F Pablo S. Bose 209 Old Mill Building, Tuesday and Thursday 1PM-2PM

GEOG 273: ADVANCED TOPICS IN POLITICAL ECONOMY AND ECOLOGY:
SEEING GREEN—THE CULTURAL POLITICS OF CONSUMING NATURE
FALL 2011
Tuesday and Thursday 11:30AM – 12:45PM Lafayette L400
Instructor:
Office/Hours:
Contact:
Pablo S. Bose
209 Old Mill Building, Tuesday and Thursday 1PM-2PM
email ([email protected]) or phone (802-656-5717)
This course focuses on the study of nature and culture interactions, with an emphasis on
political struggles to define attitudes towards people and place. We will explore in
particular the world of popular culture and its portrayal of a range of human and physical
environments including urban and rural landscapes as well as ʻnon-naturalʼ spaces. We
will draw on the geographical sub-discipline of cultural and political ecology as well as
cultural studies and political economy for our analysis. Using these multiple forms of
critique, we will examine how a variety of media texts help to shape, challenge, and
reconstruct our understandings of nature. We will also examine the representation of
resource use, ecological change, and environmentalism, especially their linkages across
multiple spatial and temporal scales. Through lectures, readings, and discussions of
multiple forms of media, students will be introduced to the idea of the social construction
of nature. Specific topics we will cover include environmental advocacy, green
marketing, mass culture (film, television, new media, digital games, theater and
performance) and strategies for challenging dominant representations.
Texts:
All readings will be made available from the course Blackboard site
Format:
Classes will be run as a small seminar lasting 1.15 hours twice a week. Each class will
be divided between thematic presentations made by the instructor and discussions or
small group activities involving the entire class that will focus on assigned readings, for
that day. We will have a number of audio-visual supplements including films, music,
websites and various other forms of media to consider. We will also engage many of the
issues raised by students on the discussion board on the Blackboard site. All students
are required to have the assigned readings completed prior to class and will be
evaluated on their knowledge of the material as demonstrated through activities and
discussion.
Evaluation:
1. Discussion Board
2. Textual Analysis
3. Participation
4. Project Proposal
5. Final Project
30%
15%
15%
10%
30%
1. Discussion Board (30%)
Students are expected to post at least one response per question asked each week by
the instructor. This means that there will be at least 2-3 discussion board messages to
respond to each week (potentially more for weeks where there are guest lecturers).
Discussion board messages must be posted by 9 AM on Thursday of each week (you
1 will not receive credit for the discussion board for any messages posted after this time).
The instructor will respond to all of these postings in a “digest review” at the end of each
week. Postings must be at least 150 words in length and will be graded for grammar,
style, and substance and must directly respond to the questions (which will usually be on
a specific set of ideas or examples within a reading from that week).
2. Textual Analysis (15%)
Using Stuart Hallʼs “Encoding/Decoding” article as a framework, students must analyze
one example of environment/nature as represented in popular culture in a short paper of
no more than 500 words. Students should review the article in order to understand
Hallʼs notion of “reading positions” and then demonstrate in their paper that they a)
understand the article, and b) can apply this knowledge to their analysis of a specific
text. The instructor will provide one common text for all students to analyze one week
prior to the due date. DUE 11:30AM Tuesday, October 11, 2011.
3. Participation (15%)
All students are required to attend all classes and will be penalized for both lateness and
absences. Official documentation must be provided for any excusable absence or
lateness. Participation will be evaluated on the basis of studentsʼ knowledge of course
readings and lecture material, as well as on engagement with small group discussions
and contributions to the learning experience of their peers. Please note that attendance
in class is not enough – ALL students need to be prepared to speak regularly in class
and clearly demonstrate their familiarity with the material.
4. Outline for Research Project (10%)
Students will be organized into small project groups of no more than four (4) members
by the third week of class and develop a media project as part of the final mark in the
course. Groups will have three weeks (including the Thanksgiving recess) to develop a
formal project proposal of at least 500 words that they must submit for the instructorʼs
approval. Proposals must effectively convey a brief overview of the topic or issue, its
relation to the course, give some sense of how the group plans to approach the issue,
and demonstrate the feasibility of the project within the constraints of the course. Due
Tuesday, November 1, 2011.
