Governance of Natural Resources
The course covers relevant theoretical concepts and approaches concerning the governance of natural resources and enables students to reflect and use these in class discussions and individual and/or group exercises. The development of the student’s generic competence and capabilities constitute an important part of the course and the course consists of a mixture of lectures, individual and/or group works, which are presented and discussed during seminars.
Information from the course leader
Dear all,
Welcome to the course Governance of Natural Resource 2024/25 (LU0093).
We look forward to seeing you all on the course introduction on Monday November 4 at 10hrs, in Loftets Hörsal at campus Ultuna.
Please read through the course materials on Canvas before we meet, and bring any questions that you might have.
All best,
Emil & Linus
Course evaluation
The course evaluation is not yet activated
The course evaluation is open between 2025-01-12 and 2025-02-02
Additional course evaluations for LU0093
Academic year 2023/2024
Governance of Natural Resources (LU0093-20160)
2023-10-31 - 2024-01-14
Academic year 2022/2023
Governance of Natural Resources (LU0093-20067)
2022-11-01 - 2023-01-15
Academic year 2021/2022
Governance of Natural Resources (LU0093-20132)
2021-11-02 - 2022-01-16
Academic year 2020/2021
Governance of Natural Resources (LU0093-20132)
2020-11-02 - 2021-01-17
Academic year 2019/2020
Governance of Natural Resources (LU0093-20043)
2019-11-01 - 2020-01-19
Academic year 2018/2019
Governance of Natural Resources (LU0093-20108)
2018-11-05 - 2019-01-20
Syllabus and other information
Syllabus
LU0093 Governance of Natural Resources, 15.0 Credits
Naturresursernas organisering och samhällsstyrningSubjects
Rural DevelopmentEducation cycle
Master’s levelModules
| Title | Credits | Code |
|---|---|---|
| Single module | 15.0 | 0201 |
Advanced study in the main field
Second cycle, has only first-cycle course/s as entry requirementsMaster’s level (A1N)
Grading scale
The grade requirements within the course grading system are set out in specific criteria. These criteria must be available by the course start at the latest.
Language
EnglishPrior knowledge
Knowledge equivalent to 180 credits, including 90 credits within a particular major within humanities, social or natural sciences. Knowledge equivalent to English 6 (Swedish educational system).Objectives
The aim of this course is to provide students with knowledge related to the governance of natural resources.
After completion of the course, the student should be able to:
Distinguish between major theoretical approaches to the understanding of sustainability dilemmas and the underpinning assumptions that they are based upon.
Apply concepts and theories from political ecology and other social science related fields to understand different environmental dilemmas.
Appraise how different policies and institutions impact on resource governance in different contexts and at different scales.
Distinguish between different and competing discourses of sustainable development in relation to different natural resource governance dilemmas.
Explain problems and challenges associated with different natural resource governance arrangements and on a general level describe how they are embedded institutionally at different levels and scales.
Content
The course covers relevant theoretical concepts and approaches concerning the governance of natural resources and enables students to reflect and use these in class discussions and individual and/or group exercises. The exercises draw from examples taken from case studies coming from different contrasting contexts. The development of the student’s generic competence and capabilities constitute an important part of the course and the course consists of a mixture of lectures, individual and/or group works, which are presented and discussed during seminars.
The course is based on the insight that natural resource governance is as much about managing people as it is about managing nature. The course provides students with tools for understanding different ways in which control and access over natural resources are collectively organized and governed, and the different social, economic and ecological conditions that underpins various forms of environmental dilemmas. The course deals with the inter-linkages between natural resource management and rural change from a cross-disciplinarily perspective. Through an exploration of different concepts and perspectives from social theory and political ecology the course critically analyses different natural resource governance dilemmas.
Grading form
The grade requirements within the course grading system are set out in specific criteria. These criteria must be available by the course start at the latest.Formats and requirements for examination
Approved home exam, approved participation in compulsory seminars and approved written assignments.
If a student has failed an examination, the examiner has the right to issue supplementary assignments. This applies if it is possible and there are grounds to do so.
The examiner can provide an adapted assessment to students entitled to study support for students with disabilities following a decision by the university. Examiners may also issue an adapted examination or provide an alternative way for the students to take the exam.
If this syllabus is withdrawn, SLU may introduce transitional provisions for examining students admitted based on this syllabus and who have not yet passed the course.
For the assessment of an independent project (degree project), the examiner may also allow a student to add supplemental information after the deadline for submission. Read more in the Education Planning and Administration Handbook.
Other information
The right to participate in teaching and/or supervision only applies for the course instance the student was admitted to and registered on.
If there are special reasons, students are entitled to participate in components with compulsory attendance when the course is given again. Read more in the Education Planning and Administration Handbook.
Responsible department
Department of Urban and Rural Development
Further information
Litterature list
Week 44 – Introduction & foundation
Lecture: Theorising resource governance dilemmas
Required
Dryzek, J. 2005. The Politics of Earth – Environmental Discourses. Oxford University Press. Read the parts on canvas.
