Assignment Due Dates | Furl Links Topics and Readings for: Ethics | Energy | Ecology and Climate Change | Population and Food | Conflict and Health | Global Development | Solutions

SocU485 Environment, Technology, and Society Syllabus
Spring 2009

Northeastern University, Key Number 76301
Class meets sequence M, W, TH 1:35-2:40 in room 235 FR
Prof. Judith A. Perrolle perrolle@ccs.neu.edu
Office: 541 Holmes, 617-373-3861
Office Hours: M, W & Th, 3:00-4:00 and by appointment

Required Textbooks (at the bookstore and used at Amazon - Humphrey et. al. assorted vendors -Horth et. al. )

Craig R. Humphrey, Tammy L. Lewis, and Frederick H. Buttel, Environment, Energy, and Society: A New Synthesis, Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2002.

Linda J. Hjorth, Barbara A. Eichler, Ahmed S. Khan, and John A. Morello, Technology and Society, 3rd Edition, Columbus, OH: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2008.

There will also be online readings and multimedia.

About the Course

The goal of this course is to explore the complex relationships among human society, technology, and the natural environment. Sociology will be emphasized, but the study of environmental sociology requires basic concepts drawn from the other social and natural sciences. It is important for students to develop an interdisciplinary approach to environment and technology issues and to integrate this approach with their own perspectives.

To facilitate this process, students are asked to keep a journal in which they record their reactions to lectures, readings, and discussion questions. Journals should be typed, but may be written in an informal style. Journal entries will be due every Monday. Several specific questions will be assigned for each week and should be answered in a good paragraph each. In addition, you are to write a short essay (one or two paragraphs will do) reacting to the material you have read and heard.

Grades for the journals will be based on evidence of your having read the assignments, listened to lectures and discussions, thought about both, and put the material together with your own experience in an analytical and critical way. Your opinions will not be graded, but your ability to support your opinions with a logical argument will.

One or two students each day will serve as the leader of a 15 minute discussion of assigned readings. At the end of the course students will work in groups to present a proposed solution to an environmental problem.

• Journal 1 due Th January 15, 10 % of grade
• Journal 2 due Th January 29, 15 % of grade
• Journal 3 due Th February 12, 15% of grade
• Journal 4 due Th February 26, 15 % of grade
• Journal 5 due Th March 19, 15 % of grade
• Journal 6 due Th April 2, 15 % of grade
• Class participation, 15 % of grade (based on attendance, serving as a discussion leader for one article, contribution to discussions, and working on a group "solution" to an environmental problem)

Introduction: Definitions, Ethics and Worldviews

Read in Humphrey, Lewis, and Buttel:
Chapter 1: Exploring Environmental Sociology (pages 1-33)
Chapter 2: Social Theory and the Environment (pages 34-68)
Read in Hjorth, Eichler, Khan, and Morello:
Part I. Articles 1 (pages 15-24) and 8 (pages 37-38)
Part II . Articles 9, 10, 11, 13, and Case Study 1 (pages 42-79 and 84-87)
Read online:

• "Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy" Environmental Ethics ( http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ethics-environmental/ 17 pages)
• "Environmental Technology" Wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_technology 2 pages)
• Judith A. Perrolle, "A Model of Information and Tools in Social Change", from Computers and Social Change http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/perrolle/book/chapter2.html#2.1.3 3 pages)
• Notes on Shoes http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/perrolle/topics/technology/shoes.html (1 page)

Journal 1: due Th Jan 15

1. Define technology and the environment. (1 good paragraph each)
2. Briefly explain what you hope to get out of this course. (ungraded)
3. Explain your environmental philosophy or worldview (2-5 pages)
4. Calculate your ecological footprint at http://www.royalsaskmuseum.ca/gallery/life_sciences/footprint_mx_2005.swf and say whether or not you think this kind of presentation is educationally useful.
5. Comment on anything that captured your interest in the readings or class discussion.

