I decided to cast the scholarly net wide this semester, with excellent results.
Perhaps this syllabus will be of interest.
SIS 660 Environment and Politics, Fall 2005
Prof. Judith Shapiro
228A Asbury Hall (North Wing). Office hours: Tuesdays before class, 11-1,
Wednesdays after class, 2-4:30, other times by appointment
202 885-1629 (office) or 202 232-8577 (home). [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Welcome to the gateway course for graduate students entering the Global
Environmental Politics program and the Natural Resources and Sustainable
Development program (with UPEACE). The field of global environmental politics
as we understand it in this class is highly multidisciplinary. It is also,
like the environmental movement itself, facing new challenges and undergoing
redefinition. The course is intended to give you an overview of the field,
broadly understood, using the metaphor of interconnected rooms which we will
explore each week. It is assumed that upon entering your Masters program you
already have a solid understanding of the nature of global environmental
problems such as climate change, ozone depletion, biodiversity loss, invasive
species, air and water pollution, hazardous waste disposal, deforestation,
desertification, and so on. This class aims to give you the tools to approach
these challenges from a variety of scholarly disciplines not all of which !
currently communicate well with each other. We explore these perspectives in
the expectation that you will in future be able to go deeper into those which
most resonate for you. By the end of the semester, you should know which
questions each discipline considers important as well as which approaches are
most useful for addressing the issues and cases which interest you. As a
group, we will consider how to break down the walls among these fields of study
as a way of creatively envisioning the future of this important field.
Please note that time constraints force us to omit some fields and disciplines
that have much to contribute to this discussion, among them environmental
security; human geography; literature and the environment (fiction and
nature-writing); business and the environment; environmental archaeology;
ethnobiology and ethnobotany, to name a few.
Course requirements:
The basics: consistent attendance, timely arrival, in-class participation. 15%
of grade.
Each week you should post reactions to the weeks readings on Blackboard,
preferably during the weekend before class to allow discussion to unfold. The
style of this posting can be relatively informal it is a way of giving you a
chance to digest and respond to complex materials. It will also provide us
with a basis for the weeks discussions. You should restate some of the main
points and arguments of the weeks readings before constructing your response.
EVERYONE MUST POST EVERY WEEK, AND YOU MUST HAND IN A PRINTOUT OF WHAT YOU
POST. You get extra credit for posting early, and you are free to post as
often as you like. Comments should be grammatically correct, etc., so if
necessary compose your comment as a word-processing document, run spell-check,
and then cut and paste. 15% of grade.
Each week, two people are responsible for posting definitions of the weeks
field(s) on Blackboard, presenting a short (ten to fifteen minutes total)
in-class commentary on journals in the field, where applicable, and on the
assumptions, core questions, and advantages and/or disadvantages of the fields
approach. If possible, bring relevant materials (e.g. sample journals) with you
to show your classmates. Launch the class discussion by linking the weeks
readings to your discussion of the field as a whole. 10% of grade.
Two short papers. Papers are to be 5-7 pages, 1.5 or 2 spaces, 12-points.
Citations can be any style but must be internally consistent. Bibliography
should be included. ALWAYS find an interesting title and paginate (i.e.:use
page numbers!). 20% of grade for each (40%)
There will be a take-home final which will require you to analyze readings
about a case in light of the course. Date will be determined in consultation
with the class. 20% of grade.
Four books are available for purchase at the bookstore: Cradle to Cradle,
Introduction to Global Environmental Politics, Red Sky at Morning, and Song of
the Dodo. These books are also on hard reserve in the library. All other
readings are on electronic reserve (accessible via a Course Documents folder
on Blackboard) or by weblink, or on Blackboard in another Course Documents
folder.
All students are expected to abide by the academic integrity code (available on
line at my.american.edu). Dont even THINK about plagiarizing. If you have
difficulty meeting a deadline or feel under undue pressure, please consult with
me.
1. Introduction -- Course Overview
TO BE COMPLETED DURING THE SUMMER, BEFORE THE FIRST CLASS:
Gustave Speth, Red Sky at Morning: America and the Crisis of the Global
Environment. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004.
Death of Environmentalism and responses
http://www.grist.org/news/maindish/2005/01/13/doe-intro
http://www.grist.org/news/maindish/2005/01/13/doe-reprint
2. International Environmental Law
David Hunter, Jim Salzman, and Durwood Zaelke International
Environmental Law and Policy, Chapters 5. 6. and 7, pp. 217-370. E-reserves..
www.wcl.american.edu/environment/iel/ (excellent website with lots of
links allow plenty of time to explore this).
