How are issues defined? What are the problems?

Feb 25

Corporations in global environmental politics

Read: World Business Council on Sustainable Development About (webpage). Look especially at the history and the membership links on the left of this page, and click on the map (each region) to see the member companies. Bruno and Karliner Excerpts from earthsummit.biz: pp. 10-21 and 80-109 Ellwood Ch 4

Research Essay due, in class Mar 2 Green neoliberalism: the World Bank and large dams
Read: Goldman Ch 4 and 5 (through p. 200)

Mar 4

Green neoliberalism: the World Bank and water privatization

Read: Goldman Ch 6 except pp. 225-232

Mar 9

Green neoliberalism: resource management

Read: Prudham Poisoning the well: neoliberalism and the contamination Robertson The neoliberalization of ecosystem services: Wetland mitigation banking

Mar 11 Conclusion: contradictions and alternative futures

Read: Goldman Ch 7 Ellwood Ch 7

Mar 18 (Thursday) TAKE-HOME FINAL EXAM DUE AT 11:30AM, IN MY MAILBOX IN DERBY 1035

References for articles on Carmen Adams, W. M. 2001. Green Development: Environment and Sustainability in the Third World. 2 ed. London: Routledge. Adger, W Neil, Tor A Benjaminsen, Katrina Brown, and Hanne Svarstan. 2001. Advancing a political ecology of global environmental discourses. Development and Change 32:681-715. Agenda 21: The United Nations Programme of Action from Rio. UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Division for Sustainable Development. http://www.un.org/esa/dsd/agenda21/res_agenda21_00.shtml Atkins, Peter, and Ian Bowler. 2001. Food in Society: Economy, Culture, Geography. London: Arnold. Bruno, Kenny, and Joshua Karliner. 2002. earthsummit.biz: The Corporate Takeover of Sustainable Development. Oakland, CA: Food First Books. Colchester, Marcus. Guatemala: the clamour for land and the fate of the forests. In Struggle for Land and the Fate of the Forests, edited by M. Colchester and L. Lohmann, 99-137. Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Zed Books. Ecologist. 1996. CGIAR: Agricultural research for whom? The Ecologist 26 (6):259-270. Ecologist. 1996. Letter Forum (Borlaug and Shiva). The Ecologist 27 (5). ETC Group. 2002. Genetic pollution in Mexicos center of maize diversity. Food First Backgrounder 8(2). http://www.foodfirst.org/pubs/backgrdrs/2002/sp02v8n2.pdf Juma, Calestous. 1989. The Gene Hunters: Biotechnology and the Scramble for Seeds. Princeton: Princeton University Press. La Via, Antonio GM, Gretchen Hoff, and Anne Marie DeRose. 2003. The outcomes of Johannesburg: assessing the World Summit on Sustainable Development. SAIS Review 23 (1):53-70. Martin, Andrew. 2008. One countrys table scraps, another countrys meal. The New York Times May 18, 2008. Mitchell, Timothy. 2002. Rule of Experts: Egypt, Techno-Politics, Modernity. Berkeley: University of California Press. New York Times. 2009. Room for Debate: Can Biotech Food Cure World Hunger? October 26, 2009. http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/26/can-biotech-food-cure-world-hunger/ Prudham, Scott. 2007. Poisoning the well: neoliberalization and the contamination of municipal water in Walkerton, Ontario. In Neoliberal Environments: False Promises and Unnatural Consequences, edited by N. Heynen, J. McCarthy, S. Prudham and P. Robbins. London: Routledge. Robertson, Morgan M. 2007. The neoliberalization of ecosystem services: wetland mitigation banking and the problem of measurment. In Neoliberal Environments: False Promises and Unnatural Consequences, edited by N. Heynen, J. McCarthy, S. Prudham and P. Robbins. London: Routledge. Speth, James Gustave. 2003. Two perspectives on globalization and the environment. In Worlds Apart: Globalization and the Environment, edited by J. G. Speth, 1-18. Washington DC: Island Press. United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. 2002. Global Challenge, Global Opportunity: Trends in Sustainable Development (published for the World Summit on Sustainable Development, Johannesburg, 2002). http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/publications/critical_trends_report_2002.pdf Wapner, Paul. 2003. World Summit on Sustainable Development: toward a post-Jo'burg environmentalism. Global Environmental Politics 3 (1):1-10. WBSCD. 2003. About the WBCSD. Conches-Geneva: World Business Council on Sustainable Development. http://www.wbcsd.org/templates/TemplateWBCSD5/layout.asp?type=p&MenuId=NjA&doOpen=1&ClickMenu=Left Menu
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