| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | AA | AB | AC | AD | AE | AF | |
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1 | Number in TLA Plan | Type of resource | Resource | Learning Theme | Topic | Motivation for inclusion in module | Key questions to consider | Summary/ Abstract | # hours | Online link | Type of access | Additional, linked resource | ||||||||||||||||||||
2 | 8 | Article | Biermann, F. et al. (2015.)(in press). Down to Earth: Contextualising the Anthropocene, Global Environmental Change | LT1 | T1 | Sets the scene for the students to understand the challenges of the 'anthropocene' and why we need to be doing things differently. | How can we make the anthropocene more tangible and relevant at the local level? | The ‘Anthropocene’ is now being used as a conceptual frame by different communities and in a variety of contexts to understand the evolving human–environment relationship. However, as we argue in this paper, the notion of an Anthropos, or ‘humanity’, as global, unified ‘geological force’ threatens to mask the diversity and differences in the actual conditions and impacts of humankind, and does not do justice to the diversity of local and regional contexts. For this reason, we interpret in this article the notion of an Anthropocene in a more context-dependent, localized and social understanding. | 1.00 | http://0-www.sciencedirect.com.wam.seals.ac.za/science/article/pii/S0959378015300686 | Blocked by a paywall or library-specific login | Thttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDeGaYkhVSo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPxbuluOrgE | ||||||||||||||||||||
3 | 38 | Article | Wickson, F., Carew, A.L. Russell, A.W. (2006). Transdisciplinary research: characteristics, quandaries and quality. Futures 38: 1046-1059. | LT1 | T1 | Provides definitions and an introduction to transdisciplinary thinking and is an excellent first read to introduce this approach. This should be read alongside the viewing of the clips suggested in the curriculum outline. | What is transdisciplinarity and what makes it different to other conventional research approaches? | There is a shifting landscape for knowledge generation in contemporary societies that suggests a bright future for transdisciplinary (TD) research. Interestingly, however, there is currently no clear consensus on what transdisciplinarity is or how its quality can be evaluated. This paper uses three avenues to advance and clarify our understanding of transdisciplinarity. Firstly, we survey the theoretical literature and identify key characteristics used by authors in the field to distinguish transdisciplinarity from related research approaches. These characteristics are problem focus, evolving methodology and collaboration. In our discussion of these we highlight variations in description that have significance for practice. Secondly, we explore three interesting quandaries that transdisciplinary researchers face (integration, reflection and paradox) discussing how these quandaries manifest in different dimensions and their potential as both challenge and opportunity for practice. Finally, we use our synthesised characteristics and challenges to shape two alternative frameworks for evaluating the quality of TD endeavours. Our first framework is based on strategic questioning and is potentially useful to individuals seeking to improve the quality of their work. Our second framework adapts an existing quality schema to the unique challenges of transdisciplinarity and may be more appealing to those seeking to compare TD research projects. | 1.00 | http://0-www.sciencedirect.com.wam.seals.ac.za/science/article/pii/S0016328706000553 | Blocked by a paywall or library-specific login | |||||||||||||||||||||
4 | 18 | Article | Lang et al. (2012). Transdisciplinary research in sustainability science: practice, principles and challenges. Sustainability Science 7: 25-43. | LT1 | T2 | This adds to the theoretical the students' theoretical understanding of transdisciplinary research and provides examples of some of the challenges. It is important that students understanding that in practice there are considerable challenges that need to be overcome to practice transdisciplinarity. The paper also draws on several cases including one from Africa. | What are the challenges found in transdisciplinary research and work? | There is emerging agreement that sustainability challenges require new ways of knowledge production and decision-making. One key aspect of sustainability science, therefore, is the involvement of actors from outside academia into the research process in order to integrate the best available knowledge, reconcile values and preferences, as well as create ownership for problems and solution options. Transdisciplinary, community-based, interactive, or participatory research approaches are often suggested as appropriate means to meet both the requirements posed by real-world problems as well as the goals of sustainability science as a transformational scientific field. Dispersed literature on these approaches and a variety of empirical projects applying them make it difficult for interested researchers and practitioners to review and become familiar with key components and design principles of how to do transdisciplinary sustainability research. Starting from a conceptual model of an ideal–typical transdisciplinary research process, this article synthesizes and structures such a set of principles from various strands of the literature and empirical experiences. We then elaborate on them, looking at challenges and some coping strategies as experienced in transdisciplinary sustainability projects in Europe, North America, South America, Africa, and Asia. The article concludes with future research needed in order to further enhance the practice of transdisciplinary sustainability research. | 1,5 | http://0-link.springer.com.wam.seals.ac.za/article/10.1007/s11625-011-0149-x | Blocked by a paywall or library-specific login | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iESPblLXfVk | ||||||||||||||||||||
5 | 47 | Article | Blackmore, C. (2014) Knowledge, learning and societal change for sustainability. In Freedman, B. ed. Global Environmental Change, Springer. | LT1 | T3 | Social learning | What are the roles of knowledge, learning, and societal change in making transitions to sustainability, and how are these concepts related? The viewpoint that individuals, groups, and potentially societies can learn their way to sustainability is explored here. Knowing and learning about sustainability do not necessarily lead to action even if it is desired, because individuals’ and groups’ abilities to act are often constrained by other societal factors. Yet some kinds of learning do appear to be more likely to lead to multi-stakeholder, multilevel changes than others. In recent years, researchers have come to understand how learning for sustainability might be enhanced, with a particular focus on the kinds of social learning that lead to collective and concerted action. Much remains to be understood about how this kind of learning might affect the societal level. There are many different kinds of knowing and learning, and it is important to be able to recognize them and their roles to be able to understand what is most relevant in a particular situation. | http://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-94-007-5784-4_64 | Blocked by a paywall or library-specific login | |||||||||||||||||||||||