5. Research Project (30%)
The final project is designed to allow the students working together in small groups to
explore specific themes and issues raised in the course, through whatever media is most
appropriate. Detailed assignment guidelines will be handed out on the first day of
classes and final projects are due December 15, 2011 at 10:30 AM. The final projects
must also be presented to the entire class at this time. Possible options include:
•
•
•
Media campaign—students may choose a particular environmental issue and
construct a campaign (e.g. pamphlets, posters, videos, etc.) to alter attitudes and
behaviours of a target audience.
Multimedia project—students may focus on a particular environmental issue,
problem, or conflict, develop a multimedia project which informs the class about
the particular aspects of environmental communication that are implicated
Creative work (including but not limited to film, artwork, music, installations,
performance pieces, fiction, non-fiction, poetry, websites)
2 Late Policy
There are no extensions granted for the outline or discussion boards. All other
assignments handed in late will be penalized at a rate of 5% per day; late assignments
will NOT be accepted after 1 week.
Grades will be distributed according to the following scale:
A+
A
AB+
B
B-
97.0 – 100
94.0 – 96.9
90.0 – 93.9
87.0 – 89.9
84.0 – 86.9
80.0 – 83.9
C+
C
CD+
D
F
77.0 – 79.9
74.0 – 76.9
70.0 – 73.9
67.0 – 69.9
64.0 – 66.9
<60.0
Academic dishonesty
Academic dishonesty includes plagiarism (submitting someone elseʼs work as your
own), cheating, and fabrication of information or citations. It will result in a grade of “F”
for this course. Plagiarism is a serious offence and carries consequences varying from
course failure to debarment from the university. Please consult the POLICY ON
PLAGIARISM in your calendar. If you have any questions or uncertainty regarding this
policy discuss them with me.
Weekly Schedule of Topics, Readings and Assignments
SECTION I: REPRESENTING PLACE AND ENVIRONMENT
Aug 30
Introduction to the Course
Sep 1
Geographic Perspectives on Communication
Required Readings:
Adams, Paul C. (2009) “Introduction” and “Place and Power of Communication” in
Geographies of Media and Communication, 1-12 and 167-179. Chichester: John
Wiley and Sons.
Sep 6
Landscape and Change
Required Readings:
Braun, Bruce, P. (2001) “Place becoming otherwise” in BC Studies 131 (August 2001):
15-24.
Greiner, Alyson L. (2001) “Popular culture, place images and myths: the promotion of
Australia on American television,” Journal of Popular Culture 34(4): 185-192.
Sep 8
Art, Politics and Diverse Environments
Required Readings:
Dixon, Deborah P. (2009) “Creating the semi-living: on politics, aesthetics and the morethan human” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 34(4): 411-425.
3 Sep 13
Voice, Agency, and the Crisis of Representation
Required Readings:
Brand, Dionne (1994) “Whose Gaze, and Who speaks for Whom” in Bread out of Stone:
Recollections, Sex, Recognitions, Race, Dreaming, Politics, 145-168. Toronto:
Coach House Press.
Sep 15
Deconstructing the White Noise Environment
Required Readings:
Hall, Stuart “Encoding/Decoding” in Culture, Media, Language: Working Papers in
Cultural Studies, 1972-79 (London: Hutchinson and the Centre for Contemporary
Cultural Studies, University of Birmingham, 1980) 128-138.
marino, dian (1997) “Re:framing: Hegemony and Adult Education Practices” in Wild
Garden: Art, Education, and the Culture of Resistance, 103-118. Toronto:
Between the Lines.
SECTION II: MEDIA IN CONTEXT
Sep 20
Masses and the Media
Required Readings:
Adorno, Theodor W. (1975) “Culture Industry Reconsidered”, New German Critique, 6,
Fall 1975, 12-19 (translated by Anson G. Rabinbach).