Journals:
Environmental Law http://www.lclark.edu/org/envtl/
Georgetown International Environmental Law Review
http://www.law.georgetown.edu/journals/gielr/
Guest speaker: David Hunter
3. Traditional Global Environmental Politics and critiques (A HEAVY WEEK!)
Oran Young, Rights, Rules, and Resources in World Affairs, in Oran R.
Young (ed.), Global Governance: Drawing Insights from the Environmental
Experience. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1997, pp. 1-23. E-reserves..
Garrett Hardin, Tragedy of the Commons and discussion, all available
in Course Documents on Blackboard.
www.iisd.org Browse, and subscribe to the Earth Negotiations Bulletin
(ENB). Note especially the informal paragraph that describes the mood of the
meeting at the end of each bulletin, and try to become familiar with the likely
positions of the various parties to the convention (e.g. Norway, Japan, and
Iceland on whaling and fisheries; developing countries on technology transfer
for climate change; EU vs US on various issues; also note the role of the
NGOs).
Critiques of traditional GEP:
Paul Wapner, Politics beyond the State: Environmental Activism and
World Civic Politics, World Politics 47(3) April 1995, pp. 311-340.
E-reserves..
Matthew Paterson, Understanding Global Environmental Politics: Domination,
Accumulation, Resistance. New York: Palgrave, Macmillan, 200l. Introduction
and Chapters 1, 2, 3, and 7. E-reserves. Book is also for sale in the
BOOKSTORE
Journals:
Environmental Politics http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/09644016.asp
Global Environmental Politics
http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=4&tid=4
4. Environment and Science I Biodiversity
David Quammen, Song of the Dodo BOOKSTORE
Please prepare a list of scientific debates and their policy implications for
posting on Blackboard (e.g. SLOSS debate).
Additional web research: The debate over reauthorization of the
Endangered Species Act (ESA).
5. Environment and Science II Air
Neil Harrison, Political Responses to Changing Uncertainty in Climate
Science, in Neil E. Harrison and Gary C. Bryner (eds.), Science and Politics
in the International Environment, Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2004,
pp. 109-138. E-reserves.
Elizabeth Kolbert, The Climate of Man, Parts I, II, and III, New
Yorker, April 25, May 2, and May 9, 2005. E-reserves.
Jeremy Symons, How Bush and Co. Obscure the Science, Washington Post,
Sunday, July 13, 2003. (in-class handout).
Andrew C. Revkin, Eskimos Seek to Recast Global Warming as a Rights
Issue, The New York Times, December 15, 2004. (in-class handout).
Websites:
About the IPCC: http://www.ipcc.ch/about/about.htm
Activities of the IPCC: http://www.ipcc.ch/activity/act.htm
2001 Synthesis Report, SPM: http://www.ipcc.ch/pub/un/syreng/spm.pdf
International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP)
http://www.ihdp.org/
Consortium for International Earth Science Information (CIESIN)
http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ for GEP
professors discussion on science and environmental politics
Recommended: Peter M. Haas, Epistemic Communities and International
Policy Coordination, International Organization, Vol. 46 No. 1, (Winter 1992),
pp. l -32. Available as PDF in Course Documents on Blackboard.
Guest speaker: Simon Nicholson
INSTRUCTIONS FOR FIRST PAPER HANDED OUT
6. Environment and Development
Ken Conca and Geoffrey D. Dabelko (eds), Green Planet Blues (Third
Edition), Boulder, CO: Westview, 2004, pp. 227-264. E-reserves.
The Johannesburg Memo available on Blackboard under Course
Documents.
Richard Peet and Michael Watts, eds., Liberation Ecologies:
Environment, Development, Social Movements (2nd Ed.), Routledge, 2004, pp.
2-47. E-reserves. [Note: this is difficult reading and is a good example of a
literature review]
Journals:
Journal of Environment and Development
http://irps.ucsd.edu/jed/ or http://jed.sagepub.com
Environment, Development, and Sustainability
http://www.environmental-center.com/magazine/kluwer/envi
Guest speaker: Parakh Hoon?
7. NGOs
Margaret E. Keck and Kathryn Sikkink, Activists Beyond Borders,
Introduction, pp. 1-38. E-reserves.
