The course addresses issues of development and sustainability in light of anthropological approaches to the environment and development that transcend narrow concerns with economic growth and take into account the “human face of development.” After considering the history of “development” and some basic tenets of cultural ecology, the course moves to consider discourses of community sustainability at the local and global scales of analysis. Other themes include responses to climate change, environmental justice, ethnoecology, and the relationships between humans and other species. Case studies from Mesoamerica, Guyana, and the United States demonstrate how development agendas at the local level are framed within theoretical frameworks that demonstrate the complexity underlying discourses surrounding development and sustainability at different scales of analysis.
- Teacher: Matt Samson