SemesterSpring Semester, 2020
DepartmentInternational Doctor Program in Asia-Pacific Studies, First Year International Doctor Program in Asia-Pacific Studies, Second Year
Course NameSeminar on Cultural Ecology of Forests: Green Development, Conservation, and Climate Change
InstructorWORK COURTNEY KATHERINE
Credit3.0
Course TypeElective
Prerequisite
Course Objective
Course Description
Course Schedule

Week 1- 2/19



Introduction - Contradictions and Complications



Course Basics and expectations



In-class Exercise:       



4 Essential Tools for Critical reading and writing:



Conversation; Argument; Evidence; Authority



 



Opening Theoretical Framework



                In-class Read:



Berliner, D., M. Lambek, R. Shweder, R. Irvine, and A. Piette. 2016.



Anthropology and the Study of Contradictions. HAU: Journal of Ethnographic



Theory 6 (1):1–6.



 



 



In-class discussion



What are the central Arguments of this essay? What conversation does it enter? How does it speak to the interlocutors?



 



 



Week 2: 2/26 The Web of Life



 



        Read:



Kirksey, Eben. (2015). Emergent Ecologies. Durham and London: Duke University Press.



Introduction and Chapter 1



Castree, Noel. Making sense of nature. Routledge, 2013.



                Chapter 2: Representing Nature



 



In-class video:



Prey Lang Watershed video- Alan Michaud



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRNo70enWPM&index=16&list=PL9CX_QcOMssnXVq1FWwV4-Cd3nhZd_ymk 



 



 



Week 3: 3/4  Forests as Ecosystems



Critique these two websites



                http://www.greenfacts.org/en/biodiversity/l-3/1-define-biodiversity.htm



                http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/biodiversity/?src=footer



 



Read:



Gorzelak, M., Pickles, B.J., Asay, A.K., Simard, S.W. (2015). Inter-plant communication through mycorrhizal networks mediates complex adaptive behaviour in plant communities. Annals of Botany Plants 7: plv050.



 



Stamets, S. Mycelium Running. Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World. Berkeley: Ten Speed Press, 2005. (Part 1)



 



Ellison, D., M. N. Futter, and K. Bishop. 2012. ‘On the forest cover-water yield debate: From demand- to supply-side thinking’. Global Change Biology 18 (3):806–820.



 



In-class exercise



Artful Amoeba



    http://www.radiolab.org/story/from-tree-to-shining-tree/



 



In-class discussion



Under what Authority do each of this week’s authors (including web sites) make the claims they make? What are the main claims from each of our readings, audio, and web presentations?



Taken together, what conversation emerges from this week’s materials?



           



Week 4 -5: Climate Change Facts and Cultures



Week 4- 3/11 



Review these websites



                https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/global-greenhouse-gas-emissions-data



                https://www.climatecommunication.org/climate/the-problem/                                     http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/mlo.html#mlo



                 



Read:



https://www.theguardian.com/science/political-science/2016/apr/26/abandon-hype-in-climate-models



 



Rayner, Steve



2016 ‘What Might Evans-Pritchard Have Made of Two Degrees?’ Anthropology Today 32(4): 1–2.



 



Lindisfarne, Nancy, and Steve Rayner



2016 ‘Climate Change’. Anthropology Today 32(5): 27.



 



In-class viewing



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEgcu27-kjk



                 



In-class discussion:



Group Work- Break into small groups with each group addressing one of our Essential Tools for Critical Reading and Writing



 



Week 5: 3/18



Read:



Soon, W., and S. L. Baliunas. 2003. ‘Proxy climatic and environmental changes of the past 1000 years’. Climate Research 23, 89-110 23 (2001):89–110.



 



Kinne, O. 2003. Climate Research: an article unleashed worldwide storms. Climate Research 24:197–198.



 



https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/feb/21/climate-change-denier-willie-soon-funded-energy-industry



http://tos.org/oceanography/assets/docs/5-2_munk.pdf



http://yournewswire.com/tens-of-thousands-of-scientists-declare-climate-change-a-hoax/



 



Handley, G. B. 2015. ‘Climate Change, Cosmology, and Poetry: The case of Derek Walcott’s Omeros’. In Global Ecologies and the Environmental Humanities: Postcolonial Approaches, eds. E. DeLoughrey, J. Didur, and A. Carrigan. New York and London: Routledge.



