डॉ. बी. आर. अम्बेडकर विश्‍वविद्यालय दिल्ली
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar University Delhi
Established by The Government of NCT of Delhi

Semester and Year Offered: Semester 2

Course Coordinator and Team: Dr Imran Amin

Email of course coordinator: imran[at]aud[dot]ac[dot]in

Pre-requisites:

Course Objectives/Description:

This course aims to provide a critical theoretical and practical understanding of the socio-economic and politico-cultural aspects of contemporary environmental changes and its implication for ‘Development’. It hopes to acquaint the students with a comprehensive understanding humans’ historical struggle to co-exist with the natural environment and the linkages it has with their livelihoods and material well being. In this pursuit, it touches upon the multi-disciplinary insights on subject matters of population, poverty, resource scarcity, economic growth and its limits and sustainability, natural and environmental risks and hazards, local governance, equity and social justice.

Course Outcomes:

On successful completion of this course students will be able to:

Borrowing from disciplines of history, politics, economic, geography, sociology, ecology and their various sub-disciplines, the course aims to develop critical faculties of the students to deconstruct and reconstruct the multitude of contemporary environmental concerns. In this endeavour, course hopes to facilitate students in making sense of environmental reality at multiple levels in the globalised world. It looks at some of the major theoretical and policy debates on environmental problems and conflicts, their possible redressal and the best possible institutional mechanism to do so. It will introduce students to mainstream as well as heterodox approaches to the subject, and will try to do this through course material that is not just theoretical but also historical and methodologically robust and diverse. The attempt will be to problematise assumptions behind dichotomies like man and society and myth and science; co-relations like poor population and environmental degradation, and claims like ‘sustainable’ Development. By the end of the course, students should be in a position to apply both theory and methodology to critically analyze issues of Environment, natural resource and development.

Brief description of modules/ Main modules:

Module 1: ENRD: Conceptual Scope, Interlinkages and Correlation: The first module looks at the interlinkages between environment, it's natural resources and the process of development. It explores the question of and issues around the key of these in the process of modernization and post colonial societies. It then look at the effect on these that the process of globalization and liberalization.

Module 2: ENRD: Theoretical Genealogies: The second Module looks at the historical evolution of environmentalism, the economic concerns and political contestation it involves and the socio-cultural context in which it is embedded. Then it goes on to look at the evolution of theoretical approaches of environmental history, ecological economics, political ecology and environmental sociology.

Module 3: Natural Resource, Conflict and Institutions of Governance The second Module looks at the historical genesis of patterns of human interaction with their environment, institutional mechanism and regimes that have facilitated and regulated these patterns. The main focus here is to look at the role of state, market and civil society at local national and, off late, global level of human collectives in this endeavour. Given the intricate and complex relationship between access to natural resources and the material well-being of individual and groups, conflictual and violent interactions have also been explained with environment at the centre of their causal explanations. Module 3 looks at this stream of academic literature and some case studies from India study the role of social movements to cause of environmentalism.

Module 4: ENRD and Land-based Resources: Module 4 takes the specific case of land-based resources like soil and minerals, to critically explore the environmental problems like soil erosion, solid waste disposal, land degradation, desertification, and deforestation. It goes on to look at the knowledge about their causes and alternatives redressal mechanisms and policy measure to go about them with specific focus on India. The mains problematic engaged with in the development induced displacement and rehabilitation and resettlements of these environmental victims.

Module 5: ENRD and Forest Based Resources: Next module looks at the forest resources, the historical processes of intervention in this forested land, the ways through which we attempted to conserve and protect them for their mythical or/and scientific significance. However the impact of these processes on the communities living in these forested land has been devastating and led t several social movements.

Module 6: ENRD and Water-based Resources: Module 6 takes the specific case of water-based resources like drinking water, irrigation/dams and fisheries to critically explore the environmental problems associated with them especially its pollution. Then it goes on to look at the knowledge about their causes and alternatives redressal mechanisms and policy measure to go about them with specific focus on India. The mains problematic engaged with in the development induced displacement and rehabilitation and resettlements of these environmental victims.

Assessment Details with weights:

1. Critical Review Paper: Multiplicity of Environment-Development Nexus
2. Reflective Paper: Natural Resources of Village Immersion: Challenges and Opportunities

Reading List:

