Course Outline

The course outline is subject to change as we try to accomodate potential guest speakers and other kinds of outside engagement. Changes to due dates are unlikely, but in the event they occur, students will be given ample notice.

Overview

Week	Monday	Wednesday
1	Introductions and Course outline	Pre-class baseline questionnaire
2	Human-environment interactions overview*	Discussion session^
3	Mapping Mason working session	University Sustainability
4	Topic focus: Natural hazards*	Mapping Mason presentations
5	Introduction to complexity and systems-thinking*	Systems-thinking modeling tutorial
6	Governance, politics, and the policy process*	Systems modeling lab
7	Public opinion surrounding environmental politics*	Systems modeling report sharing^
	Break
8	Topic Focus: Environmental inequalities*	Discussion session^
9	Global environmental governance*	Guest lecture
10	Environmental and climate movements*	Discussion session^
11	Technology and human-environment interactions*	Policy memo demonstration
12	Topic Focus: AI in human-environment interactions*	Policy memo working session
13	Human conflicts and the environment	Policy memo working session
14	Policy memo presentations	Policy memo presentations
	* denotes reading question points; ^ denotes discussion participation points

Detailed Weekly Schedule

Week 1

Topic: Introductions, course overview, and expectations
Readings: Watts, D. 2017. “Should social science be more solution-oriented?” Nature Human Behaviour 1: 0015.; Editors. 2020. “Imagine a world without hunger, then make it happen with systems thinking.” Nature 557, 293-294.
Jan 23: Lecture Introductions and Course Overview
Jan 25: In-class Exercise Pre-class Baseline Questionnaire

Week 2

Topic: Humans-environment interactions as socioecological systems
Readings: Scott, J.C. 1996. “State Simplifications: Nature, Space, and People,” in Shapiro, I, Hardin, R. eds., Political Order, pp. 42-85. NYU Press.; Laitin, D.D. 1999. “Review of: Seeing like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed by James C. Scott.” The Journal of Interdisciplinary History 30(1): 177-179.; Folke, C. et al. 2016. “Social-ecological resilience and biosphere-based sustainability science.” Ecology & Society 21(3):41.; Djoudi, H. et al. 2022. “Trees as brokers in social networks: Cascades of rights and benefits from a Cultural Keystone Species.” Ambio 51, 2137-2154.
Jan 30: Lecture Overview of human-environment interactions through a systems lens; Questions 1 Reading questions due
Feb 1: Discussion 1 Human-environment interactions

Week 3

Topic: Topic focus: Living with natural hazards
Readings: Kates, R.W. et al. 2012. “Transformational adaptation when incremental adaptations to climate change are insufficient.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 109(19): 7156-7161.; Tierney, K. 2012. “Disaster Governance: Social, Political, and Economic Dimensions.” 37: 341-363.
Feb 6: In-class Exercise Form groups and find topic for Mapping Mason project; Questions 2 Reading questions due
Feb 8: Lecture Guest lecture from University Sustainability

Week 4

Topic: Mapping Mason presentation week
Feb 13: Lecture Socioecological dimensions of disaster governance; Project 1 Mapping Mason entries due
Feb 15: Presentations Mapping Mason results presentations

Week 5

Topic: Complexity and systems-thinking; Learning how to do systems modeling
Readings: Ostrom, E. 2009. “A General Framework for Analyzing Sustainability of Social-Ecological Systems.” Science 325(5939): 419-422.; Ostrom, E. 2009. Nobel Prize Lecture: Beyond Markets and States: Polycentric Governance of Complex Economic Systems.; Meadows, D. 2009. Thinking in Systems. Earthscan. Introduction and Chapter 1.; Recommended Hofstadter, D.R. 1981. “Prelude… Ant Fugue,” in Hofstadter, D.R., Dennett, D.C. eds. The Mind’s I: Fantasies and Relfections on Self and Soul, Ch. 11, Basic Books.
Feb 20: Lecture Introduction to complexity and systems-thinking; Questions 3 Reading questions due
Feb 22: Lecture Systems-thinking modeling tutorial

Week 6

Topic: Environmental governance, politics, and the policy process
Readings: Dietz, T. et al. 2003. “The struggle to govern the commons.” Science 302(5652): 1907-1912.; Imperial, M.T. et al. 2016. “Sustaining the useful life of network governance: Life cycles and developmental challenges.” Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 14(3): 135-144.
Feb 27: Lecture The environmental policy process; Questions 4 Reading questions due
Mar 1: In-class Exercise Systems modeling lab

