Society and environment

Teacher(s)

Zitouni Benedikte;

Language

Dutch

Prerequisites

The prerequisite(s) for this Teaching Unit (Unité d’enseignement – UE) for the programmes/courses that offer this Teaching Unit are specified at the end of this sheet.

Learning outcomes

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :

The course aims at getting a better understanding of today's environmental problems and their socio-political implications. For the environment involves societal stakes and political claims that are arresting and even difficult to grasp, let stand to resolve. That's why the course explores the classics, texts, theories and research that helped to disclose the foremost political nature of the environmental question.

Content

During the course, we’ll gain a better understanding of the impact environmental matters have had on society’s political choices. Natural-cultural entanglements take us well beyond managerial questions and open the way to Political Ecology.

In terms of cases, authors and theories, the course will explore some of the founding texts of the environmental movement and of the so-called « political » ecology as it appears in the 1960-‘70s (see bibliography below).

Teaching methods

Lectures and discussion in class.
Compulsory reading of articles.

Evaluation methods

Open-book oral exam.

Other information

Face-to-face reading seminar, in 13 sessions.

Bibliography

Nous approfondirons la lecture des six livres suivants (extraits et copies seront mis à disposition) :
Rachel CARSON, Dode lente, Amsterdam: Becht, 1963 (traduction de Silent Spring paru en 1962).

Dennis MEADOWS & Donella MEADOWS & Jørgen RANDERS & Williams BEHRENS, Rapport van de Club van Rome: de grenzen aan de groei, Utrecht & Antwerpen: Spectrum, 1972 (traduction de The limits to growth : a report for the Club of Rome's project on the predicament of mankind, paru en 1972)

Barry Commoner, Overleven we dit? Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1972 (traduction de The Closing Circle, paru en 1972).

Ivan ILLICH, Naar een nieuwe levensstijl: voorwaarden voor gelukkiger samen-leven, Baarn: Wereldvenster, 1973 (traduction de Tools of Conviviality paru en 1973).

André GORZ, Ecologie en vrijheid: politieke opstellen over milieu, energie en economische groei, Amsterdam : Van Gennep, 1977 (traduction de Ecologie et liberté paru in 1977)

Faculty or entity

ESPB