Sociology 184 C. Chase-Dunn
Environmental Sociology Spring 2007
This is a reading and lecture course
about big history, human ecology and environmental social movements. The course
focuses on the emergence of complexity and hierarchy in human world-systems in
the context of the biosphere and the geosphere and the ways in which human
societies interaction with the natural environment.
We study sedentary foraging
world-systems and their relations with the environment by focusing on the
indigenous Chumash of Southern California. The dynamics of the rise and fall of
chiefdoms, states, empires, and modern hegemons are compared with each other. Globalization,
deglobalization, global impasse and the future of human society are also considered.
Grading is based on attendance (15%),
the midterm exam (May 11, 30%), the final exam (June 15, 30%) and
a short (maximum 10 page typed, double-spaced) research paper
that describes the structures and environmental aspects of a premodern human
world-system or an environmental social movement organization and its
relationships with other social movements. (due on June 4, 25%). A short 1-page description of your paper topic
is due on April 18. The midterm and
the final will be in-class essay exams. Study questions will be handed out in
class the week prior to the exams.
The following books are available at
the UCR Bookstore and are on reserve:
Jared
Diamond, Collapse (Viking Press 2005)
Jeanne
E. Arnold, Foundations of Chumash
Complexity (Cotsen Institute, UCLA
2004)
John Bellamy Foster, The Vulnerable Planet
(Monthly Review Press 1999)
Bruce Podobnik, Global Energy Shifts. (
Stephen Bunker and Paul Ciccantell, Globalization
and the Race for Resources. (Johns Hopkins 2005)
We will
also read parts of Chase-Dunn and Lerro’s Social
Change. These will be made available on the course web site under Course
Materials. The course web page is at http://iLearn.ucr.edu/
April 2 Introduction
and overview of the course. Start
reading.
April
4 The
Comparative World-Systems Approach
*T.D. Hall and C. Chase-Dunn, “Global social change in the long run”
C. Chase-Dunn and T.D. Hall, Rise and
Demise
Thomas
R. Shannon, An Introduction to the
World-Systems Perspective
April 6 Ecological Degradation and World-Systems
Evolution
*C. Chase-Dunn and Thomas D. Hall “Ecological
degradation and the evolution of world-systems”
(under Course Materials on course
web site)
David Christian, Maps of Time
April
9 Hunter-gatherer
world-systems
*Jeanne
Lowell John Bean, Mukat’s People
C. Chase-Dunn and B.
Lerro, Social Change,, Chapter 5 “World-systems of hunter-gatherers”
April
11 Hunter-gatherer
world-systems
*Jeanne
Douglas
Kennett, The
April
13 Hunter-gatherer
world-systems
*Jeanne
C.
Chase-Dunn and K. Mann, The Wintu and Their
Neighbors http://www.irows.ucr.edu/cd/books/cdbooks.htm
April 16 Hunter-gatherer world-systems,
Chumash and Pacific Northwest Compared
*Jeanne
April 18 (turn in short description
of research paper topic)
The Nasty Bottom and how it is sometimes avoided
*Jared Diamond, Collapse Prologue and Part 1.
April
20 The Nasty Bottom and how it is sometimes avoided
*Jared Diamond, Collapse Part 2: Easter, Pitcairn and
April
23 The Nasty Bottom and how it is sometimes avoided
*Jared Diamond, Collapse Part 2: Anasazi and the Maya
April 25 The Nasty Bottom and how
it is sometimes avoided
*Jared Diamond, Collapse Part 2: Vikings and
April
27 The Nasty Bottom and how it is sometimes avoided
*Jared Diamond, Collapse Part 3:
April 30 The
Nasty Bottom and how it is sometimes avoided
*Jared Diamond, Collapse Part 3:
May 2 The Nasty Bottom and how it is sometimes avoided
*Jared Diamond, Collapse Part 4
May 4 The Metabolic Rift: capitalism and the
environment
* John
Bellamy Foster, The Vulnerable Planet, Chapters 1-2
Jason
Moore, “The Modern World-System as environmental history: ecology and
the rise of capitalism” Theory and Society 2003
May 7 (Midterm Study Questions Handed
Out)
The
Metabolic Rift: capitalism and the environment
* John
Bellamy Foster, The Vulnerable Planet, Chapters 3-5
James
O’Connor, Natural Causes: essays in ecological marxism
May 9 The
Metabolic Rift: capitalism and the environment
* John
Bellamy Foster, The Vulnerable Planet, Chapters 6-Afterword
Allan
Schnaiberg and Kenneth Gould, Environment and Society
May 11
Midterm (in-class
short answer essay exam)
May 14
Raw Materials, Finance Capital and Hegemony
*Stephen Bunker and Paul Ciccantell, Globalization and
the Race for Resources Preface and Chapter 1
William Cronon, Nature’s Metropolis: Chicago and the
Great West
May 16
Raw Materials, Finance Capital and Hegemony
*Stephen Bunker and Paul Ciccantell, Globalization and
the Race for Resources Chapters 2-3.
Andrew Jorgenson and Edward Kick (eds.) Globalization
and the Environment
May 18
Raw Materials, Finance Capital and Hegemony
*Stephen Bunker and Paul Ciccantell, Globalization and
the Race for Resources Chapters 4-5
Alf Hornborg and Carole Crumley (eds.) The
World-System and the Earth System
May 23
Raw Materials, Finance Capital and Hegemony
*Stephen Bunker and Paul Ciccantell, Globalization and
the Race for Resources Chapters 6-7
May 25
The Transformation of Energy Regimes
*Bruce Podobnik, Global Energy Shifts Chapters 1-2
Stephen J. Pyne, Fire: A Brief History
May 28
University
May 31
The Transformation of Energy Regimes
*Bruce Podobnik, Global Energy Shifts Chapters 3-4
June 1
The Transformation of Energy
Regimes
*Bruce Podobnik, Global Energy Shifts Chapters 5-6
June 4
(Research Paper
Due) The Transformation of Energy Regimes
*Bruce Podobnik, Global Energy Shifts Chapter 7
June 6 Environmental
Movements and the World Revolution of 20xx
*Fred
Buttel and Roger Gough “Environmentalism
and the trajectory of the anticorporate globalization movement” (under
Course Materials on the course website)
Carolyn
Merchant, Radical Ecology: the search for a liveable world
June 8
(Final study questions handed out) After Globalization: the future of humanity
*Christopher Chase-Dunn “Social
evolution and the future of world society” Journal of World-Systems Research 11,2: 171-192, 2005.
David Christian, Maps of Time, Chapter 15 “Futures”
June
15 Final Exam 11:30-1:30 in Watkins 1101