Grossberg, Lawrence, Wartella, Ellen and Whitney, D. Charles (1998). “The Media in
Context” in MediaMaking: Mass Media in a Popular Culture, 3-32. Thousand
Oaks: Sage.
Sep 22
Environmental Advocacy
Required Readings:
Dale, Stephen (1996) “Quest for Coverage: In Technology We Trust” in McLuhanʼs
Children: The Greenpeace Message and the Media, 107-130. Toronto: Between
the Lines.
Sep 27
Guest Lecture: Vaishali Patil, Grassoots Anti-Nuclear Campaigner
Please note special class time: 4:00-5:30 PM, Lafayette L207
Sep 29
Social Movements and Alternative/Autonomous Media
Required Readings:
Quintanilla, Raul (1995) “A Suspended Dialogue: The Revolution and the Visual Arts in
Nicaragua,” in Kunzle, David The Murals of Revolutionary Nicaragua, 1979-1992,
xiii-xvii. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Langlois, Andrea and Dubois, Frédéric (2005) “Introduction” in Autonomous Media:
Activating Resistance and Dissent, 9-15. Montréal: Cumulus Press.
Uzelman, Scott (2005) “Hard at Work in the Bamboo Garden: Media Activists and Social
Movements” in Langlois and Dubois (eds.) Autonomous Media: Activating
Resistance and Dissent, 17-30. Montréal: Cumulus Press.
4 Oct 4
Living Amidst the Spectacular
Required Readings:
Debord, Guy (1967) “The Culmination of Separation” and “The Commodity as
Spectacle” in Society of the Spectacle, 127-132 and 133-137. Detroit: Black and
Red.
Lasn, Kalle (1999) “Media Virus” in Culture Jam: How to Reverse Americaʼs Suicidal
Consumer Binge—and why we must, 29-36. New York: Quill.
Liacas, Tom (2005) “101 tricks to play with the mainstream: culture jamming as
subversive recreation” in Andrea Langlois and Frédéric Dubois, Autonomous
Media: Activating Resistance and Dissent, 61-74. Montréal: Cumulus Press.
TEXTUAL ANALYSIS DUE 11:30 AM
Oct 6
Group Project Meeting Time
Oct 11
Performance and Resistance
Required Readings:
Boal, Augusto (2002) “The Fable of Xua-Xua, the Pre-human Woman Who Discovered
Theatre” and “The Pedagogy of Fear: Theatre and the Twin Towers”, in Games
for Actors and Non-Actors 2nd Edition, 11-17 and 298-300. London and New
York: Routledge.
Taylor, Diana (1999) “Making a Spectacle: The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo” in Jan
Cohen-Cruz (ed.) Radical Street Performance: An International Anthology, 74-85.
London: Routledge.
SECTION III: POPULAR CULTURE AND NATURE
Oct 13
Environment in the Media
Required Readings:
Meister, Mark and Japp, Phyllis M. (2002) “Introduction: A Rationale for Studying
Environmental Rhetoric and Popular Culture” in Enviropop: Studies in
Environmental Rhetoric and Popular Culture, 1-12. London: Praeger.
Todd, Anne Marie (2002) “Prime Time Subversion: The Environmental Rhetoric of the
Simpsons” in Mark Meister and Phyllis M. Japp (eds.) Enviropop: Studies in
Environmental Rhetoric and Popular Culture, 63-80. London: Praeger.
Oct 18
Green on the Screen
Required Readings:
Caputi, Jane (2007) “Green consciousness: earth-based myth and meaning in Shrek”
Ethics and the Environment 12(2): 24-44.
PROJECT PROPOSAL DUE 11:30 AM
Oct 20
Gender, Science Fiction and the Nature-Culture Dichotomy
Required Readings:
Balinisteanu, Tudor (2007) “The Cyborg goddess: social myths of women as goddesses
of technologized otherwords” Feminist Studies 33 (2) Summer 2007: 394-423.
