KUSOA DEVS 504 POPULATION & DEVELOPMENT

1. DEVS 504 POPULATION & DEVELOPMENT COURSE:


Monday, January 31, 2011


DRAFT COURSE OUTLINE BY AMULYA TULADHAR

Contact: amulya_tuladhar@yahoo.com,

Request: Students should not phone home


DEVS 504: Population and Development (Extract from 2011 KUSOA webpage)

The course aims to enhance the knowledge and understanding of the important relationships between population, development and natural resources. The course emphasizes on both global and national trends on population change and its effects on development and natural resource outcomes. This course also deals with how changes on social, economic and natural resources influence fertility, mortality and migration of human populations and how changes in fertility, mortality and migration influence social, economic and natural resources.


Context: Development is the most widely shared goal of all human activity in the current world. One of the most immediate payoffs of development in the poorer countries of the world is a boom in population due to increased nutrition, health care, and life expectancies. This can be a great boom in human resources needed for greater and faster development as is happening in India and China. Or it can be a great bane on development by increasing the demand for greater resource allocation to consumption over capital investment as seems to be the case in Nepal. The unprecedented scale of consumption in poor countries is at a primal natural resources based economy level, with high environmental costs and lower returns on productivity. In short, population growth and development are arguably the most important drivers of natural resources exploitation.

Course Objective: This course will delve into the depths of these linkages by:

1) bringing all students to a common level of understanding of key categories of population and development as key drivers of natural resources exploitation in poor countries like Nepal;

2) studying and analyzing the parameters of success/failures of key natural resources utilization regimes in a range scales of time, space, organization unit, and influence of driving forces; and,

3) teach them to “think outside the box” with critiques of mainstream theory, assumptions and approaches with alternative definitions, assumptions and approaches from postmodern, political ecology, deep ecology, environmental ethics, and cultural studies.


In conclusion, at the end of the course, the students will be able to understand and analyze current linkages between population, development and natural resources and be able to suggest new and workable alternative linkages.


UNIT 1: INTRODUCTION to Linkages between Population, Development and Natural Resources:

• Definitions of categories
• Concept of IPAT and driving forces
• Current context of “Resources” Theory and Approach


UNIT 2: NATURAL RESOURCE LINKAGE

Natural Resources Exploitation:
1. Traditional Natural resource theoretical lens-linkage:
2. Utilitarian, Instrumental logic, value, science and modernity
3. Non Utilitarian, Intrinsic value re biodiversity
4. Cultural critique, non western teleology
5. Uncertainty again scientific hubris
6. Environmental economics, internationalizing externalities

• Mainstream categories :Theories, approach, and goals
• Critiques and alternative solutions:

More Efficient Economics
Environmental Economics
Sustainable Development
Political Ecology, Deep Ecology
Buddhist and Traditional Ecology


UNIT 3: POPULATION: Population as Driving Force

1. Brief Population Demographics, “More than just Numbers”
2. IPAT, More elaborate Turner book, Population Driver
3. Population Driver critiqued by Blaikie and Brookfield
4. Population Trends and Migration in HKH, Jhikhu, Pitamber & Nanda
5. Demographic Transition: European history, Use in World
6. DTM in Third world, Future World projections by Meadows 1987
7. Population and Neomaltusian ideology under critique

• Population demographics for common understanding
• IPAT and more current development
• Population in Political ecology
• Critique of Neo-Malthusianism problematique of “Population”

(Hide high consumption, power dominations, environmental cost and social costs, alternate problem source, population adaptation and ingenuity)

• Demographic Transition Model: Understanding.
(Implication: will population be no longer a problem in future? Population growth trap.)


UNIT 4: DEVELOPMENT:

Development as Driving Force

1. Economic Growth vs Development theory
2. Development as the Universal Aspiration, Third world
3. Development in Third World, post 1950
4. Development Failure: Entrenched Poverty
5. Development Success: Environmental costs
6. Development critique: Uneven/ Under development
7. Development critique: Human Development Index etc
8. Development critique: Political Ecology
9. Development Critique: Postmodern discourse, knowledge and power, ecofeminist, cultural critic

• Introduction to definition and distinction from Economic Growth limitations
• Development Theory and Rostow’s Stages of Development
• Development Trap: Vicious Circle of Poverty
• Underdevelopment as necessary for “Development”
• Uneven Development, Political Economy, Political Ecology
• Development as Westernization and Modernity
(Post modern and Cultural critiques)
• Development desirable or alternative goals for society from Environmental, social and economic views?

UNIT 5: NATURAL RESOURCES-POPULATION-DEVELOPMENT

CASE STUDIES ANALYSIS, BETTER WAYS FORWARD

1. Sectoral case studies: Forestry, Agriculture, Water, Range etc
2. Scale: Spatial and Political: Global, Region, Nation, District etc
3. “Best Practices in Sustainable Development in NRM” from :
• World Summit in Sustainable Development 2002 Nepal Paper.
• ICIMOD/PARDYP Jhikhu Khola NRM project report.
• Other country NRM Sustainable Development case studies from EESD 508: GCC and SD course.
4. Sustainable Development: panacea or poison
5. Sustainable Development: Global UN solution Poverty to GCC.