 



In-class discussion:



Evidence and Authority: What evidence is marshalled in support of the author’s arguments? What is the authority of the author?



 



 



Week 6, 8, and 9: Forests, Climate Change, and Development



 



Week 6- 3/25: Theory



Fairhead, J., Leach, M., & Scoones, I. (2012). Green Grabbing: a new appropriation of nature? The Journal of Peasant Studies, 39(2), 237–261.



 



Tsing, A. L. 2001. Inside the Economy of Appearances. In Globalization, 155–88. Durhan: Duke University Press.



 



First take-home exam: Due 3/27 5pm



    Answer these two questions:




  1. What are the emerging contradictions from our course materials thus far? (max 500 words).

  2. As a critical writer, enter this conversation at a point of personal interest. Make an argument and provide evidence in support of it (max 1000 words).



 



Week 7- 4/1: USAID Sustainable Forests and Biodiversity Project



Read:



Project documents, project reports, and evaluations: Case study Cambodia



https://www.climatelinks.org/resources/usaid-cambodia-sfb-project-supporting-forests-enriching-lives (2014 webinar, 4min).



2016- Mid-term report



2018- Final Report



 



Milne, S. 2015. ‘Cambodia’s Unofficial Regime of Extraction: Illicit Logging in the Shadow of Transnational Governance and Investment’. Critical Asian Studies. 47 (2):200–228.



 



In-class discussion: Group Work- each group answer one question and present



What is the purpose of this project (Conversation)?



What are the objectives of this project (Argument)?



                        Through which activities will those objectives be met (Authority)?



                        Why do they choose these activities (Evidence)?



In-class exercise:



        http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/court-plans-probe-mondulkiri-logging-claims



        http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/men-charged-case-monkey-poaching



        http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/soldiers-home-hiding-luxury-wood-officials    



 



Week 8- 4/8:  UN-REDD



Read :



Project documents – PDF project evaluation



https://www.unredd.net/about/what-is-redd-plus.html



 



 



Ingalls, M. L., and M. B. Dwyer. 2016. ‘Missing the forest for the trees? Navigating the trade-offs between mitigation and adaptation under REDD’. Climatic Change. online.



 



       



Week 9- 4/15: Midterm Exam (Essay Due 4/17, 5pm)- No Class



Choose one of the following questions and write a maximum of 1500 words in answer




  1. Discuss the economy of appearances and the green grab in relation to UN-REDD and the USAID Sustaining Forests and Biodiversity projects?

  2. Discuss the relationship between elite lifestyles and environmental stress. What are the structural elements that contribute to the link?  



 



Week 10, 11, and 12: Forest Governance



Week 10- 4/22



Theory



Scott, J. C. 1998. Seeing like a state: How certain schemes to improve the human condition have failed. First. New Haven: Yale University Press.



Introduction and Chapter 1



 



Historical Antecedents



Peluso, N. L. 1992. Rich forests, poor people: Resource control and resistance in Java. Berkeley: University of California Press.



Introduction and Part 2



Week 11- 4/29



        Maps, Boundaries, and Appropriate Use



Wood, Denis. Rethinking the power of maps. Guilford Press, 2010.



Chapter 1: Maps Blossom in the Springtime of the State



 



Cooke, F. M. 2003. ‘Maps and Counter-Maps: Globalized Imaginings and Local Realities of Sarawak’s Plantation Agriculture’. Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 34 (May 2001):265–284.



Week 12- 5/6



Laws, Access, and Exclusion



Ribot, J. C., and N. L. Peluso. 2009. ‘A Theory of Access*’. Rural Sociology. 68 (2):153–181.



 



Montefrio, M. J. F., and W. H. Dressler. 2016. ‘The Green Economy and Constructions of the “Idle” and “Unproductive” Uplands in the Philippines’. World Development 79:114–126.



 



Work, C., and A. Beban. 2016. ‘Mapping the Srok: The Mimeses of Land Title in Cambodia’. Sojourn: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia 31 (1):37–80.



 



Week 13 and 14: Forests and People



Week 13- 5/13



Theory: Thinking with Forests and People



 



                Read:



                Kohn, E. 2013. How forests think: Toward an anthropology beyond the human.



                (Intro and Chapter 5)



 



Sanga, G., &Ortalli, G. (2003). Nature Knowledge. New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books. (Selections)



               



                 



Week 14- 5/20



        Forest economies



Read:



Peluso, N. L. 1992. Rich forests, poor people: Resource control and resistance in Java. Berkeley: University of California Press.



