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Social
Change and Natural Resources
Course Description: This
three hour course is designed to integrate social and biological
science for the purposes of solving natural resource problems.
It includes the following theoretical and/or analytical perspectives:
- culture,
- political economy,
- diffusion adoption,
- deep ecology and ecofeminism,
- resource mobilization,
- action and participatory research,
- small group and organizational
behavior.
Case studies of natural resource
exploitation in the U.S. and Third World, video tapes, movies,
simulation, role plays, lectures and group discussion may be
used to show the relationship between theory and praxis.
Expectations:
Attend lectures and participate actively in class discussion.
Complete all reading assignments prior to class discussion.
Students will be divided into small groups, each of which will
write a case study of a problem having social and environmental
significance. Students are to use three theoretical or analytical
models presented in the course in their analysis of their case
study. An oral presentation of the case study will be made to
the class near the end of the semester. The case study will
also be written as paper and submitted for a grade.
There will be a midterm exam
and a final. This course will be taught in the Dana Building,
School of Natural Resources and Environment.
Small
Group, Organization, and Advocacy Planning (SNRE 495)
Course Description:This
course meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays for two hours each time.
Topics in the course include the dimensions essential for group
growth, force field analysis, consensus decision making, negotiations,
small group facilitation, media strategies, organizational change
and development, community organizing, bases of power, and conflict.
Other topics include proposal writing, and direct mail campaigns.
The course will use lectures, simulations, role plays, group
discussion, video tapes, and movies, organized around natural
resource content. Students will be organized into affinity groups
to accomplish two goals:
- each affinity group will be responsible
for teaching a group skill to the class, and
- each affinity group will
be responsible for researching and writing an environmental
and social justice profile on a major corporation, which is
to be reported on in class near the end of the semester.
As a part of the teaching and
learning process, students are required to keep weekly logs
on assigned readings, classroom discussion, corporate research,
and their interactions within their affinity groups. Each student
will be individually interviewed at least once by the T.A. regarding
affinity group projects.
Research
for Environmental Justice (SNRE 594)
Course Description:This
course is taught by Dr. Elaine Hockman, statistician, and Coordinator
of the Research Support Laboratory and Computing and Information
Technology Center at Wayne State University, Alissa Friedman-Torres,
graduate student in Sociology, and Bunyan Bryant, faculty member
in the School of Natural Resources and Environment. The course
content is based upon several data bases obtained from the State
departments of Natural Resources, Public Health, and Education.
From the state we obtained Toxic Release Inventory, Leaky Underground
Storage Tanks, Act 307 including Superfund, and Low-Birth Weight
data bases. These data bases have been merged and made ready
for statistical analysis. The course, taught in the School of
Natural Resources, is organized into three basic sections:
- Data Description, and Data
Access: In this section of the course students will learn
about how the data were obtained, merged, made ready for analysis
and data access through SPSS.
- Seminar: This section of
the course will require students to read and report on assigned
readings, followed by discussion. Students will be assigned
different articles to read and therefore it is important that
they attend class in order to make concise and organized reports.
- Conference Organizing: This
section of the class will be used to organize a one-day conference,
inviting community activists and policymakers, where students
will present their papers.
In the past non-students have
been asked to share in the planning and presenting information
at the conference. Student papers are to be co-authored with
faculty to be submitted to a peer-review journal or to be included
in a chapter in a book that is presently being organized.
Race,
Poverty, Environmental Justice and the International Connection
Course Description:This
is a lecture course. Powerpoint and Adobe Photoshop Software
programs have been used to project text, pictures, and graphics
on a large screen. Information in the course includes:
- the definition of environmental
racism, environmental equity, environmental justice, and environmental
advocacy,
- key research issues in the
field of environmental justice which includes, race vs. income,
intent vs. nonintent, small vs. large unit of analysis, pollution
prevention vs. pollution control, cause and effect vs. association,
- understanding energy and
its relation environmental justice,
- the social structure of accumulation
vs. the social structure of sustainability,
- comparing the issues of environmental
justice within the U.S. and within developing countries,
- comparing the Basel Treaty
with the Organization of African Unity's ban on the transport
of toxic waste internationally, and the First National Environmental
Leadership Summit's Seventeen Principles of Environmental
Justice. Both domestic and international case studies will
be used in the course to enhance teaching and learning.
Students will be required to
take midsemester and final examinations and develop case studies.
Social
Change, Energy, and Land Ethics (SNRE 494)
Course Description:This
graduate seminar approach, developed by the Movement for a New
Society in Philadelphia, concentrates on self-generating learning,
sharing of readings and ideas, and discussion strategies for
social change. The assumption is that in order to effectively
design strategies for change, we must have both a global and
micro understanding of forces and events throughout the world.
Students are required to work in pairs to develop one seminar
on a pre-determined topic and one laboratory experience on the
same topic for seminar participants. Each student will read
a different set of readings. Seminar topics may include racism;
classism; patriarchy and sexism; fossil fuels, such as coal
and oil; nuclear power; food, including farming, and landuse
issues; solar energy; and energy conservation. While the seminar
is focused on the reporting of readings and discussion, facilitated
by the organizers, the laboratory experiences take on a variety
of forms such as movies, simulations, role plays, and/or formal
speakers. The faculty will provide readings for the seminar
for the first three weeks, allowing time for students to organize
their seminars and laboratory experiences. Organizers are required
to hand out their readings one week in advance of their seminar.
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