Energy

Read in Humphrey, Lewis, and Buttel:
Chapter 5: Energy and the Environment (pages 136-174)
Read in Hjorth, Eichler, Khan, and Morello: Part III (pages 102-215)
Read online:

• U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Kids' Page http://www.eia.doe.gov/kids/energyfacts/science/formsofenergy.html (4 pages; a clear, accurate explanation of scientific energy concepts for children that is useful for the rest of us)
• Energy for Sustainable Development: Overview http://www.undp.org/energy/ (1 page)
• Executive Summary of The National Academies Press's America's Energy Future: Technology Opportunities, Risks, and Tradeoffs (if it becomes available)

Journal 2: due Th Jan 29

1. Briefly discuss your attitude towards natural science (graded pass/fail)
2. Suppose someone wants the government to invest in developing a new automobile engine that will produce more energy that the energy in the fuel used to power it. What do you think of the proposal?
3. What are the environmental consequences of different forms of energy?
4. How could you reduce your energy consumption?
5. What are the limits of individual actions (as compared to government and organizational policies) to reduce carbon emissions?
6. Comment on anything that captured your interest in the readings or class discussion.

Ecology and Climate Change

Read in Hjorth, Eichler, Khan, and Morello: Part IV (pages 216-331)
Read online: Executive Summary of The National Academies Press's Ecological Impacts of Climate Change (2008) (pages 2-16).
Browse: climate change links and ecosystems and species links

Journal 3: due Th Feb 12

1. Explain how human activity has changed the carbon cycle.
2. What causes global warming?
3. What are the consequences of global warming?
4. How can global warming be prevented, slowed down, and/or adapted to?
5. Comment on anything that captured your interest in the readings or class discussion.

Population and Food

Read in Humphrey, Lewis, and Buttel:
Chapter 3: Population and the Environment (pages 69-106)
Chapter 4: The Struggle over Hunger (pages 107-135)

• Wikipedia, "Population" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population (8 pages)
• Hilights from the Population Reference Bureau's 2008 World Population Data Sheet
• U.S. Food and Drug Administration "Pet Food Recall" http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/petfood.html (1 page)
• Again with the melamine? Tainted baby formula kills three, sickens 6,000-plus children in China

• Union of Concerned Scientists' food site http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_environment/
• population links
• food&agriculture links
• poverty & social justice links

1. Explain how social justice contributes to reducing human population growth.
2. Explain how we can feed the world's growing population.
3. Comment on anything that captured your interest in the readings or class discussion.

Politics, Conflict and Health

Read in Humphrey, Lewis, and Buttel:
Chapter 6: The Environmental Movement (pages 175-219)

Read online:

• Union of Concerned Scientists' Action Center http://ucsaction.org/ucsaction/home.html (1 page)
• EarthWatch's emerging health issues http://earthwatch.unep.net/health/index.php (8 pages)
• UNEP Emerging Issue: Military Radioactive Wastes http://earthwatch.unep.net/radioactivewaste/military.php (1 page)

• government links
• NGOs links
• health links

Journal 5: due Th Mar 19

1. For an environmental health issue of your choice, explain who the stakeholders are and how they are organized to achieve the outcomes they desire.
2. Comment on anything that captured your interest in the readings or class discussion.

Global Development

Read in Humphrey, Lewis, and Buttel:
Chapter 7: The Sociology of Sustainable Development (pages 220-264)
Read in Hjorth, Eichler, Khan, and Morello: Part VIII (pages 486-597)
Read online:
United Nations Environmental Programme's Green Economy Initiative
Browse: sustainablity links

Journal 6: due Th Apr 2
Answer the following questions:

1. Explain how micro-lending alleviates poverty.
2. Is China's economic growth creating sustainable development?
3. Who are globalization's winners and losers?
4. Discuss the pros and cons of Karachi's informal recycling.
6. Comment on anything that captured your interest in the readings or class discussion.

Solutions for the 21st Century

Read in Humphrey, Lewis, and Buttel:
Chapter 8: Environmental Sociology and Alternative Environmental Futures (pages 265-302)
Read in Hjorth, Eichler, Khan, and Morello:
Part IX, Articles 60, 65, 66 and Case Study 2 (pages 610-620, 643-660, and 668-678)
Read online:
Work with others to find for information about an environment and technology issues of your choice (to be presented to the class).