Chapter 4: Organized forest violence; Reorganized forest access, 1942-66.



 



Tsing, A. 2012. Unruly Edges: Mushrooms as Companion Species. Environmental Humanities 1:141–154.



 



                In-class video



A Forest of Fortune



                https://vimeo.com/channels/thesourceproject/71439102



               



 



Week 15, 16, and 17: Thinking into the Future



         



Week 15- 5/27: The Anthropocene and the more than human world to come



In-class viewing



What explains the rise of humans?                                                            https://www.ted.com/talks/yuval_noah_harari_what_explains_the_rise_of_humans



 



Read:



Dove, M., P. E. Sajise, and A. A. Doolittle eds. 2011. “The Wild and the Tame in Protected-Areas Management in Peninsular Malaysia”. In, Beyond the Sacred Forest:



Complicating Conservation in Southeast Asia. Chapel Hill: Duke University



Press.



 



Descola, P. 2009. Human natures. Social Anthropology 17 (2):145–157.



 



Latour, B. 2014. Agency at the Time of the Anthropocene. New Literary History 45 (1):1–18.



 



 



Week 16- 6/3: Resourcefulness



Read:



MacKinnon, D., and K. D. Derickson. 2013. From resilience to resourcefulness: A critique of resilience policy and activism. Progress in Human Geography 37 (2):253–270.



 



Lockyer, Joshua, and James R. Veteto. 2013. Environmental anthropology engaging ecotopia: bioregionalism, permaculture, and ecovillages. New York: Berghahn Books.



(Introduction)



 



Review:



http://permaculturenews.org/what-is-permaculture/



https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKX7uaOkWqFBEzplOqzh5h1BJQGOUZP_h



 



 



Week 17- 6/10: Living with Change



      Read:



Scott, James. 2017. Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Early States. New Haven: Yale University Press. Agroecology of the Early State (116-124), and Praising Collapse (209-218).



 



Parker, Ingrid M. 2017. “Remembering our Amnesia, Seeing in our Blindness”. In, Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet. Ed, Tsing, Anna, Heather Swanson, Elaine Gan, and Nils Bubandt. University of Minnesota Press, pp. M155-M167.



 



Sagan, Dorion. 2017. “Beautiful Monsters: Terra in the Cyanocene”. In, Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet. Ed, Tsing, Anna, Heather Swanson, Elaine Gan, and Nils Bubandt. University of Minnesota Press, pp. M169-M174.



 



Week 18- 6/17- No Class



Final Take-home Short Answer Exam: Due June 18 5pm



 



Write 1500-2000 words answering one of the following questions:



Note: you may write on your own question with instructor approval




  1. What contradictions are visible between the objectives of forest governance and the biological elements of forests discussed by Tsing in Unruly Edges and by Gorzelak et al. in Inter-plant communication?

  2. Enter the conversation with Descola, Dove, and Latour. Discuss the argument, critique the evidence, and add your own authorial authority.

  3. How do the possibilities presented by Lockyer et al. and MacKinnon and Derickson challenge, contradict, and/or complement forest governance initiatives? 

  4. Discuss possibilities for changing perceptions using Scott, Against the Grain, Parker, and Sagan.


Teaching Methods
Teaching Assistant
Requirement/Grading

Take-Home Short Answer Exam (3)                     75%



Class Participation                                  25%



Pop Quiz 4 (extra credit for exams)                        (25%)


Textbook & Reference

Castree, Noel. 2013 Making sense of nature. New York and London: Routledge.



DeLoughrey, E., J. Didur, and A. Carrigan. 2015. Global Ecologies and the Environmental Humanities: Postcolonial Approaches. New York and London: Routledge.



Kohn, Eduardo. 2013. How forests think: Toward an anthropology beyond the human. Berkeley: University of California Press.  



Lockyer, Joshua, and James R. Veteto. 2013. Environmental anthropology engaging ecotopia: bioregionalism, permaculture, and ecovillages. New York: Berghahn Books.



Peluso, Nancy Lee. 1992. Rich forests, poor people: Resource control and resistance in Java. Berkeley: University of California Press.



Scott, J. C. 1998. Seeing like a state: How certain schemes to improve the human condition have failed. New Haven: Yale University Press.



[All course readings will be supplied electronically. Excerpts from these excellent texts will be used and students are encouraged to own them]


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