Topic One: Overall Introduction

Week 1: Overall Introduction of the Class   

Housekeeping: Introducing the Instructor, Course, and Participants

Week 2: Theoretical Foundation I—A Rational Choice Perspective

Levi, Margaret, 1997.“A Model, a Method, and a Map: Rational Choice in Comparative and Historical Analysis.” In Mark Lichbach and Alan Zuckerman eds., Comparative Politics: Rationality, Culture, and Structure.  Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, pp. 19-41.

Week 3: Theoretical Foundation II—A Constructionist Perspective

Park, S., 2005.  “How Transnational Environmental Advocacy Networks Socialize International Financial Institutions: A Case Study of the International Finance Corporation.” Global Environmental Politics, 5(4), pp.95-119.

Week 4: Theoretical Foundation III—A Complex System Perspective

Veldhuizen, C., 2021.  “Conceptualising the Foundations of Sustainability Focused Innovation Policy: From Constructivism to Holism.” Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 162, p.120374.

Week 5: Conceptual Evolution

Hedlund-de Witt, A., 2014.  “Rethinking Sustainable Development: Considering How Different Worldviews Envision ‘Development’ and ‘Quality of Life’”.  Sustainability, 6(11), pp.8310-8328.

Jabareen, Y., 2008.  “A New Conceptual Framework for Sustainable Development.” Environment, Development and Sustainability, 10 (2): 179-192.

Topic 2: Dimensions of Sustainable Development, Dynamics and Nexus

Week 6: Brown Agenda (pollution control)

Chien, S.S. and Hong, D.L., 2018. “River Leaders in China: Party-State Hierarchy and Transboundary Governance.” Political Geography, 62, pp.58-67.

Week 7: Green Agenda (conservation)

Tang, Ching-Ping and Shui-Yan Tang, 2010.  “Institutional Adaptation and Community-Based Conservation of Natural Resources: The Cases of the Tao and Atayal in Taiwan.” Human Ecology, 38 (1): 101-111.

Guha, Ramachandra, 1997.  “The Authoritarian Biologist and the Arrogance of Anti-Humanism.” The Ecologist, 27 (1): 14-20.

Week 8: Resources Management

Wai-Fung Lam, Ching-Ping Tang; Shih-Ko Tang, 2021. “Bureaucratising Co-production: Institutional Adaptation of Irrigation Associations in Taiwan.” Water Alternatives, 14 (2): 435-52.

Nielsen et al., 2004.  “Fisheries Co-Management—An Institutional Innovation?  Lessons from South East Asia and Southern Africa.” Marine Policy, 28 (2): 151-160.

Week 9: Blue Agenda (climate change and Energy)

     Cannon, T. and Müller-Mahn, D., 2010. “Vulnerability, Resilience and Development Discourses in Context of Climate Change.” Natural Hazards, 55(3), pp.621-635.

Week 10 Economic Welfare

Sanderson, S., 2005.  “Poverty and Conservation: The New Century’s ‘Peasant Question’?” World Development, 33(2), pp.323-332.

Week 11: Social Justice

Tang, Ching-Ping, Shui-Yan Tang, and Chung-Yuan Chiu, 2011. “Inclusion, Identity, and Environmental Justice in New Democracies: The Politics of Pollution Remediation in Taiwan.” Comparative Politics, 43 (3): 333-350.

Johnson, 2010.  “Environmentalism and NIMBYism in China: Promoting a Rules-Based Approach to Public Participation.” Environmental Politics, 19 (3): 430-448.

Week 12 Nexus and Possible Integrated Development

     Liu, J., Hull, V., Godfray, H.C.J., Tilman, D., Gleick, P., Hoff, H., Pahl-Wostl, C., Xu, Z., Chung, M.G., Sun, J. and Li, S., 2018. “Nexus Approaches to Global Sustainable Development.” Nature Sustainability, 1(9), pp.466-476.

Week 13 Mid-term: Guided Trip and Field Report

Topic 3: Governance: Scales and Sectors

Week 14: Capacity Building and Policy Tools

Tang, Ching-Ping and Shui-Yan Tang, 2014.  “Managing Incentive Dynamics for Collaborative Governance in Land and Ecological Conservation.” Public Administration Review, 74 (2): 220-231.

Fiorino, 1990.  “Citizen Participation and Environmental Risk: A Survey of Institutional Mechanisms.” Science, Technology, & Human Values, 15 (2): 226-243.

Week 15: International Regime as an Emerging Governing Structure  

Jahiel, Abigail R., 2006.  “China, the WTO, and Implications for the Environment.” Environmental Politics, 15 (2): 310-329.

Week 16: Integrated Governance

Mensah, Justice, 2019.  “Sustainable Development: Meaning, History, Principles, Pillars, and Implications for Human Action: Literature Review.” Cogent Social Sciences, 5:1, 1653531

Week 17-18: Mini-Conference

You need to present your final paper in this mini-conference by recording a PPT presentation and uploading it to the line group by the end of the semester.  To finish your final report, you need to conduct field research and collect sufficient evidence to support your arguments, and incorporate suggestions and criticisms from classmates into your final version.

1.  Class Attendance and Active Participation (30%):

All students must attend each class meeting and be ready to discuss the reading materials and significant issues with others.  Most readings will be accessible from a dropbox file.  This course will be taught in a dialectical mode in which students’ participation will be essential in the class.  While counter-arguments or second thoughts are welcome in-class discussion, please always present them politely and thoughtfully.  

2.  Field Report (30%):

We will arrange several field trips to understand the real-world practices of Environmental Protection in Taiwan.  You can pick one of them to report the potential topics about them. 

3.  Final Paper (40%):

By the end of the semester, students have to hand in a term paper potential for professional publication.  The final write-up needs to include research interests, theoretical framework (with literature review), propositions or proposed arguments, methods to collect empirical evidence, a preliminary survey, and a conclusion.  This work needs to be presented in front of all classmates in 15 minutes.  Reference needs to be carefully documented, and all academic ethics faithfully followed.