Development Studies: Socio-economic Development from an Interdisciplinary Perspective
Saleha Erdmann
Environment and development has become a hot topic in recent decades, particularly in the discourse on sustainable development...
How does environmental destruction affect poor people? How much environmental harm from development is acceptable? How is culture attached to the environment? Should the environment be protected because of its economic, social, and/or intrinsic value? When is development sustainable? Who pays the price when development is not sustainable? Does one have to choose between environmental sustainability and poverty alleviation?
For further reading on the environment and development, I recommend the World Commission on Environment and Development's Our Common Future (1987), Phillip J. Cooper and Claudia María Vargas' Implementing Sustainable Development: From Global Policy to Local Action (2004), and United Nation's Environment Programme (UNEP) website http://www.unep.org/.
Papers:
Influential Actors in the Conflict over Amazonian Deforestation in Brazil (ES 201, December 2003)
Wind Power (ES 137, May 2004)
Environmental Degradation in Morocco: In search of a new approach to development (PS 252, Fall 2004)
Courses:
ENV S 137 Introduction: Environmental Studies—junior
ENV S 201 Global Environmental Politics—sophomore
P SCI 398 IR/Ecofeminism—senior