Week 7

Topic: Public opinion surrounding environmental politics; Climate skepticism and denial
Readings: Egan, P.J., Mullin, M. 2017. “Climate Change: US Public Opinion.” Annual Review of Political Science 20, 209-227.; Hornsey, M.J., Lewandowsky, S. 2022. “A toolkit for understanding and addressing climate scepticism.” Nature Human Behaviour 6, 1454-1464.
Mar 6: Lecture Public attitudes toward environmental protection and climate mitigation; Questions 5 Reading questions due
Mar 8: Discussion 2 Systems modeling report sharing; Project 2 Systems modeling report due

Week 8

Topic: Topic Focus: Environmental Inequality
Readings: Banzhaf, H.S. et al. 2019. “Environmental Justice: Establishing Causal Relationships.” Annual Review of Resource Economics 11, 377-398.; Gilio-Whitaker, D. 2019. As long as grass grows: The Indigenous fight for environmental justice, from colonization to Standing Rock. Beacon Press. Chapter 1.; Harlan S.L. et al. 2015. “Climate Justice and Inequality,” in Dunlap, R.E., Brulle, R.J. eds., Climate Change and Society: Sociological Perspectives. Oxford University Press. Chapter 5.; Lubben, A. et al. 2022. “Trapped in harm’s way as climate disasters mount.” Center for Public Integrity.
Mar 20: Lecture Public attitudes toward environmental protection and climate mitigation; Questions 6 Reading questions due
Mar 22: Discussion 3 Environmental inequalities: mechanisms and solutions

Week 9

Topic: Global environmental governance through international regimes and transnational networks
Readings: Ostrom, E. 2010. “Polycentric systems for coping with collective action and global environmental change.” Global Environmental Change 20(4): 550-557.; Aklin, M., Mildenberger, M. 2020. “Prisoners of the Wrong Dilemma: Why Distributive Conflict, Not Collective Action, Characterizes the Politics of Climate Change.” Global Environmental Politics 20(4): 4-27.
Mar 27: Lecture International regimes and environmental governance; Questions 7 Reading questions due
Mar 29: Lecture Guest lecture on global environmental politics

Week 10

Topic: History of environmental movements and contemporary climate movements
Readings: McAdam, D. 2017. “Social Movement Theory and the Prospects for Climate Change Activism in the United States.” Annual Review of Political Science 20, 189-208.; Rootes, C. 2007. “Environmental movements,” in Snow, D.A. et al. eds., The Blackwell Companion to Social Movements, pp. 608–640. Blackwell Publishing.; Hadden, J. 2014. “Explaining Variation in Transnational Climate Change Activism: The Role of Inter-Movement Spillover.” Global Environmental Politics 14(2): 7-25.
Apr 3: Lecture Effecting change from below: grassroots social movements; Questions 8 Reading questions due
Apr 5: Discussion 4 Topic TBD

Week 11

Overview: How technological advancements change human-environment interactions; Learning how to produce policy memos
Readings: Tsipiras, K., Grant, W.J. 2022. “What do we mean when we talk about the moral hazard of geoengineering?” Environmental Law Review 24(1) 27-44.; Siders, A.R., Pierce, A.L. 2021. “Deciding how to make climate change adaptation decisions.” Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 52, 1-8.
Apr 10: Lecture The Role of Technology in Human-Environment Interactions; Questions 9 Reading questions due
Apr 12: Lecture Policy memo tutorial

Week 12

Overview: Topic Focus: Artificial intelligence in human-environment interactions
Readings: Introne, J. et al. 2013. “Solving Wicked Social Problems with Socio-computational Systems.” KI - Künstliche Intelligenz 27, 45-52.; Crawford, K. 2021. The Atlas of AI: Power, Politics, and the Planetary Costs of Artificial Intelligence. Yale University Press. Introduction, Chapter 1, and one additional chapter from 2-6.
Apr 17: Lecture The environmental policy process; Questions 10 Reading questions due
Apr 19: In-class Exercise Policy memo working session

Week 13

Topics: Natural resources and human conflict, and the impact of conflict on environmental degradation
Readings: Readings TBD
Apr 24: Lecture Human conflicts and the environment
Apr 26: In-class Exercise Policy memo working session; In-class Exercise Post-class Assessment Questionnaire

Week 14

Overview: Policy memo presentation week
May 1: Presentations Policy memo presentations
May 3: Presentations Policy memo presentations
May 5: Project 3 Policy memos due