Type of Credit: Elective
Credit(s)
Number of Students
The Cultural Ecology of Forests: Green Development, Conservation, and Climate Change
Course Description
What exactly is a forest and from whose perspective is a forest defined? How are forests used, by whom, and with what effects? To answer these questions, we will examine forests in multiple registers and from the perspective of many different users, including the forest itself. We will think about the history of forest management and the ways that development, conservation, and climate change interact with forest resources and communities that live in and around forests. The objective of the course is to introduce the historical trajectory of forest use and management from the colonial era to the present. Also to teach students how to think critically about different resource-use practices, social systems, and technologies. Through the examination of stories, documents, and policies, we will discuss the many possible ways to use forest resources and the effects of those different strategies. Through this examination, we will come to understand the beliefs, values, and structures that underlie different practices and how these shift over time and across groups. To explore this dynamic and transformative interaction, we excavate the concepts above, attending to their structures, interchanges, and contradictions. Through primary source materials, ethnographic and historical studies, and theories that attend to the world-making power of culture, this course will provide more questions than answers. The objective is to trace how people not only use resources and develop policies toward that end, but also to make visible the boundaries and divisions that these various projects ignite. Our collective challenge will be to look through these boundaries to find transformative pathways.
Prerequisite: Introduction to Anthropology
能力項目說明
Learning Objectives
Understand the dynamics between policy and practice
Understand classic and emerging trends in sustainable development practice
Understand forest ecologies and contemporary ethnographic theories related to them
Goals
Students will be prepared to engage with living ecological processes that include institutional actors, activities of daily human lives, and activities of living environments.
Students will have a broad knowledge of policy processes with regard to forest conservation and development.
| 教學週次Course Week | 彈性補充教學週次Flexible Supplemental Instruction Week | 彈性補充教學類別Flexible Supplemental Instruction Type |
|---|---|---|
Course Schedule
Week 1- 2/20
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: 2/27 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: 3/5 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.
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: Climate Change Facts and Cultures
Week 4- 3/12 - Self Directed Learning
At-home viewing The Great Climate Swindle
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.
Week 5 & 6: Economics
Week 5: 3/19
Read:
Dasgupta, P. (2021). The Economics of Biodiversity: The Dasgupta review. In Biological Wealth and Other Essays. HM Treasury. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/final-report-the-economics-of-biodiversity-the-dasgupta-review
Additional Readings:
Koch, M. (2020). Structure, action and change: a Bourdieusian perspective on
the preconditions for a degrowth transition. Sustainability: Science, Practice, and Policy. 16(1): 4–14.
In-class discussion:
What conversation is Dasgupta entering? What conversation is he ignoring?
Hint: Eben Kirskey
Week 6: 3/26
Read:
Economics
Daly, H. E. (2007). Ecological Economics and Sustainable Development:
Selected Essays of Herman Daly. In Advances in Ecological Economics. Edward Elgar Publishing. Read Part 1
Additional Readings:
Nixon, R. 2021. The Less Selfish Gene: Forest Altruism, Neoliberalism, and the Tree of Life.” Environmental Humanities. 13(2):348-71.
First take-home exam: Due 4/2
Answer these two questions:
Week 7, 8, and 9: Forests, Climate Change, and Development
Week 7- 4/2: 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.
Additional Readings:
Paprocki, K. 2022. Anticipatory Ruination. Journal of Peasant Studies. 49(7):1399-1408.
Week 8- 4/9: USAID Greening Prey Lang project (GPL)
Read:
Greening Prey Lang 2023- Final Report
Project documents, project reports, and evaluations: Case study Cambodia
Work, C., Theilade, I., & Thuon, T. (2023). Under the Canopy of Development Aid: Illegal Logging and the Shadow State. Journal of Peasant Studies, 50(17), 2660–2591.
https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/forest-activists-allege-logging-scheme-prey-lang
Watch:
https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2022.2103794
https://www.facebook.com/USAIDGPL/videos/536175107077784/ (2020 promo video)
https://www.facebook.com/USAIDGPL/videos/589244698813387/ (2022 GPL video about resin trees).
In-class discussion: Group Work- each group answer one question and present
What is the purpose of the GPL 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)?
What is the ACE-FA for the Work et al 2023 paper?
