Course Memo
AK1204 Environmental History
7,5 cr
Level B
VT period 4
Welcome to this course in Environmental History!
Below follows some information about the course. Information regarding meeting times and places can be found at the KTH website. This information has been written by me, Sverker Sörlin, responsible for the course. Practical questions about the course can also be answered by course assistant Susanna Lidström.
Course content
The course is a general introduction to environmental history but also covers themes such as landscape, risk, and infrastructure as well as technologies and policies that have provided the framework conditions for human ecological footprints and the built environment. The perspective is global but with numerous examples from Sweden. The chronological focus will be on the modern period, in particular the 20th century.
The 2006 tsunami, New Orleans, Burma, Haiti. Earthquakes, hurricanes, tidal waves, pandemics. Is our world becoming a more dangerous place to live in? Why does there seem to be a growing interest in risks, crises and catastrophes? Because of global warming? Because of food shortages? Because of threatening oil shortages and the risk of growing conflicts over resources?
Many questions. One way to deal with them is to explore them historically. Were there always as many catastrophes in the past – or are they increasing? What is humanity responsible for, and what are the effects of natural forces?
Public attention directed towards risks and threats suggests that the importance of environmental issues has increased. In this course, we will learn, among other things, to understand how environment and global survival became a political question during the second half of the 20th century. At the same time, the environment has also become a scientific and technological challenge (what do new solutions look like?) and an economic issue about growth and “green” competitiveness.
A fundamental idea in this course is that what we call “environment” is an historical concept whose meaning and significance varies in different contexts. In the present, environment has received much social attention. Environment is discussed in the media and in politics; it is the object of investigations in a large range of scientific fields. This is a new situation – the long-term effects of which are unknown. On the other hand, this does not imply that the natural environment was not meaningful in earlier societies. But there was no “discourse” on environment, which was understood and interpreted through religion, myths, ethics and art. Qualified knowledge about external natural conditions existed.
The emphasis of this course is placed on modern and contemporary times and on the attempts to influence the environment by means of politics, science and technology, but the course also draws on examples from older periods, cultures and societies.
Course Goals
After the course the student shall:
• have knowledge about the environment as a limiting factor in human societies from the oldest times to the present modern society,
• be able to describe and explain how and why the environment has become a political, economical and technological issue in modern society,
• be able to analyse the growing interest in risks and catastrophies and understand those phenomena in an historical context.
Those who complete the course shall, in addition to having acquired knowledge in Environmental History, also have acquired an independent ability to analyse and interpret historical texts about the environment, as well as an ability to engage critically with current scientific news and debate in the environmental field. More specifically, the student shall be able to:
• give examples of resource use in a number of historical cultures and societies,
• define, explain, and use theoretical concepts presented in the course, e.g. ”environmental discourse”,
• critically analyse statements about the environment or about environmental problems, by using the theories and concepts presented in the course,
• present some of the ideas of leading thinkers, researchers, and other actors (e.g. social movements) that have contributed to the environmental field,
• formulate a humanistic or social scientific question within the field of Environmental History,
• write an essay where the question asked and the enquiry undertaken fruitfully relate to one another,
• employ source-criticism as a method for both written and oral sources.
Disposition
The course trains students – independently and in a group – to analyse and discuss texts that consider these issues. The texts are mainly written by professional historians and deal with technology, medicine, natural science, anthropology, geography, and planning.
Before each lecture, each student will be asked to prepare a short (one page) written reflection on the reading for that lecture. These text reflections will be handed in at the lecture and will count towards the final grade in the course. The seminars are construed as discussions, and the active participation in the seminars also count towards the final grade.
The course also emphasizes the ability to formulate and carry through a simple analytical task in the form of an essay (about 2000 words).Sverker Sörlin explains this task, including simple questions of methodology and source-criticism in detail. The main sources of information for the essay should be course literature and lectures, and in this way the essay also serves as a means of examination.
The course comprises approximately six seminars and eight lectures.
Eligibility
Applicants registered on a regular KTH programme are eligible. For applicants not registered on a regular KTH programme: Documented completed upper secondary education, including proficiency in Swedish and English.
Prerequisites
No recommended prerequisites.
Required Equipment
None.
Examination
INL1 - Essay, 7.5 cr, grade scale: A, B, C, D, E, FX, F
Active participation in seminars and lectures. Written text reflections on course readings. Short paper (approx. 2000 words).
Requirements for final grade
To satisfy course requirements the student should: attend lectures and seminars; hand in text reflections for at least seven out of nine lectures (not including the first introductory lecture); and write an essay about one of the central themes of the course that clearly draws on the course literature, lectures and seminars.
Attendance is mandatory. Absence on more than 25% of lectures or on more than one seminar is made up for by additional writing assignment.
Assessment criteria for the course are:
• quality of essay (50%),
• quality of written text reflections (20%),
• quality of overall activity in lectures and seminars (30%).
Results on all three dimensions make up one single grade for the entire course.
The assessment criteria of the essay are:
• coverage of reading assignments to demonstrate full grasp of all literature, which should be listed as end references,
• ability to present the topic and argue for its relevance and overall interest,
• ability to follow a line of argument and to organize materials to support the argument,
• analytical capability,
• clarity of style and ability to distinguish the voices and views in sources from author’s argument and presentation.
Course Literature
The following literature constitutes core reading:
Books:
John R. McNeill, Something new under the sun: an environmental history of the twentieth-century world, paperback edition, W.W. Norton & Company, New York and London, 2001, selections.
Joachim Radkau, Nature and power: a global history of the environment, English edition. Cambridge University Press 2008, reprinted 2009, selections.
Sverker Sörlin and Paul Warde eds. Nature’s end: history and the environment, Palgrave MacMillan, Houndmills, Basingstoke, 2009, selections.
Additional reading in Swedish:
Sverker Sörlin and Anders Öckerman, Jorden en ö: En global miljöhistoria, andra upplagan. Natur & Kultur, Stockholm, 2002.
The books are on sale at the bookstore on KTH Campus.
A series of articles mainly from:
Clark. A. Miller & Paul. N. Edwards eds., Changing the Atmosphere: Expert Knowledge and Environmental Governance, MIT Press, Cambridge, 2001.
Hubert.H. Lamb, Climate, History and the Modern World, 2nd ed. Routledge, London, 1995.
Paul. R. Josephson, Industrialized Nature: Brute Force Technology and the Transformation of the Natural World, Island Press/Shearwater Books, Washington/Covelo/London, 2002.
Sharon. E. Kingsland, The Evolution of American Ecology, 1890-2000. The John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 2005.
David. E. Nye, American Technological Sublime, paperback edition. MIT Press, Cambridge, 1996.
Offered by
ABE/History of Science and Technology
Contact
Sverker Sörlin, sorlin@kth.se
Examiner
Arne Kaijser
Supplementary information
Sverker Sörlin became professor in Environmental History at the University of Umeå in 1993, and has been guest researcher at University of California, Berkeley (1993) and at Cambridge University (2004-2005). He is currently professor in Environmental History at KTH. He has written influential books in the field in Sweden (Naturkontraktet (1991), Jorden en Ö (1998, 2002)), and publishes regularly internationally. He is part of the research group of the Stockholm Resilience Centre, inaugurated in 2007.
The course is taught in period 4 (second half of the spring term).
Previous course code: 4D1212
Add-on Studies
For advanced studies within this field after completing this course, you may apply for a masters thesis project in History of Science and Technology (Examensarbete inom teknikhistoria, AK221X).