SOCWORLD 51: Politics of Nature

Ajantha Subramanian

Office hours: Wednesdays 2:00-4:00 pm
Tozzer 210
subram@fas.harvard.edu

TF: Dilan Yildirim

dyildir@fas.harvard.edu

Meeting time and location
Tuesdays & Thursdays, 1:00-2:30 pm
Tozzer 203
21 Divinity Ave

Why do so many societies have no word for “nature”? How do conservation projects travel and why are they so often opposed in Asia, Africa, and Latin America? What does it mean to “think globally, act locally” and why do so many now argue that we need to instead “think locally, act globally”? What is environmental justice and what was its challenge to “nature-centered” conservation?

In this course, we will examine nature in its many manifestations -- as a source of life and livelihood, as a resource for exploitation, as a heritage to be protected, and as a post-industrial hybrid -- in order to understand the wide variety of meanings and practices that comprise human-nature dynamics. Through a focus on property relations, imperialism, development, conservation, and science, we will consider the intimate connection between social inequality and ecological change, and the possibilities for a future of greater equality and sustainability.

The course material will range broadly from philosophical essays on human-nature relations to historical, anthropological, and geographical work on environmental and social change in various contexts, to films, journalistic essays and political manifestos by environmental social movements and organizations. Some of the political trends addressed include colonialism and environmental change, conservation, indigenous rights, environmental justice, and climate change.

 SW51-Fall 2017.docx