• Wolfgang Sachs, 2009, Environment, in Wolfgang Sachs (ed.) The Development Dictionary a guide to knowledge as power, London: Zed Books, pp. 24-38
• Vandana Shiva, 2009, Resource, Wolfgang Sachs (ed.) The Development Dictionary a guide to knowledge as power, London: Zed Books, pp 228-242
• Arun Agarwal, 2005, ‘Chapter 6: Making Environmental Subjects: intimate Government’ and ‘Chapter 7: Conclusion: The analytics of environmentaliry’ in Environmentality: technologies of Government and the Making of Subjects, OUP, Delhi.
• Richard Peet and Michael Watts, 2004, ‘Introduction’, in Liberation Ecologies: Environment, development, social movements, London and New York: Routledge, pp. 1-45.
• Ashish Kothari, 2013, ‘Development and Ecological Sustainability in India: possibilities for the post-2015 framework’, EPW, 48 (30).
• Ramchandra Guha, ‘Writing environmental history in India’, in Studies in History, vol. 9 no. 8, 1993, pp 119-29.
• Timothy Forsyth 2003 Critical Political Ecology: The Politics of Environmental Science
• Ahmed, M. Hussen, 2000, Principles of Environmental Economics: Economics, Ecology and Public Policy, Routledge,.
• Michael R. Redclift, Graham Woodgate 2010 International Handbook of Environmental Sociology
• Arun Agarwal and K Sivaramakrishnan, 2001, ‘Introduction: Agrarian Environments’ (excerpts from), in Arun Agarwal and K Sivaramakrishnan, eds., Social Nature: resources, representations and rule in India, OUP, New Delhi, pp. 1-16.
• Madhav Gadgil and Ramachandra Guha, 1992, ‘Prologue’ and ‘Chapter 1: Habitats in Human History’, in This Fissured Land: an Ecological History of India, OUP, pp. 1-66.
• Sumit Guha, 2001, ‘Economic Rents and Natural Resources: Commons and Conflicts, in Premodern India’ in Arun Agarwal and K Sivaramakrishnan, eds., Social Nature: resources, representations and rule in India, OUP, New Delhi, pp. 132-146.
• Danial Bromley, 1992, The Commons, Common Property, and Environmental Policy
• Robert Wade 1987 The Management of Common Property Resources
• Thomas Dietz Elinor Ostrom Paul C. Stern 2003 The struggle to govern the commons
• Kanchan Chopra, Gopal K Kadekodi and M N Murty, 1989, ‘Peoples' Participation and Common Property Resources’, EPW, December 23-30.
• N S Jodha, 1990, Rural Common Property Resources: Contributions and Crisis’, EPW, June 30.
• Module 4: ENRD and Land-based Resources
• A Haroon Akram-Lodhi, Saturnino M Borras Jr., and Cristobal Kay, eds., Land, Poverty and Livelihoods in an Era of Globalization: perspectives from developing and transition countries,
• Piers M. Blaikie 1985 Political Economy of Soil Erosion in Developing Countries
• David Ludden, 2001, ‘Agrarian Histories and Grassroots Development in South Asia’, in Arun Agarwal and K Sivaramakrishnan, eds., Social Nature: resources, representations and rule in India, OUP, New Delhi, pp. 251-264.
• C. H. Hanumantha Rao, 1988, ‘Agricultural Development and Ecological Degradation: An Analytical Framework’, EPW, 23 (52/53).
• Ian Scoones, 1998, 'Sustainable Rural Livelihoods: A Framework for Analysis', IDS Working Paper 72, Institute of Development Studies, Brighton.
• Ramachandra Guha, 2001, ‘The Pre history of community Forestry in India’ in Environmental History, vol. 6, no. 3.
• R. K. Rao and S. R. Sankaran 1989 Forest Myth Jungle laws and Social Justice
• Ramachandra Guha, 2010, ‘Epilogues: Afterlives of Chipko’ in Ramachandra Guha, The Unquiet Woods: ecological change and peasant resistance in the Himalaya, Twentieth Anniversary Edition, Permanent Black, New Delhi.
• Bina Agawal, 2001, ‘Participatory Exlcusions, Community Forestry, and Gender: An Analysis for South Asia and a Conceptual Framework’, World Development, 29 (10), pp. 1623-1648.
• Nandini Sundar, ed., 2009, Legal Grounds: natural resources, identity and the law in Jharkhand, OUP (selected chapters).
• David Mosse, 2006, ‘Rules and Representation: Transformations in the Governance of Water Commons in British South India’, in The Journal of Asian Studies, 65/1.
• John Briscoe and J P S Malik, 2007, Handbook of Water Resources in India: development, management, and strategies, OUP for World Bank [excerpts especially
• R P S Malik, ‘Water as Poverty’; George C Varughese, ‘Water and Environmental Sustainability’; Ramesh Bhatia, ‘Water and Energy Interactions’; R Maria Saleth, ‘Water Rights and Entitlements’.
• Philip Cullet, n.d., ‘Water law and policy in India: reforms and capacity building’, Draft, Environmental Law Research Society.
• V Ratna Reddy, M Gopinath Reddy, John Soussan, 2009, ‘Collective Action and Watershed Management’, ‘Political Economy of Watershed Management’ in Political Economy of Watershed Management: policies, institutions, implementations and livelihoods, Rawat for Centre for Economic and Social Studies, Hyderabad.

