Welcome to the Global Political Ecology blog 2011

I have decided to circumvent Web learn and create a regular blog for the Global Political Ecology Elective. Everyone in the group can post to the blog and comment on each others posts. If its OK with you guys I will use it to post messages, share insights and will use it for your shared commentaries about the readings. Hopefully you can all easily figure out how to post to the blog. Let me know if you have a problem.

Sorry we are starting the elective meetings a little late this term. I have two excuses shown in the photos below - trip to talk to Dalai Lama and my dog who gets depressed if I leave him for too long!

I am looking forward to meeting you all on Monday November 7th but would like you to do some readings to prepare for the class. You can find most of them on Weblearn and also on my personal web page (will add link later today). I hope you have purchased the Robbins text but just in case I have posted some page proofs of this weeks readings.
First Meeting
My plan for the first meeting (which is from 9-11am on Monday November 7th) is to start with some quick introductions and then give a brief history of political ecology as I see it. We will spend the first hour on basic ideas in Political Ecology. It would be helpful if you could read some of the introductory/background readings prior to class and come with questions about the basics of political ecology. There are no stupid questions! I am especially keen for you to get a quick understanding of some of the jargon and concepts so do ask if you don't get something.
Here is a link to pdfs of most of the core readings for the elective (including textbook chapters for first week - they are pageproofs so not as up to date as the published text)
http://environment.arizona.edu/diana-liverman/GPE

Your top priority should be to read:
Chapter 1 of the Global Political Ecology text (Peet et al)
Neumann, R. P. 2009. Political Ecology. In International Encyclopedia of Human Geography, Oxford: Elsevier.
Optional intro readings include Castree N. 2010. Neoliberalism and the Biophysical Environment. Geography Compass. 4(12), 1725-1746
Liverman, D. 2004. Who governs, at what scale and at what price? Geography, environmental governance, and the commodification of nature. Annals Association of American Geographers 94 (4):734-738
Robbins, P. 2004. Political Ecology, Chapter 1 and Chapter 11
Walker P. 2006. Political Ecology: Where is the Policy? Progress in Human Geography 30(3): 382-395

In the second hour we will shift to discussing the political ecologies of energy, forests and climate. Because there is a lot of reading and it is our first week I would like to assign people to summarize each reading. I have randomly assigned a lead person with the three leftovers asked to be backup for the review readings. Some of the readings are reviews and others are research articles. You should be prepared to talk for no more than 2 minutes about the reading. For the review readings (Bridge, Bumpus, Johnson) tell us 1) the main message(s) of the authors (if you can figure it out) 2) how, if at all, it gives you insight into approaches in political ecology 3) whether you need any clarification of terms or ideas in the article. For the research articles tell us 1) what the research question(s) are that the author is asking 2) how they use political ecology (or other explanations) 3) what methods they used and 4) whether their evidence supports their conclusions. The first name is the primary discussant, the second is the backup. Of course its great if you can all read all the readings but realistically that might be a challenge. There are three research articles on forests and two on climate/hazards. And if you don't get a chance to contribute in class then you can contribute on the blog.

Bridge G. 2011. Chapter 14 in Peet et al. Past Peak Oil: Political Economy of Energy Crises (Wicande, Taylor)
Bumpus A and Liverman D. 2011 Chapter 10 in Peet et al. Carbon colonialism? Offsets, Greenhouse Gas Reductions and Sustainable Development (Fernandez, Roberts) Comfort, LK. 2006. Cities at risk: Hurricane Katrina and the drowning of New Orleans. Urban Affairs Review 41 (4):501. (Canevari)
Geist, HJ, and EF Lambin. 2002. Proximate causes and underlying driving forces of tropical deforestation. Bioscience 52 (2):143-150. (Lee Gammage)
Hecht, Susanna B. 1985. Environment, Development and Politics: Capital Accumulation and the Livestock Sector in Eastern Amazonia”, World Development 13(6): 663-84. (Carleton)
Johnson L. 2011. Chapter 9 in Peet et al. Climate Change and the Risk Industry: The Multiplication of Fear and Value (Wieland. Marburger)
Pelling, M. 1999. The political ecology of flood hazard in urban Guyana.Geoforum 30: 249-261 (Bibby).
Prudham, S. 2003. Taming trees: Capital, science, and nature in Pacific Slope tree improvement. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 93 (3):636-656 (Englemann).

Blog Commentaries (contribute at least 3 over the 4 weeks, submit by Friday at 5pm each week, starting Nov 11th)
Each person should contribute a 500 word commentary each week (1000 if you get really enthusiastic) which reflects on the readings, discussion and your understanding of political ecology. It should mention at least 2 of the readings each week. You should feel free to comment on each others commentaries. Each commentary should have a line with your name and a title for your blog entry,