Environmentalism timelines:
http://www.citnet.org/worldsummit/overview/history/timelines.aspx
http://www.radford.edu/~wkovarik/envhist/
http://www.worldwatch.org/features/timeline
Worldwatch Magazine Nov/Dec 2004 and Jan/Feb 2005, Mac Chapins
Challenge to Conservationists critique of the BINGOs:
http://www.worldwatch.org/pubs/mag/2004/176
AND rebuttals:
http://www.worldwatch.org/pubs/mag/2005/181
Washington Post critique of TNC:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/nation/specials/natureconservancy/
Guest lecturer: Paul Wapner FIRST SHORT PAPER DUE
8. Environmental Economics/Ecological Economics/Consumption
Thomas C. Schelling Some Economics of Global Warming in Robert
Dorfman and Nancy S. Dorfman, eds, Economics of the Environment: Selected
Readings (Third Edition) New York: W.W. Norton, 1993, pp. 464-483.
E-reserves.
Herman Daly, Sustainable Growth: An Impossibility Theorem, in Dryzek
and Schlosberg, eds, Debating the Earth. New York: Oxford University Press,
1998, pp. 285-289. E-reserves.
E.F. Schumacher, Buddhist Economics in Herman Daly and Kenneth N. Townsend,
eds. Valuing the Earth: Economics, Ecology, Ethics. Cambridge: MIT Press,
1993, pp. 173-181. E-reserves.
Thomas Princen, Michael Maniates, and Ken Conca, Confronting
Consumption, in Confronting Consumption. Cambridge, MIT Press, 2002, pp.
1-20. E-reserves.
www.ecofoot.org
Center for a New American Dream www.newdream.org
Blackboard assignment: short (one or two page) personal reflection about your
own consumption patterns and ecological footprint.
Journals:
Ecological Economics
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/503305/description#description
Environmental and Resource Economics
http://www.environmental-center.com/magazine/kluwer/eare/
9. Global Political Economy: Globalization, Trade and the Environment
Peter Dauvergne and Jennifer Clapp, Paths to a Green World: The
Political Economy of the Global Environment. Cambridge, MIT Press, 2004, pp.
1-44. E-reserves.
www.pathstoagreenworld.com, especially the Resources Topics link.
Hilary French, Vanishing Borders: Protecting the Planet in the Age of
Globalization (New York: W.W. Norton, 2000), pp. 3-12 and 48-86 (agriculture
and toxic waste) and 111-126 (trade wars). E-reserves.
David Morris, Free Trade: The Great Destroyer, in Jerry Mander and
Edward Goldsmith, eds, The Case Against the Global Economy and for a Turn to
the Local San Francisco, Sierra Club Books:1996), pp. 218-228 AND Herman E.
Daly, Free Trade: The Perils of Deregulation, in Mander and Goldsmith, pp.
229-238. E-reserves.
Journals/Websites:
Public Citizens Global Trade Watch
http://www.citizen.org/trade/ (see the publications section).
Institute for Policy Studies Campaign on the Global Economy
http://www.ips-dc.org/global_econ/index.htm (publications)
The Cato Institutes Center for Trade Policy Studies
http://www.freetrade.org/
10. Environmental Sociology
Michael Mayerfield Bell, An Introduction to Environmental Sociology.
Thousand Oaks, CA, Pine Forge Press, 1998, pp. 1-32. E-reserves.
Bunyan Bryant, History and Issues of the Environmental Justice
Movement, in Gerald R. Visgilio and Dianan M. Whitelaw, eds., Our Backyard: A
Quest for Environmental Justice. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003, pp. 3-24.
E-reserves.
Joni Adamson, Mei Mei Evans and Rachel Stein, Introduction:
Environmental Justice Politics, Poetics, and Pedagogy, in The Environmental
Justice Reader. Tucson, University of Arizona Press, 2002, pp. 3-14
Andrea Simpson, Who Hears Their Cry? African American Women and the
Right for Environmental Justice in Memphis, Tennessee, in Adamson, Evans and
Stein, pp. 82-104.
Susan Comfort, Struggle in Ogoniland: Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Cultural
Politics of Environmental Justice, in Adamson, Evans, and Stein, pp. 229-246.
E-reserves.
Dieter T. Hessel, The Churchs Eco-justice Journey AND The Earth
Charter, in William E. Gibson, ed., Eco-Justice The Unfinished Journey.
Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2004, pp.257-284. E-reserves.
Journals and a resource:
Society and Natural Resources
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/08941920.asp
Harbinger: A Journal of Social Ecology
http://www.social-ecology.org/harbinger/vol3no1/index.html
[Eco-justice working group of the National Council of Churches]
http://www.toad.net/~cassandra/
11. Political Ecology and Environmental Anthropology
Piers Blaikie and Harold Brookfield Land Degradation and Society.
Oxford: MacMillan, 1987, pp. 1-26 SKIM. E-reserves.
William H. Durham, "Political Ecology and Environmental Destruction in
Latin America," in William H. Durham and Michael Painter, eds., Social Causes
of Environmental Destruction in Latin America, Ann Arbor: University of
Michigan Press, 1995, pp. 249-264. E-reserves.
Ole Bruun and Arne Kalland (eds), Asian Perceptions of Nature: A
critical Approach, Richmond, Surrey: Curzon, 1995, pp. 1-24. E-reserves.
Lynn White, Jr., The Historic Roots of our Ecologic Crisis, (Science,
Vol. 155, No. 3767, Mar 10, 1967, pp. 1203-1207). E-reserves.
Harvard project on religion and the environment
http://environment.harvard.edu/religion/main.html
Journals:
Journal of Political Ecology
http://dizzy.library.arizona.edu/ej/jpe/anthenv/internet.htiml#journals
Worldviews: Environment, Culture, and Religion
http://www.brill.nl/m_catalogue_sub6_id9007.htm
Journal of Ecological Anthropology
http://www.fiu.edu/~jea/
12. Environmental Philosophy
Joseph R. Des Jardins, Environmental Ethics: An Introduction to
Environmental Philosophy. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, pp. 2-34. E-reserves..
Introduction to environmental ethics: www.cep.unt.eud/novice.html
Aldo Leopold, Thinking Like a Mountain and The Land Ethics in A
Sand County Almanac. New York: Oxford University Press, 1949. E-reserves.
Arne Naess: http://www.nancho.net/advisors/anaes.html Interview, and
deep ecology platform.
Journals:
Environmental Ethics http://www.cep.unt.edu/enethics.html
Environmental Values http://www.cep.unt.edu/values.html
Blackboard and hand-in: Please identify your own environmental values and
philosophy by reference to the readings.
SECOND PAPER TOPICS DISTRIBUTED
13. Environmental History (themes: biological exchanges and invasions,
frontiers, forests, water, cities)
John McNeills Environmental History syllabus
http://www.h-net.org/~environ/syllabi/pdf_files//McNeillgrad.pdf
H-environment website: http://www.h-net.org/~environ/
Northwest Current special issue on American University and WWI toxics
(PDF, on Blackboard under Course Documents)
Judith Shapiro, Maos War against Nature, New York: Cambridge
University Press, 2001, frontispiece (poem) and pp. 67-94. E-reserves.
Journals:
Environmental History
http://www.lib.duke.edu/forest/Publications/EH/index.html
Environment and History
http://www.erica.demon.co.uk/EH.html
14. Environmental Engineering and Construction
GUEST SPEAKER?
Cradle to Cradle BOOKSTORE
Renewable energy
Journals:
Environment and Planning (four journals):
http://www.envplan.com/ep_info.html
SECOND PAPER DUE
TAKE-HOME FINAL EXAM, TIMING TO BE DETERMINED IN CLASS
> Ken:
>
> Ah! Kafka, a friend of my early teens when all seemed meaningless: the
> lack of hope in absurdity.
>
> I don't think that a general theory of IEP is a hopeless pursuit: it
> just has not been rigorously pursued. As Marc suggests, it should be
> approached from first principles as that is where the fundamental error
> lies. Currently, the research questions for IEP are primarily generated
> from the worldview of IR/IPE. Thus, one sentence in your missive
> particularly struck my eye when taken together with Marc's comment on
> the Sprouts: "Studying environmental politics has made me sensitive to
> complexity, uncertainty, contingency, authority struggles, the
> importance of soft/socio-cultural as well as formal/legal-rational
> institutions, and the importance of contention and conflict as well as
> cooperation in generating outcomes." This is a good exposition of why
> IEP is not an exact replica of IR (which anyway is defective in its
> fundamental conception of reality) and needs its own paradigm/ general
> theory. I used a similar argument when sketching one possible approach
> in the recent chapter I referenced in an earlier message. As the program
> progresses, I expect that many mid-range theories like that of regimes,
> could easily be stitched into the fabric.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Neil Harrison
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ken Conca [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Sent: Monday, November 28, 2005 9:41 AM
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: RE: Theory in International Environmental Politics
>
>
> Neil has provoked a very interesting discussion. My silence on this was
> driven less by disinterest than by the stage of the (North American)
> calendar, as we enter that desperate time of the semester....Perhaps
> this could be continued in a future panel at the International Studies
> Association or some other forum?