Nightingale, A., Böhler T., Campbell, B. and Karlsson, L (eds.). 2019. Environment and sustainability in a globalizing world, Routledge, New York. (Read chapter 1, 3 and 6)
Lemos, M. C. and Agrawal, A. 2006. Environmental Governance. Annual Review of Environment and Resources.
Mehta, L. Leach, M. Newell, P. Scoones, I. Sivaramakrishnan, K and Way, S-A. 1999. Exploring Understandings of Institutions and Uncertainty: New Directions in Natural Resource Management. IDS Discussion Paper 372. Environment Group, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK.
Moran, L & Ray, H. 2014. Mapping divergent concepts of sustainability: Lay knowledge, local practices and environmental governance. Local Environment: The International Journal of Justice and Sustainability.
Week 45 – Central concepts & Theories 1
Lecture: Natural resource governance: Key concepts and perspectives
Required:
Agrawal, A. 2001. Common Property Institutions and Sustainable Governance of Resources. World Development 29(10); 1649-1672.
Cleaver, F.D. and de Koning, J., 2015. Furthering critical institutionalism. International Journal of the Commons, 9(1), pp.1–18
Lecture: Theorizing local democracy in NRM
Required:
Fischer, H. 2021. Decentralization and the governance of climate adaptation: Situating community-based planning within broader trajectories of political transformation. World Development 140: 105335.
Suggested:
Chambers, R. (1994). The origins and practice of participatory rural appraisal. World Development, 22(7), 953–969.
Cook, B., and Kothari, U. (2001). Participation: The new tyranny? Chapter 1. Zed Books, New York.
Hickey, S., & Mohan, G. (2005). Relocating Participation Within a Radical Politics of Development. Development and Change, 36(2), 237–262.
Lecture: Resource governance in human and political geography: property, territory, and other analytics
Required:
Sikor, T & Lund, C. (2009). Access and Property: A Question of Power and Authority. Vol. 40(1). Pp. 1-22. Development and Change.
Ribot, J. & Peluso, N. 2003. A theory of access. Rural Sociology, 682, 99. 153-181
Suggested:
Elden, Stuart (2010). Land, terrain, territory. Progress in Human Geography, 34(6): 799-817
Week 46 – Political ecology & environmental justice
Lecture: Political ecology & environmental justice: critical perspectives
Required:
Svarstad, H & Benjaminsen, T. A. (2020). Reading radical environmental justice through a political ecology lens. Vol. 108. Pp. 1-11. Geoforum.
Benjaminsen and Svarstad *political ecology, (*Read chapters – 1+ 2)
Lecture: Feminist and decolonial political ecology perspectives on environmental governance
Required:
Gonda, N., Flores, S., Casolo, J. J., & Nightingale, A. J. (2023). Resilience and conflict: rethinking climate resilience through Indigenous territorial struggles. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 1-27.
Optional:
Wijsman, K., & Feagan, M. (2019). Rethinking knowledge systems for urban resilience: Feminist and decolonial contributions to just transformations. Environmental Science & Policy, 98, 70-76.
Lecture: Is good mining possible? Exploring green and just transitions in the extractive industries
Required:
Toumbourou, T., Muhdar, M., Werner, T., & Bebbington, A. (2020). Political ecologies of the post-mining landscape: Activism, resistance, and legal struggles over Kalimantan’s coal mines. Energy Research & Social Science, 65, 101476.
Optional:
Asdal, K., Cointe, B., Hobæk, B., Reinertsen, H., Huse, T., Morsman, S. R., & Måløy, T. (2021). ‘The good economy’: A conceptual and empirical move for investigating how economies and versions of the good are entangled. BioSocieties, 18(1), 1–24.
Week 47 – Climate, forest and development dilemmas
Lecture: Does traceability fit for its purpose?: Example from traceability mechanisms in seafood supply chains
Required:
Kadfak, A., & Widengård, M. (2022). From fish to fishworker traceability in Thai fisheries reform. Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space
Bailey, M., Bush, S. R., Miller, A., & Kochen, M. (2016). The role of traceability in transforming seafood governance in the global South. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 18, 25-32.
Optional:
Arthur P J Mol 2006 Environmental Governance in the Information Age: The Emergence of Informational Governance. Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space
Calvão, F., & Archer, M. (2021). Digital extraction: Blockchain traceability in mineral supply chains. Political Geography, 87, 102381.
Lecture: Global agendas for forest conservation in an era of climate change
Required:
Fleischmann, F., et al. 2020. Pitfalls of tree planting show why we need people-centered natural climate solutions. Bioscience 70(11): 947–950.
Osborne, T et al. 2021. The political ecology playbook for ecosystem restoration: Principles for effective, equitable, and transformative landscapes. Vol. 70. Global Environmental Change
Erbaugh,- J T & Oldekop, J A 2018. Forest landscape restoration for livelihoods and well-being. Vol. 32. Pp. 76-83. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability.