ADDITIONAL REFERENCE:

• Krishna Bharadwaj, 1991, ‘Alternative Analytical Paradigms in Theories of Development’ in J Breman and S Mundle, eds., Rural Transformation in Asia, OUP, New Delhi, pp. 77-92.
• Gilbert Rist, 2008, The History of Development from Western Origins to Global Faith, third edition, Zed Books (excerpts; especially, Chapter 10: The Environment, or The New Nature of ‘Development’’,
• Jairam Ramesh, 2010, ‘The two culture revisited: the environment-development debate in India’, EPW, 55 (42), pp. 13-16.
• Marina Fischer-Kowalski, Helmut Haberl and Fridolin Krausmann, 2007, ‘Conclusions: likely and unlikely pasts, possible and impossible futures’ in Marina Fischer-Kowalski and Helmut Haberl, eds., Socioecological Transitions and Global Change: Trajectories of Social Metabolism and Land Use, Advances in Ecological Economics, Edward Elgar, pp. 223-256.
• Helmut Haberl, Fridolin Krausmann, and Simone Gingrich, 2006, ‘Ecological Embeddedness of the Economy: A Socioecological Perspective on Humanity’s Economic Activities 1700-2000, EPW, November 25.
• Partha Dasgupta and Karl Goral Maler, 2009, ‘Environmental and Resource Economics: Some Recent Developments’ in Kanchan Chopra and Vikram Dayal, eds., Handbook of Environmental Economics in India, OUP, New Delhi.
• Divya Karnad, Meghna Krishnadas, Tarun Nair, 2013, ‘Budgeting for Nature: Economic Growth and Ecosystem Conservation in India’, EPW, 58 (25), pp. 22-26.
• Amita Baviskar, 2010, ‘The Unquiet Woods and Indian Environmental History’, in Ramachandra Guha, The Unquiet Woods: ecological change and peasant resistance in the Himalaya, Twentieth Anniversary Edition, Permanent Black, New Delhi.
• Ramachandra Guha and Madhav Gadgil, 1989, ‘Ecology for the People’ reprinted in Ramachandra Guha, 2006, How Much Should a Person Consume: thinking through the environment, Permanent Black, pp. 208-210.
• Rucha Ghate, Narpat S. Jodha, and Pranab Mukhopadhyay, 2008, ‘Introduction’ in Rucha Ghate, Narpat S. Jodha, and Pranab Mukhopadhyay, eds., Promise, Trust, and Evolution: Managing the Commons of South Asia, OUP.
• N C Narayanan, 2008, ‘State, Governance and Natural Resource Conflicts’ in N C Narayanan, ed., State, Natural Resource Conflicts and Challenges to Governance, Academic Foundation, New Delhi.
• Nirmal Sengupta, 2008, ‘Governance of Natural Resources in India: property rights, legal pluralism and other issues’, in N C Narayanan, ed., State, Natural Resource Conflicts and Challenges to Governance, Academic Foundation, New Delhi.
• Asheem Srivastava and Ashish Kothari, 2012, ‘Adding Fuel to Fire: Undermining India’s Environmental Governance, in Churning the Earth: the making of global India, Viking.
• Robert Chambers 1987 Review Land Degradation and Society
• Planning Commission, 2011, Report of the Working Group on National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM), Planning Commission, Government of India, New Delhi.
• Joan Martinez-Alier, 2002, ‘The Environmentalism of the Poor’, Paper prepared for the conference on ‘The Political Economy of Sustainable Development: Environmental Conflict, Participation and Movements’, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg; United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD).
• GOI 2010 Report National Committee on Forest Rights Act
• World Bank 2007 At Loggerheads
• Ramachandra Guha, 2010, ‘Epilogues: Afterlives of Chipko’ in Ramachandra Guha, The Unquiet Woods: ecological change and peasant resistance in the Himalaya, Twentieth Anniversary Edition, Permanent Black, New Delhi.
• Bina Agawal, 2001, ‘Participatory Exlcusions, Community Forestry, and Gender: An Analysis for South Asia and a Conceptual Framework’, World Development, 29 (10), pp. 1623-1648.
• Supriya Singh, 2013, ‘Participatory Forest Management in Mendha Lekha, India’ in Hali Healy et al., eds., Ecological Economics from the Ground Up’, Routledge.
• ISID, 2012, ‘Sustainable Development: emerging issues in India’s Mineral Sector’, Institute for Studies in Industrial Development, New Delhi (sponsored by Planning Commission, New Delhi).
• Nagothu Udaya Sekhar 2007 Social Capital and Fisheries Management_ The Case of Chilika Lake in India - Springer
• Arabinda Mishra et al., 2008, Common Property Water Resources: dependence and institutions in India’s villages,TERI Press (Chapter 2: Common property water resources: the conceptual foundation, Chapter 3: Common property water resources and rural quality of life).
• V Ratna Reddy, M Gopinath Reddy, John Soussan, 2009, ‘Collective Action and Watershed Management’, ‘Political Economy of Watershed Management’ in Political Economy of Watershed Management: policies, institutions, implementations and livelihoods, Rawat for Centre for Economic and Social Studies, Hyderabad.
• Ramaswamy R Iyer, Towards Water Wisdom: limits, justice, harmony, Sage, Delhi (selected excerpts)