>
> I wonder about the quest for a general theory, eco-political or
> otherwise. On the one hand, the limitations of mainstream IR theory for
> understanding eco-political dynamics have been probed by many scholars.
> (For example, my just-published book, Governing Water, begins with a
> critique of regime theory, essentially arguing that it holds constant
> certain configurations of knowledge, authority, and territoriality that
> are better treated as variables when it comes to thinking about the
> possible or existing institutional forms of environmental governance.)
>
> That said, there is a great deal of insight in regime theory that I
> would not want to simply toss off. The problem is not that it is "wrong"
> but that it offers a particularistic explanation-plus-blueprint for
> international institutional design. I would argue that neither the
> explanation nor the blueprint can be generalized across types of
> ecological problems, types of power and authority relations, or for that
> matter stages of global capitalist development. For an increasingly wide
> swath of socio-ecological controversies, knowledge can't be stabilized
> to the necessary degree for regime formation, putatively 'domestic'
> territory won't sit still for governance, and state-as-authority is
> increasingly problematic as a way to legitimize power. Who knows, there
> might have been a brief post-Cold War window when such stabilizations
> were possible around certain issues, but not now...And if so, we reach
> the limits of regime approach, either as a 'general' theory or as an
> effective political strategy. (As an aside, although I don't wish to put
> words in their mouths, I don't read the best contributions to regime
> theory as having claimed to offer such a general theory).
>
> One could deconstruct other conceptual points of departure (e.g.,
> Hardin's tragedy of the commons, global civil society, political economy
> approaches) in analogous fashion. Studying environmental politics has
> made me sensitive to complexity, uncertainty, contingency, authority
> struggles, the importance of soft/socio-cultural as well as
> formal/legal-rational institutions, and the importance of contention and
> conflict as well as cooperation in generating outcomes. Under those
> circumstances, it seems much easier to specify what isn't going to
> happen than of what will, of what's not attainable rather than of what
> is. In my view there is a great deal of very creative work being done
> in/on global environmental politics. But can it be stitched together
> into general theory? Toward the end of his life, Kafka was reportedly
> asked in an interview why his work seemed to suggest hopelessness.
> "Certainly there is hope," he is said to have replied. "But not for
> us."
>
> Ken Conca
>
>
> >>> "Neil E Harrison" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 11/28/2005 10:06:14 AM >>>
> Michael:
>
> When I was in your position several years ago, trying to build a
> theoretical framework for my doctoral research on international
> climate
> change policy, I used ideas from several domestic and international
> policy theories. In the domestic realm, for example, I used Kingdon (I
> liked the sense of serendipity embedded in his windows of opportunity)
> and in the international I used aspects of then current theory
> including
> ideas on regimes. After all, IEP is usually thought of in terms of the
> regimes that are created. I no longer think that this approach is
> useful. A more general theory (or perhaps paradigm) of global
> international politics would better integrate and connect the islands
> of
> information created through past research and generate more
> interesting
> research questions for future research.
>
> More recently, I have found a way of thinking about environmental
> politics that I believe, when fully developed, will generate a
> defendable (and testable) general theory of both domestic and
> international politics on environmental matters, which is ultimately
> what is needed. Despite the good work of Young especially, I think
> that
> deficiencies in the fundamental premises of current IR theory make it
> an
> unlikely source useful ideas about international environmental
> politics.
> Ecological theory suitably modified, however, is, in my mind, an
> essential part of a useful general theory of IEP.
>
> Good luck with the paper and with your studies.