5 Oct 25
Discipline and Control in the World of Digital Games
Required Readings:
Rutherford, Stephanie and Bose, Pablo S. (forthcoming) “Biopower and play: bodies,
spaces, and the art of control in the virtual world” Cultural Geographies
Oct 27
The Day After Tomorrow: Environment as Menace
Required Readings:
Roach, Catherine (2002) “Nature as Bad Mother: ʻShe Will Try to Drown Youʼ” in
Mother/Nature: Popular Culture and Environmental Ethics, 75-101. Bloomington:
Indiana University Press.
Nov 1
Poisoned Air, Poisoned Streams: A Conspiracy of Green
Required Readings:
Bell, David and Bennion-Nixon, Lee Jane (2001) “The Popular Culture of Conspiracy/The
Conspiracy of Popular Culture” in Jane Parish and Martin Parker (eds.) The Age
of Anxiety: Conspiracy Theory and the Human Sciences, 133-151. Oxford:
Blackwell.
Nov 3
Extra! Extra! Breaking and Making the News
Required Readings:
Pompper, Donnalyn (2002) “From Loch Ness Monsters to Global Warming: Framing
Environmental Risk in a Supermarket Tabloid” in Mark Meister and Phyllis M.
Japp (eds.) Enviropop: Studies in Environmental Rhetoric and Popular Culture,
111-140. London: Praeger.
Schmidt, Andréa (2005) “Independent reporting: a tool for international solidarity
building” in Andrea Langlois and Frédéric Dubois, Autonomous Media: Activating
Resistance and Dissent, 75-88. Montréal: Cumulus Press. Nov 8
Comics and the Shape of the World
Required Readings:
Dittmer, Jason (2007) “The tyranny of the serial: popular geopolitics, the nation and
comic book discourse” Antipode 39(2): 247-268.
Nov 10
Capturing and Creating Nature
Required Readings:
Wilson, Alexander (1995) “Technological Utopias: Worldʼs Fairs and Theme Parks” in
The Culture of Nature: North American Landscape from Disney to the Exxon
Valdez, 156-190. Toronto: Between the Lines.
Nov 15
Nature on Display
Required Readings:
Opel, Andy (2002) “Monopoly™ the National Parks Edition: Reading Neo-Liberal
Simulacra” in Mark Meister and Phyllis M. Japp (eds.) Enviropop: Studies in
Environmental Rhetoric and Popular Culture, 31-44. London: Praeger.
Benbow, S. Mary P. (2004) “Death and Dying at the Zoo” The Journal of Popular Culture
37(3): 379-398
6 Nov 17
Nature for Sale
Required Readings:
Corbett, Julia B. (2002) “A Faint Green Sell: Advertising and the Natural World” in Mark
Meister and Phyllis M. Japp (eds.) Enviropop: Studies in Environmental Rhetoric
and Popular Culture, 141-160. London: Praeger.
Nov 29
The Politics of Advertising
Required Readings:
Klein, Naomi (2000) “A Tale of Three Logos: The Swoosh, the Shell, and the Arches” in
No Space, No Choice, No Jobs, No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies, 364396. Toronto: Vintage.
Dec 1
Advertising Culture
Required Readings:
Jhally, Sut (1989) “Advertising as Religion: The Dialectic of Technology and Magic”, in
Ian Angus and Sut Jhally (eds.) Cultural Politics in Contemporary America, 217229. New York: Routledge.
Olsen, Jr., Richard K. (2002) “Living Above it All: The Liminal Fantasy of Sport Utility
Vehicle Advertisements” in Mark Meister and Phyllis M. Japp (eds.) Enviropop:
Studies in Environmental Rhetoric and Popular Culture, 175-196. London:
Praeger.
Dec 6
Anti-Green Public Relations
Required Readings:
Switzer, Jacqueline Vaughn (1997) “The PR Campaigns” in Green Backlash: The History
and Politics of Environmental Opposition in the US, 129-150. Boulder: Lynne
Rienner Publishers.
Dec 8
Green Backlash Continued
Required Readings:
Stauber, John and Rampton, Sheldon (1995) “Silencing Spring” in Toxic Sludge is Good
for You! Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry, 123-142 (Monroe,
Maine: Common Courage Press.
Dec 15
FINAL PROJECT DUE 10:30 AM, LAFAYETTE L400
7