Untitled Flashcard Set

What can you expect? While the specifics may vary slightly once the exam is written, plan for something that is about 30-35 multiple choice questions, and possibly a few fill in the blank style questions. 


For each perspective you should feel comfortable with:

  1. It’s main arguments and ideas (as well as sub-arguments as appropriate)

  2. The key concepts in the chapter (see below) - ESPECIALLY the ones we spent time discussing in class 

  3. Key thinkers / people associated with the perspective 

  4. Strengths / limitations of each perspective

  5. How it would interpret / analyze an environmental issue and how that interpretation might differ compared to another perspective 



Below are key concepts and ideas you should be familiar with. Work through the list and make sure you understand AT MINIMUM the definition of the terms. Review any with which you are uncomfortable.   I recommend studying these in the following way:

 

1.     Work through the list and make sure you understand the definition of the terms. Review any you are uncomfortable with

2.     Think about how the terms are related. You may want to group them, draw concept maps, or any other organizational practice that helps you reflect on the connections between these concepts and ideas.

3.     Think about how these concepts could be connected to the overarching social science perspective they’re embedded in

4.     Please beware that simply googling these terms (rather than examining them through the readings and lectures) may lead you astray into alternative meanings and definitions.

 


Perspective

Key Concepts

Population and Scarcity

Birth rate, carrying capacity, death rate, demographic transition mode, ecological footprint, exponential growth, fertility rate, forest transition theory, Green Revolution, Induced Intensification, Kuznets curve, Neo-Malthusians, Zero Population Growth, Malthusian theory

 

Markets and Commodities

Cap and trade, coase theorem, externality, green certification, greenwashing, market failure, market response model, transaction costs, green taxes, carbon off-setting,  CO2  direct air capture & storage

 

 

 

 

Institutions and “The Commons”

Common property, Game theory, institutions, prisoner’s dilemma, Tragedy of the commons, Elinor Ostrom and principles of commons management 

 

 

 

 

Environmental Ethics

Animal liberation, anthropocentrism, conservation, dominion thesis, ecocentrism, biocentrism, environmental justice, ethics, intrinsic value, moral extensionism,preservation, stewardship, utilitarian, Hetch Hetchy debate (Muir vs Pinchot), the land ethic (leopold)

Risks and Hazards

cultural theory, externality, hazard, risk, risk perception, uncertainty, political economy of risks/hazards, vulnerability 


Political Economy

Anthropocentrism, commodity, conditions of production, environmental justice, first contradiction of capitalism, globalization, means of production, overaccumulation, primitive accumulation, production of nature, relations of production, second contradiction of capitalism, social reproduction, spatial fix, surplus value

Social Construction 

constructivist, co-production, discourse, ideologies, narratives, nature, relativism, signifying practices, social construction, social context, wilderness 

Feminism and the Environment

Feminism, gender, ecofeminism, masculinist, patriarchy, essentialist, difference, intersectionality, gendered division of labor, social reproduction,  diverse economies, situated knowledges, standpoint theory

Racialized Environments

Environmental justice, environmental racism, racial capitalism, redlining, settler colonialism, indigenous ecological knowledge, sovereignty

 

Other ways to study: the Robbins text has very good chapter reviews. Once you are familiar with the concepts and how they are related to one another, review the questions at the end of each chapter. Understanding key term definitions is an important first step - but feeling confident with how these terms are applied and used to understand human-env issues at the level suggested by these questions is what I am looking to see. 




Anything covered in lecture is also fair game. Make sure you:

  1. Understand the case studies we looked at in class (especially, for example, in class videos or examples!) and how they connect to concepts / perspectives. What in-class cases would be most important to review?

    1. Hurricane Katrina

    2. CO2 Direct Aircapture

    3. Arsenic in Bangladesh

    4. Hetch Hetchy

    5. Prosopis juliflora in India

    6. Melting arctic ice and what it means to different groups

    7. Pollution in Port Arthur (podcast episode everyone listened to)


  1. Are able to articulate way each perspective approaches human-env relationships, what its strengths and weaknesses (or omissions) are, and how it compares/contrasts with other perspectives 

  2. You can expect to see material brought up from the perspective synthesis leads. These questions will not be written at a level of detail that expects you to have read each paper / listened to each podcast. But they will be framed at a level that expects that you learned about the basics of each case and how it connects. (I have been reviewing your group summaries and am confident in the material that your peers taught you!)