>
> Thank you for your support,
>
> Neil
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Schoon, Michael L [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Sent: Sunday, November 27, 2005 5:40 PM
> To: Neil E Harrison
> Subject: RE: Theory in International Environmental Politics
>
>
>
> Neil,
>
>
>
> My name is Michael Schoon, a soon-to-be doctoral candidate studying
> under Elinor Ostrom at Indiana University. I am in a jointly
> administered Ph.D. program split between IU's School of Public and
> Environmental Affairs and the School of Political Science. My foci in
> the programs are environmental policy and IR, respectively.
>
>
>
> I have been struggling with the issues that you mention below and
> agree
> with you that there is currently a disconnect between IR and IEP, but
> I'm not sure that the fault lies with IEP. International relations
> seems to be excessively focused on conflict, both as a field of study
> and a method of discourse between scholars. But I am encouraged by
> the
> work of people like Oran Young and others who are beginning to bridge
> the gap between IR and IEP.
>
>
>
> With regards to the dearth of general theories for the IEP field, I
> agree and have taken the approach of drawing on either more specific
> theories (regime theory as appropriate) or more general political
> science theory (Lasswell's policy sciences for instance) or ecological
> theory (resilience, vulnerability, and adaptation).
>
>
>
> While this might not provide much in the way of suggestions going
> forward, I'm sure that it is one of many responses noting that you are
> far from alone. I am working with a couple other list members on a
> paper regarding the challenges of trying to apply IR theory to
> international environmental issues. If you'd like, I'll let you know
> how they turn out.
>
>
>
> Best regards,
>
>
>
> Michael Schoon
>
>
>
> Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis
>
> Indiana University
>
> 513 N. Park St.
>
> Bloomington, IN 47405
>
> USA
>
>
>
> (812) 855-0441 (w)
>
> (812) 345-6965 (m)
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Neil E
> Harrison
> Sent: Sunday, November 27, 2005 3:23 PM
> To: Maria Ivanova
> Cc: Geped list (E-mail)
> Subject: RE: Theory in International Environmental Politics
>
>
>
> Maria:
>
>
>
> The paucity of responses to my request for sources of work on a
> general
>
> theory in international environmental politics, to my mind speaks
>
> volumes about the immaturity and incoherence of the (sub-)field. I
>
> received two responses in addition to yours, one from Kate O'Neill and
>
> one from Pan Chasek (Pam did not yet answer the question in my
> response
>
> to her), both of which I think went to the whole list. For those who
> may
>
> have missed them, I summarize their suggestions here.
>
>
>
> Kate O'Neill is working on a manuscript on this topic and suggested
>
> three principal sources of discussion on this theory in IEP:
>
>
>
> Vogler, J. and M. F. Imber, Eds. (1996). The Environment and
>
> International Relations. London, Routledge.
>
>
>
> Redclift, M. and T. Benton, Eds. (1994). Social Theory and the Global
>
> Environment. London, Routledge.
>
>
>
> Paterson, M. (2001). Understanding Global Environmental Politics:
>
> Domination, Accumulation, Resistance. Basingstoke, Palgrave.
>
>
>
> Pam suggested the 4th edition of "Global Environmental Politics" and
>
> Regina S. Axelrod, David L. Downie and Norman J. Vig, "The Global
>
> Environment: Institutions, Law and Policy," 2nd Ed.
>
>
>
> You have suggested "Paths to a Green World" by Dauvergne and Clapp.
>
>
>
> Many other texts may have something to contribute like Eric Laferriere
>
> and Peter Stoett, "International Relations Theory and Ecological
>
> Thought: Towards a Synthesis" and even Ronnie Lipschutz "Global
>
> Environmental Politics: Power, Perspectives, and Practice" but I see a
>
> huge need for some theory building to guide the where and how we dig
> for
>
> knowledge on international environmental politics. I have a chapter in
>
> Eric Laferriere and Peter Stoett (eds), "Nature and International
>
> Relations: Theory and Applications" (forthcoming from UBC Press) that
>
> sketches one way to approach a general theory of IEP and other
> chapters
>
> talk to the matter.
>
>
>
> With respect to your comment that you have to go to the IR literature
> to
>
> deduce theories of success or failure in international environmental
>
> politics, I think that you cannot get there from here. In my view,
>
> orthodox IR theories are generally inapplicable to the subject matter
> of
>
> IEP. I and several colleagues argue in "Complexity in World Politics"
>
> (in press at SUNY) that common IR theories are inappropriate to the
>
> study of world politics.
