Syllabus for Modern Natures: Conflicts and Transformation

Modern natur: konflikter och omvandlingar

A revised version of the syllabus is available.

Syllabus

  • 7.5 credits
  • Course code: 2EH421
  • Education cycle: Second cycle
  • Main field(s) of study and in-depth level: Economic History A1N, Archaeology A1N, Global Environmental History A1N

    Explanation of codes

    The code indicates the education cycle and in-depth level of the course in relation to other courses within the same main field of study according to the requirements for general degrees:

    First cycle

    • G1N: has only upper-secondary level entry requirements
    • G1F: has less than 60 credits in first-cycle course/s as entry requirements
    • G1E: contains specially designed degree project for Higher Education Diploma
    • G2F: has at least 60 credits in first-cycle course/s as entry requirements
    • G2E: has at least 60 credits in first-cycle course/s as entry requirements, contains degree project for Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Science
    • GXX: in-depth level of the course cannot be classified

    Second cycle

    • A1N: has only first-cycle course/s as entry requirements
    • A1F: has second-cycle course/s as entry requirements
    • A1E: contains degree project for Master of Arts/Master of Science (60 credits)
    • A2E: contains degree project for Master of Arts/Master of Science (120 credits)
    • AXX: in-depth level of the course cannot be classified

  • Grading system: Fail (U), Pass (G), Pass with distinction (VG)
  • Established: 2016-10-10
  • Established by:
  • Revised: 2018-05-14
  • Revised by: The Department Board
  • Applies from: Autumn 2020
  • Entry requirements:

    A Bachelor's degree, equivalent to a Swedish Kandidatexamen, from an internationally recognised university. The main field of study must be within the Faculty of Arts, the Faculty of Social Sciences or the Faculty of Science and Technology.

  • Responsible department: Department of Economic History

Learning outcomes

A student who has successfully completed the course will be able to:

  • account for influential debates in environmental history on socio-economic and political conflicts arising from human-nature interaction in the modern era.
  • describe and assess general historical trajectories of human-nature relations from the perspective of colonialism, industrialisation and the development of modern states.
  • critically account for and assess one specific ongoing environmental conflict.

Content

This course introduces the students to global environmental history from the perspective of the dynamic and historically transformative relationship between nature and social forces. The course has as a main focus the modern period to the present (ca. 1700 - today). Three themes of the study of human-nature relations are highlighted: 1. 'Nature as a resource and nature under stress'; 2. 'Governing Nature: Political and technical solutions to societal transformation and social conflict'; 3. 'Nature conservation, policy and politics of nature'. The course has an interdisciplinary perspective, specifically representing research in economic history, agrarian and urban studies, and environmental policy.

Instruction

Instruction consists of lectures and seminars.

Assessment

Assessment includes oral as well as written examination.

If there are special reasons for doing so, an examiner may make an exception from the method of assessment indicated and allow a student to be assessed by another method. An example of special reasons might be a certificate regarding special pedagogical support from the University's disability coordinator.

Other directives

This course overlaps with the course 5HA007 and cannot be used in the same degree.

Syllabus Revisions

Reading list

Reading list

Applies from: Autumn 2020

Some titles may be available electronically through the University library.

  • Acheson, J "Ostrom for Anthropologists"

    Part of:

    International journal of the commons

    vol. 5 (2011) nr. 2 s. 319-339

    Page 319-339

    Find in the library

    Mandatory

  • Allen, Robert C; Keay, Ian Saving the Whales: : Lessons from the Extinction of the Eastern Arctic Bowhead

    Part of:

    The journal of economic history.

    vol. 64 (2004) nr. 2 s. 400-432

    Find in the library

    Mandatory

  • Berge, Erling Protected areas and traditional commons: : values and institutions

    Part of:

    Norsk geografisk tidsskrift : Norwegian journal of geography

    vol. 60 (2006) nr. 1 s. 65-76

    Find in the library

    Mandatory

  • Brain, Stephen The appeal of appearing green : Soviet-American ideological competition and Cold War environmental diplomacy

    Part of:

    Cold War history

    2000-

    vol. 16 (2016) nr. 4 s. 443-462

    page 443-462

    Find in the library

    Mandatory

  • Cleaver, F 'Reinventing institutions : Bricolage and the Social Embeddeness of Natural Resource Management'

    Part of:

    The European journal of development research.

    vol. 14 (2002) nr. 2

    Page 11-30

    Find in the library

    Mandatory

  • Davies, Mike 'The Political Ecology of Famine'

    Part of:

    Late Victorian holocausts : El Niño famines and the making of the third world

    London: Verso, 2001

    Page 277-310

    Find in the library

    Mandatory

  • Strategic Arctic science : national interests in building natural knowledge – interwar era through the Cold War Doel, Ronald E; Friedman, Robert Marc; Lajus, Julia; Sörlin, Sverker; Wråkberg, Urban

    Part of:

    Journal of historical geography.

    vol. 44 (2014) s. 60-80

    Page 60-80

    Find in the library

    Mandatory

  • Edwards, Paul N. A vast machine : computer models, climate data, and the politics of global warming

    Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, c2010

    Page 1-25

    Find in the library

    Mandatory

  • Edwards, Paul N. Global climate science, uncertainty and politics : Data‐laden models, model‐filtered data

    Part of:

    Science as culture.

    London: Taylor & Francis, 2000-

    vol. 8 (1999) nr. 4 s. 437-472

    Find in the library

    Mandatory

  • Fleming, James Rodger Fixing the sky : the checkered history of weather and climate control

    New York: Columbia University Press, c2010.

    Find in the library

    Mandatory

  • Goudie, Andrew The human impact on the natural environment : past, present, and future

    6th ed.: Oxford: Blackwell, 2006

    Chapter 1, introduction', page 7-22

    Find in the library

    Mandatory

  • Guldi, Jo; Armitage, David The history manifesto

    Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014

    Page 1-164

    Find in the library

    Mandatory

  • Johnson, C 'Uncommon ground : The "Poverty of History" in Common Property Discourse'

    Part of:

    Development and change

    vol. 35 (2004) nr. 3 s. 407-433

    Page 407-433

    Find in the library

    Mandatory

  • Kander, Astrid; Malanima, Paolo; Warde, Paul Power to the people : energy in Europe over the last five centuries

    Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press, 2013

    Page 1-386

    Find in the library

    Mandatory

  • Masco, Joseph Bad Weather : On Planetary Crisis

    Part of:

    Social studies of science.

    [London]: SAGE Publications, 1999-

    vol. 40 (2010) nr. 1 s. 7-40

    Find in the library

    Mandatory

  • McNeill, John Robert; Unger, Corinna R. Environmental histories of the Cold War

    Washington, D.C.: German Historical Institute, 2010

    Intro and closing chapters plus one chapter of your choice

    Find in the library

    Mandatory

  • Mosley, Stephen The environment in world history

    Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2010

    Page 1-116. Also available as e-book.

    Find in the library

    Mandatory

  • Radkau, Joachim Nature and power : a global history of the environment

    1. English ed.: Washington, D.C.: German Historical Institute, 2008

    P. 1-112

    Find in the library

    Mandatory

  • Räsänen, Tuomas; Laakkonen, Simo Cold War and the Environment : The Role of Finland in International Environmental Politics in the Baltic Sea Region

    Part of:

    Ambio : a journal of the human environment

    vol. 36 (2007) nr. 2 s. 229-236

    page 229-236

    Find in the library

    Mandatory

  • Scott, James C. Seeing like a state: how certain schemes to improve the human condition have failed

    New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, cop. 1998

    Find in the library

    Mandatory