• By countries’ income and development levels
• By natural resources sectors
o Forestry
o Agriculture sustainability
o Agriculture biodiversity
o Biodiversity
o Rangelands
o Land degradation and soil fertility
o Water for drinking and irrigation

• By levels of population driving force influence

o Population sizes and influence in “Land Degradation and Society”

• Identifying the parameters and causes of success and failures
• Suggesting mainstream improvements of efficiency
• Suggesting “outside the box” redesign based on alternate values, assumptions, goals, and approaches.


READING MATERIALS:

1. 1. Political Ecology text book: Blaikie and Brookfield, 1987, “Land Degradation and Society. Or, P Blaikie: “The political economy of soil erosion” 1982. POPULATION DRIVING FORCES; DEPTH BY BLAIKIE POPULATION CHAPTER AND TURNER BOOK CHAPTER

2. POLITICAL ECOLOGY; MEETING THE INADEQUACY OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMING, CRITIQUES AND Discourse THEORY.

3. Himalayan Environmental Degradation Theory: Ives and Messerli, 1989, “the Himalayan dilemma”. Critique: Discourse angle: Julie Guthman..

4. Community Forestry, Govt view point: Kanel, 2007. Critique of political ecology by Sabine Hausler.

5. Forestry Degradation and Deforestation, the REDD Climate Cell R-Plan. Discourse critique: Deforestating Deforestation discourse. AND TULADHAR’S 2 CRITIQUE: HIMAL ARTICLE AND BOOK REVIEW

6. Agricultural Perspective Plan, AGRICULTURAL BIODIVERSITY NEPAL SITUATION AND VANDANA SHIVA’S CRITIQUE

7. DEVELOPMENT, BASIC THEORY AND LIMITATIONS AND NEED TO GO HUMAN DEVELOPMENT AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT TO INCLUDE HUMAN, SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS.

8. NATURAL RESOURCE LINKAGE AND THEORETICAL LENSES:

ECONOMIC THEORY, ENV/ECOLOGICAL THEORY FIX, ETHICAL CRITIQUE, POLITICAL CRITIQUE, FEMINIST CRITIQUE, DEEP ECOLOGY CRITIQUE, CULTURAL CRITIQUE

9. Sustainable Development by UNCED Agenda 21 and Brundtland Report, Our common Future vs critique by Michael Redclift and Green Development.

10. Donnella Meadows, 1987, “Beyond Limits” Natural Resource projections. DTM implications. Plateauing population. DTM THEORY AND IMPLICATIONS FOR NEPAL AND THIRD WORLD, CLUB OF ROME: NATURAL RESOURCES PROJECTIONS.

11. IPAT by Paul Erhlich, More Population driving force by Turner book on driving forces. GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE MODEL WITH POPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT AS DRIVING FORCES

12. Under development and uneven development, Landlessness and Migration by Nanda Raj Shrestha. DEVELOPMENT THEORY CRITIQUE, UNDERDEVELOPMENT/UNEVEN DEVELOPMENT, POSTMODERN DEVELOPMENT CRITIQUES

13. The Himalayan Atlas by David Zurick, SNV Country Development indices by district: Spatial integration of social and natural resources.

14. Mahesh Banskota, Integrated Mountain Environment and Development. Vs Ek Raj Ojha; mountain development case study. PRACTICE OF LINKING POP AND DEV IN NATURAL RESOURCE LINK. INTEGRATED PLANNING CASE STUDIES. SPATIAL INTEGRATION BY GIS: SNV DEVELOPMENT INDICATOR;

14. Nepal’s NATURAL RESOURCES IN BRIEF: FORESTS, RANGES, AGR (CROP, FISH, MEAT, FRUIT), WATER (MACRO HYDEL AND MICRO DRINKING WATER AND IRRIGATION), SOIL FERTILITY, BIODIVERSITY, ETC.

15. Environmental Ethics; Instrumental, Intrinsic value; Deep Ecology. ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICAL VIEWPOINTS: UTILITARIAN/ INSTRUMENTAL LOGIC AND ETHICS OF NATURAL RESOURCE AND DEVELOPMENT TO CULTURAL/ PHILOSOPHIC CRITIQUE. USE OF INTRINSIC VALUE IN BIODIVERSITY, NON INSTRUMENTAL VALUE, HUMILITY INSTEAD OF HUBRIS, ACCEPT UNCERTAINTY IN ECOSYSTEM APPROACH INSTEAD OF SURETY.

16. Modernity: scientific hubris, positivist epistemology and ontology vs post modern fragmented reality and constructed social truth.

17. “Best Practices in NRM Sustainable Development” examples from Nepal’s World Summit on Sustainable Development, 2003, Report; Other countries’ WSSD, 2002, similar reports; NRM in ICIMOD/Jhikhu Khola Pardyp project; Other countries’ sustainable development case studies re: NRM from EESD 508 course extracts.