Examples of examination questions:
Peters (2004) explores trends that explain deepening social divisions and competition
around land in Africa.
a) What kind of perspective on the relationship between environment and society is she
employing? Explain why.
b) Provide at least three examples that illustrate this.
Explain three conditions for successful management of the commons, illustrate with a
short example and explain why a critical perspective towards these conditions for
success is important.
What is the difference between ‘conflict resources’ and ‘resource conflict’? Illustrate
with an example of each.
Through genetic modification, individual genes are transferred from one plant or animal
to another, also between species that are not related. There is ongoing controversy
about this form of biotechnology, notably about its use in food production.
• Robbins et al. (2014) introduce dominant ways of thinking about the relationships
between environment and society, each emphasising different
aspects/challenges/concerns of these relationships.
• Identify 3 questions/concerns that might be put forward by supporters and opponents
of the use of genetically modified plants or animals in food production, each
representing a different way of thinking about environment-society relationships.
• For each question, shortly elaborate which way of thinking it represents and why.
College 1:
Introduction + The assumed ‘scarcity’ of natural resources
This session introduces the course and its objectives, as well as some key concepts that
we will discuss extensively in the upcoming sessions. This is followed by discussion of a
common notion when discussing natural resources, their governance and contestation:
namely that of scarcity. While in popular discourse, scarcity is often assumed to be at the
roots of conflict, in the upcoming sessions, we will nuance this assumption, and explore
complementary if not alternative explanations.
Stukje over effect van populatie op schaarste: volgens Malthus: als het aantal mensen
exponentieel groeit terwijl de middelen lineair groeien, hebben we op den duur te
weinig middelen.
Neo-malthusians: Impact = Population*Affluence*Technology
Een alternatieve kijk is dat de groei van de populatie juist zorgt voor meer innovatie.
, Boek H1
Introduction: The view from a human-made wilderness
Het hoofdstuk gaat vooral over wat er in het boek aan bod komt met een klein stukje
over de oostvaardersplassen. Ik zet de belangrijkste begrippen hieronder.
Rewilding: A practice of conservation where ecological functions and evolutionary
processes, which are thought to have existed in past ecosystems or before human
influence, deliberately restored or created; rewilding often requires the reintroduction
or restoration of large predators to ecosystems
Anthropocene: A metaphoric term sometimes applied to our current era, when people
exert enormous influence on environments all around the Earth, but where control of
these environments and their enormously complex ecologies is inevitably elusive
Political Ecology: An approach to environmental issues that unites issues of ecology with
a broadly defined political economy perspective
Reconciliation Ecology: A science of imagining, creating, and sustaining habitats,
productive environments, and biodiversity in places used, traveled, and inhabited by
human beings
Boek H2
Population and scarcity
Dit hoofdstuk gaat over de relatie tussen populatie en schaarste. Phoenix is
tegenwoordig een woestijnstad geworden waar veel mensen rond 1950 naar toe
trokken. Al deze mensen hebben natuurlijk water nodig, ook gebruiken de mensen in
Phoenix veel meer water dan gemiddeld. - To what degree do the explosive numbers of
people in Phoenix represent an environmental crisis? How have affluence and lifestyle
influenced this impact? Is there enough water to allow such a city to survive? Many
explorations of the relationships between environment and society typically start right
here, asking a basic question: Are there simply too many people? Can the world support
us all? If not, can human numbers ever be expected to stop growing? How and when?
Het hoofdstuk begint met de theorie over ‘exponentiële groei van mensen’ met de
Theorie van Malthus. Hij gaf overpopulatie de schuld van het tekort aan middelen. Hij
gaf vooral de armen en vrouwen de schuld.
Dan een stuk over neo-malthusians met deze vergelijking: Impact =
Population*Affluence*Technology. In diezelfde paragraaf een stukje over carrying
capacity (the theoretical limit of population that a system can sustain) en over ecological
footprint.
,Volgende paragraaf gaat tegen Mathus in met ‘population and innovation’. Staat met
name dat meer mensen er voor zorgt dat men creatiever wordt en naar andere opties
gaat kijken.
Dan limits to population: an effect rather than a cause. Staat dat de populatiegroei
tegenwoordig afneemt en gaat over demographic transition model (A model of
population change that predicts a decline in population death rates associated with
modernization, followed by a decline in birth rates resulting from industrialization and
urbanization; this creates a sigmoidal curve where population growth increases rapidly
for a period, then levels off).
In this chapter we have learned that:
Human population growth holds serious implications for sustainability of
environmental systems, especially exponential. Environmental impacts of
individual people and groups can vary enormously, owing to variations in
technology and affluence.
Population growth has often led to increased carrying capacity, owing to induced
intensification and innovation.
Carrying capacity and ecological footprint analysis can be used as indices to think
about impacts of human individuals and populations.
Malthusian thinking has severe limits for predicting and understanding human–
environment relations, since population is an effect of other processes, including
development and the rights and education of women.
College 2:
The Tragedy of the Commons and the role of institutions
What do perspectives on population/scarcity say about conflict & governance around
resources?
Thinking about environmental problems strictly in demographic terms results in doom-
day scenario’s: resource conflict as natural or inevitable outcome of scarcity and
competition
Yet, measures to tackle scarcity/overpopulation may be controversial and violent
themselves:
- population control effects that target the poorest and most marginal populations,
even though the poorest are often not the primary cause of degradation
- targeting the poor and women diverts attention away from systemic causes of
degradation: politica land economic systems, the wealthy
today
1. introduction to the tragedy of the commons
2. crafting sustainable environmental institutions
3. are all commons equal
4. Cls small really beautiful?
The tragedy of the commons - a collective action problem
Prisoner’s dilemma: a theoretical game in which a particular action would benefit all, but
individuals behaving selfishly will create a situation that is not optimal for everyone
, Basic idea of the tragedy of the commons à common good is overused and destroyed
because every user wants to make as much profit as possible
The tragedy of the commons - Garett Hardin
‘’freedom in a commons brings ruin to all’’
dilemma: short term individual interest vs long-time welfare of society
- everyone has access to a commonly held pasture
- no rules about .. sustainable numbers for grazing
- each herder benefits more from adding more animals than they lose from
overgrazing
- the result: the pasture is overgrazed
Hardin’s solutions
people will act in their own interest. There are only two solutions:
- coercion (outside imposition and enforcement of regulations, ‘leviathan’)
- privatization
individuals have incentives to manage property sustainably, they are the only ones hurt
by their actions
Hardin’s theory is widely accepted: as a result, many environmental issues are managed
either through strict regulation or privatization
2 crafting sustainable environmental institutions
Critique of Hardin:
- in practice, most common property is managed through institutions instead of
coercion or privatization (Ostrom)
- Property can be owned communally: common property regimes (ownned
collectively, only the group has access) + open access regimes, (not owned, open
to anyone)
Elinor Ostrom individuals have incentive to participate in collective ownership, if they
have the ability to negotiate the rules:
- rational behaviour
- trust
- reciprocity
Successful commons management includes:
1. clearly defined boundaries
2. proportionality: costs should match benefits
3. rules are made collectively by users
4. monitoring systems are in place
5. sanctions must be in place to punish violators
6. availability of conflict resolution mechanisms
7. the system must have autonomy
Challenges to thinking in terms of institutions
Are all commoners equal?
Uneven power relationships make it possible for some to:
- own property
- make decisions
- negotiate rules or sanctions
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