Lecture: Planting trees in Africa: Local consequences of Swedish carbon forestry
Required:
Leach, M. and Scoones. I. 2015. Political Ecologies of Carbon in Africa. In Leach, M., & Scoones, I. (2015). Carbon conflicts and forest landscapes in Africa. Pp. 1-42. London and New York: Routledge
Suggested:
Hajdu F, Fischer K, Penje O 2016 Questioning the use of ‘degradation’ in climate mitigation: A case study of a forest carbon CDM project in Uganda. Land Use Policy. 59 (31) 412–422.
Week 48 – Land and water grabbing dilemmas
Lecture: Peasants and Corporations: Land Reform and agriculture in post-communist Ukraine
TBA
Lecture: Land as symbol and substance in struggles over social and material survival
Required:
Braun, B. (2002). The intemperate rainforest: nature, culture, and power on Canada's west coast. Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Press.
Sundberg, J. (2014). Decolonizing posthumanist geographies. Cultural geographies, 21(1), 33-47.
Lecture: Land deals in limbo: land access in a post-investment setting in rural Tanzania
Required:
Borras Jr, S. M., Franco, J. C., Moreda, T., Xu, Y., Bruna, N., & Demena, B. A. (2022). The value of so-called ‘failed’large-scale land acquisitions. Land Use Policy, 119, 106199.
Suggested:
Engström, L., & Hajdu, F. (2019). Conjuring ‘Win-World’–resilient development narratives in a large-scale agro-investment in Tanzania. The Journal of Development Studies, 55(6), 1201-1220.
Tania ML (2014) What is land? Assembling a resource for global investment. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 3
Week 49 – Climate and forest dilemmas
Lecture: Climate Governance: From the Global to the Local
Required:
Stoddard, I et.al. 2021. Three Decades of Climate Mitigation: Why Haven’t We Bent the Global Emissions Curve? Annual Review of Environment and Resources. Vol. 46:653-689.
Lecture: Land use policies, climate adaptation and livelihoods in Southeast Asia
Required:
Eriksen, S. Nightingale, A. and Eakin, H. 2015. Reframing adaptation: The political nature of climate change adaptation. Global Environmental Change. No 35 (2015) 523–533.
Suggested:
Beckman, M. & Nguyen, M.V.T (2015): Upland development, climate related risk and institutional conditions for adaptation in Vietnam, Climate and Development.
Lecture: Community forestry institutions and challenges to collective action in the context of socio-ecological transition. A case from Nepal
Required:
Ojha, H., Persha, L., & Chhatre, A. (2009). Community forestry in Nepal: a policy innovation for local livelihoods (Vol. 913). International Food Policy Research Institute.
Poudyal, B.P., Khatri, D.B., Paudel, D., Khatri, S. and Marquardt, K. (2023). Examining forest transition and collective action in Nepal’s Community Forestry. Land Use Policy (in press).
Suggested:
Chhetri, R., Yokying, P., Smith, A., Van Den Hoek, J., Hurni, K., Saksena, S., & Fox, J. (2021). Forest, agriculture, and migration: contemplating the future of forestry and agriculture in the middle-hills of Nepal. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 1-23.
Khatri, D., Paudel, D., Pain, A., Marquardt, K. and Khatri, S. (2022). Reterritorialization of Community Forestry: Scientific Forest Management in the Terai and Chure Region of Nepal. Political Ecology.
Week 50 – Nature conservation & biodiversity dilemmas
Lecture: Is there room for emotions in natural resources governance? Examples from environmental conflicts and disasters in the Global North and South
Required:
González-Hidalgo, M., & Zografos, C. (2017). How sovereignty claims and “negative” emotions influence the process of subject-making: Evidence from a case of conflict over tree plantations from Southern Chile.* Geoforum, 78*, 61-73.
Optional:
Spencer, D. (2011). Emotions and the transformative potential of fieldwork: Some implications for teaching and learning anthropology. Teaching Anthropology, 1(2).
Lecture: Achieving Conservation Goals in Human-inhabited Protected Areas: the Case of Zapatera Archipelago National Park in Nicaragua
Required:
Sriskandarajah, N. Givá, N., Hansen, H.P. 2016. Bridging Divides through Spaces of Change: Action Research for Cultivation the Commons in Human-Inhabited Protected Areas in Nicaragua and Mozambique. In: Hansen, H.P., Nielsen, B., Sriskandarajah, N. and Gunnarsson, E. (eds). Commons, Sustainability, Democratization: Action Reserach and the Basic Renewal of Society. Routledge Advances, In: Research Methods, 139-166.
Arévalo, A. R. 2010. Enhancing Natural Resources Management and Livelihoods in Zapatera Archipelago National Park, Nicaragua. An Action Research Study with Residents of two Communities in Zapatera Island. Masters Thesis. Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. Uppsala, Sweden. (Read pages 8-21)