Course Description:
This course develops an understanding of the dynamic interactions between people and their biogeophysical environments — as mediated through the capitalist political economy and cultural norms, values, and ideologies — with emphases on theorizing, describing, and interpreting the socioecological transformations that made our world of imperial modernity, and assessing present-day issues such as the Green New Deal, agroecology, and regenerative land management practices. By the conclusion of the term, students should be able to analyze anthropogenic global heating, post-carbon energy transition, community resilience, and climate justice through the conceptual frameworks (among others) of Merchant’s autonomous nature, Altvater’s fossil capital, and O’Connor’s second contradiction.