NRE 563 is one of the two required courses for the Environmental Policy and Planning Field of Study. Its objective is to provide students with a survey of the environmental governance mechanisms and the changing landscape of environmental policy that shapes environmental outcomes in the developing world. We aim to involve students closely in reading and learning from assigned readings, encourage participatory learning, and use simulation exercises where appropriate to promote student involvement.

It is divided into four parts. The first is introductory and historical, and will last two weeks. It will examine the roots of contemporary environmental problems in the developing world; how colonial states attempted to govern nature and for what ends; and the present-day nature of the effects of historical environmental policies. However, our examination of the historical/colonial record is intended less as an historical overview and more as an attempt to identify some of the ways in which colonial experiences continue to shape contemporary efforts at and discourses of environmental governance. The influence of the past is visible both in the kinds of institutions and organizations through which environmental governance takes place, but also in the strategies of governance and the discourses that color views about what makes for effective governance.

*Course will not be offered W10*