SOCL19060 Human Ecology

This course focuses on the linkages between environment, culture and politics, arguing that environmental problems cannot be adequately addressed unless we are sensitive to such linkages. Using a number of case-studies, we sample the wide variety of different culture-environment relations, past and present. Basic ecological principles are introduced to examine the environmental impacts of different cultures. The various cosmologies associated with these cultures are also discussed: how people in different cultures conceptualise the place and role of humans in the world. Attention then shifts to the political economy of development, underdevelopment and globalisation, and the importance of this form of analysis for understanding contemporary environmental issues. The course applies the insights from these two themes to one of the central environmental concerns facing the world today: population growth and control. We examine the range of different viewpoints surrounding this issue, and what factors need to be taken into account to provide an effective analysis.