>
>
>
> Thanks for your interest. It seems to me that there is a need for a
>
> collective effort among the small number of us who may be interested
> in
>
> developing a general theory (from ontology to method) of IEP,
>
>
>
> Cheers,
>
>
>
>
>
> Neil
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
>
> From: Maria Ivanova [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> Sent: Sunday, November 27, 2005 7:54 AM
>
> To: Neil E Harrison
>
> Subject: RE: Theory in International Environmental Politics
>
>
>
>
>
> Dear Neil,
>
>
>
> I wanted to follow up on your earlier email and suggest Paths to a
> Green
>
> World by Dauvergne and Clapp. It concentrates more on the political
>
> economic
>
> aspect - trade and environment, investment and environment, etc - but
>
> could
>
> be a good tool. Pam Chasek's book also covers some theoretical ground
>
> and I
>
> would be intersted in knowing how she replied to your question
> regarding
>
> the
>
> existence of a coherent theory statement.
>
>
>
> I am myself working on identifying the key theories explaining success
>
> and
>
> failure in global environmental governance but with little success.
>
> Mostly,
>
> I have to deduce from the IR literature. If you have any suggestions,
> I
>
> would greatly appreciate it.
>
>
>
> Thank you very much,
>
> maria
>
>
>
> Maria Ivanova
>
> Department of Government
>
> The College of William & Mary
>
> Williamsburg, VA 23187
>
> Phone: +1-757-221-2039
>
> Mobile: +1-203-606-4640
>
> Fax: +1-775-908-9340
>
> Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> http://www.wm.edu/government
>
>
>
> Director, Global Environmental Governance Project
>
> Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy
>
> New Haven, CT 06511
>
> http://www.yale.edu/gegproject
>
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
>
>
>
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Neil E
>
> Harrison
>
> Sent: Sunday, November 06, 2005 12:34 PM
>
> To: Pam Chasek
>
> Cc: Geped list (E-mail)
>
> Subject: RE: Theory in International Environmental Politics
>
>
>
>
>
> Pam:
>
>
>
> Thanks for your input; you are the first.
>
>
>
> When you say that the 4th edition "tries to cover this more than the
>
> earlier
>
> editions" are you suggesting that there are no explicit coherent
>
> statements
>
> of theory to report or synthesize or that you and your colleagues did
>
> not
>
> have the space to do this (I have not yet seen this forthcoming book)?
>
>
>
>
> Cheers,
>
>
>
> Neil
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
>
> From: Pam Chasek [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> Sent: Sunday, November 06, 2005 8:32 AM
>
> To: Neil E Harrison
>
> Subject: RE: Theory in International Environmental Politics
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Dear Neil:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Did anyone ever respond to your e-mail? The 4th edition of
>
> Global
>
> Environmental Politics (forthcoming from Westview Press in December)
>
> tries
>
> to cover this more than the earlier editions did. I also think that
>
> David
>
> Downie has covered some of this in Regina S. Axelrod, David L. Downie
>
> and
>
> Norman J. Vig, The Global Environment: Institutions, Law and Policy,
> 2nd
>
> Ed.
>
> (Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Press, 2004)
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Pam
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ******************************
>
> Pamela Chasek, Ph.D.
>
> Director, International Studies
>
> Assistant Professor, Government
>
> Manhattan College
>
> Riverdale, NY 10471 USA
>
> tel: +1-718-862-7248
>
> e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> ******************************
>
>
>
> ________________________________
>
>
>
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Neil E
>
> Harrison
>
> Sent: Thursday, November 03, 2005 12:50 PM
>
> To: Geped list (E-mail)
>
> Subject: Theory in International Environmental Politics
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Gepeders:
>
>
>
> The recent discussion of bibliographic entries for an
>
> Encyclopedia
>
> of Green Movements made me think about the ideas that drive gathering
> of
>
> empirical data. I usually have taught the International Environmental
>
> Politics class inductively, from case studies with encouragement to
> the
>
> students to think theoretically in drawing generalized conclusions
> from
>
> multiple cases. This latter part of the process is entertaining but
> not
>
> always very fruitful even with my prompting. Perhaps they need some
>
> examples
>
> of 'meta-theory' in the issue area to chew on much as students in a
>
> security
>
> course would be fed realism. Do you have any suggestions for a good
>
> statement or survey of directly relevant meta-theory for students of
>
> international environmental politics to digest?
>
>
>
> Cheers,
>
>
>
> Neil Harrison
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>