Week 9- 4/16: UN-REDD
Read :
https://www.un-redd.org/about/programme
Lang, C. (2016). Konflikte um Rohstoffe in Asien REDDheads: The people behind REDD and the climate scam in Southeast Asia.
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 10- 4/23: Midterm Exam
Choose one of the following questions and write a maximum of 800 words in answer
Week 11, 12, and 13: Forest Governance
Week 11- 4/30
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 Ethnography
McElwee, P. 2016. Forests are Gold: Trees, People, and Environmental Rule. University of Washington Press. Introduction, Chapter 1.
Week 12- 5/7
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
In-class viewing:
The History of the World
Inuit and Pacific Island maps
Week 13- 5/14
Laws, Access, and Exclusion
Ribot, J. C., and N. L. Peluso. 2009. ‘A Theory of Access*’. Rural Sociology. 68 (2):153–181.
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 14 and 15: Forests and People
Week 14- 5/21
Theory: Thinking with Forests and People
Read:
Kohn, E. 2013. How forests think: Toward an anthropology beyond the human.
(Intro and Chapter 5)
Additional Reading:
Bird-David, N. 1990. The Giving Environment: Another Perspective on the Economic System of Gatherer-Hunters. Current Anthropology. 31(2): 189-196.
Week 15- 5/28
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.
Additional Reading:
Dove, M.R. 2015. Linnaeus’ Study of Swedish Swidden Cultivation: Pioneering Ethnographic work on the “economy of nature.” Ambio. 44(3):239-248.
Week 16 and 17: Thinking into the Future
Week 16- 6/4: Resourcefulness
Read:
Lockyer, Joshua, and James R. Veteto. 2013. Environmental anthropology engaging ecotopia: bioregionalism, permaculture, and ecovillages. New York: Berghahn Books.
(Introduction)
Additional Reading:
Ingold, T. 2003. Two Reflections on Ecological Knowledge. In, Sanga, G., &Ortalli, G. eds, Nature Knowledge: Ethnoscience, Cognition and Utility. New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books.
Review:
http://permaculturenews.org/what-is-permaculture/
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKX7uaOkWqFBEzplOqzh5h1BJQGOUZP_h
Week 17- 6/11: 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:
Tsing, A.L., Mathews, A.S. & Bubandt, N. 2019. Patchy Anthropocene: Landscape Structure, multispecies history, and the retooling of anthropology: An introduction to supplement 20. Current Anthropology, 60(S20), S186-S197.
Latour, B. 2014. Agency at the Time of the Anthropocene. New Literary History 45 (1):1–18.
Additional Reading:
Parker, I. 2017. Remembering our Amnesia, Seeing in our Blindness. In, Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet. Eds, Tsing, A., Heather Swanson, Elaine Gan, and Nils Bubandt. University of Minnesota Press. PP. M155-M167.
Sagan, D. 2017. Beautiful Monsters: Terra in the Cyanocene. In Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet. Eds, Tsing, A., Heather Swanson, Elaine Gan, and Nils Bubandt. University of Minnesota Press. PP. M169-M174.
Week 18- 6/18: Final Take-home Short Answer Exam: Due June 20 5pm
Write 1500-2000 words answering one of the following questions:
Note: you may write on your own question with instructor approval
Course Requirements
Take-Home Short Answer Exam (3) 75%
Class Participation 25%
Pop Quiz 4 (extra credit for exams) (25%)
Policy on Absence and Lateness:
Students are expected to attend all classes and to arrive on time. If a class is missed, the student is responsible for making up missed work, for turning in assignments on time, and for getting class lecture notes from other classmates.
Late Work:
Late work will be accepted and not penalized only with prior approval. Requests for extensions must be made at least 24 hours in advance of the due date. No exceptions. For all other work handed in more than 15 minutes after the beginning of class, the grade will be lowered by one third for each late day.
Academic Integrity
All students are expected to write their own papers. Please read and be aware of issues concerning plagiarism.
Students with Disabilities
Appropriate academic accommodations may be required for any students with disabilities. Please bring these to my attention.
University Policies
I respect and uphold university policies regarding the observation of religious holidays, accommodating physical handicaps and visually/hearing impaired students, and thwarting all acts of plagiarism, harassment, and discrimination.
Castree, Noel. 2013 Making sense of nature. 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.
McElwee, P. (2016). Forests are Gold: Trees, People, and Environmental Rule. University of Washington 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]