6 | 26 | Article | Polk, M. (2015) Transdisciplinary co-production: Designing and testing a transdisciplinary research framework for societal problem solving. Futures 65, 110–122. | LT1 | T3 | This paper brings in the ideas of knowledge co-production as being an integral part of TD research and how this may be approached. Co-production refers to collaboration between different actor groups. | What is meant by co-production and how do we integrate knowledge from non-academic partners into the TD process? | Transdisciplinary research is often promoted as a mode of knowledge production that is effective in addressing and solving current sustainability challenges. This effectiveness stems from its closeness to practice-based/situated expertise and real-life problem contexts. This article presents and tests one approach within transdisciplinary research, which specifically focuses on increasing the participation of actors from outside of academic in knowledge production processes, called transdisciplinary (TD) co-production. | 1.50 | Yes | Blocked by a paywall or library-specific login | http://0-www.sciencedirect.com.wam.seals.ac.za/science/article/pii/S0016328714001864 | ||||||||||||||||||||
7 | 37 | Article | Whatmore, S. J. (2009). Mapping knowledge controversies: Science, democracy and the redistribution of expertise, Progress in Human Geography, 33, 5, 587-598. | LT1 | T3 | This paper relates to how to negotiate the science-policy, science-public interface. Two groups will be formed. Each group will read one of the papers on ‘knowledge controversies’ (Prescribed) for a class discussion of the implications of a public challenge to scientific expertise and the impact on the science-policy interface. Co-production of knowledge | What are the issues identified in the literature around the ‘science-policy interface’? What is a knowledge controversy? How can transdisciplinary knowledge production reduce knowledge controversies? | Reflecting on conversations between geography and science and technology studies (STS) over the last 15 years or so, this paper addresses their shared interest in knowledge controversies as generative political events. It explores how such events give rise to new ways of practising relations between science and democracy focusing on the case of environmental knowledge claims and technologies. This exploration interrogates three mobilizations of environmental knowledge controversies that have different implications for redistributing expertise, including that of (social) scientists, in the composition of knowledge polities. The first version sets out to map the language commitments of contributors to a controversy with the aim of enabling interested citizens to trace the ‘partisanship’ of scientific knowledge claims. The second is also a cartographic exercise designed to teach students how to account for the political force of technoscientific controversies by mapping the intense entanglements of scientific knowledge claims with legal, moral, economic and social concerns on the web. The third is concerned less with mapping knowledge controversies from an analytical distance than with an experimental research methodology that sets out to intervene in extant controversies in ways that map researchers’ own knowledge claims into what is at stake. | 1.50 | http://phg.sagepub.com/content/33/5/587.refs?patientinform-links=yes&legid=spphg;33/5/587 | Blocked by a paywall or library-specific login | |||||||||||||||||||||
8 | 19 | Article | Lemos, M.C. and Morehouse, B. J. (2005). The co-production of science and policy in integrated climate assessments. Global Environmental Change 15:57-68. | LT1 | T4 | Provides students with case studies on the application of TD thinking and research. | How was a TD approach applied in this case and what was the role of the researcher? | This paper examines the use of interactive models of research in the US regional integrated scientific assessments (RISAS), using as a case study the climate assessment of the Southwest (CLIMAS). It focuses on three components of regional climate assessments: interdisciplinarity, interaction with stakeholders and production of usable knowledge, and on the role of three explanatory variables––the level of ‘fit’ between state of knowledge production and application, disciplinary and personal flexibility, and availability of resources—which affect the co-production of science and policy in the context of integrated assessments. It finds that although no single model can fulfil the multitude of goals of such assessments, it is in highly interactive models that the possibilities of higher levels of innovation and related social impact are most likely to occur. | 1.00 | http://0-www.sciencedirect.com.wam.seals.ac.za/science/article/pii/S0959378004000652 | Blocked by a paywall or library-specific login | |||||||||||||||||||||
9 | 25 | Article | Pohl et al. (2010). Researchers roles in knowledge co-production: experience from sustainability research in Kenya, Switzerland, Bolivia and Nepal. Science and Public Policy 37(4): 267-281. | LT1 | T4 | Provides students with case studies on the application of TD thinking and research. | How was a TD approach applied in this case and what was the role of the researcher? | Co-production of knowledge between academic and non-academic communities is a prerequisite for research aiming at more sustainable development paths. Sustainability researchers face three challenges in such co-production: (a) addressing power relations; (b) interrelating different perspectives on the issues at stake; and (c) promoting a previously negotiated orientation towards sustainable development. A systematic comparison of four sustainability research projects in Kenya (vulnerability to drought), Switzerland (soil protection), Bolivia and Nepal (conservation vs. development) shows how the researchers intuitively adopted three different roles to face these challenges: the roles of reflective scientist, intermediary, and facilitator of a joint learning process. From this systematized and iterative self-reflection on the roles that a researcher can assume in the indeterminate social space where knowledge is co-produced, we draw conclusions regarding training. | 1.50 | http://spp.oxfordjournals.org/content/37/4/267.short | Blocked by a paywall or library-specific login | |||||||||||||||||||||
10 | 33 | Article | Swilling M. 2014. Rethinking the science–policy interface in South Africa: Experiments in knowledge co-production. South African Journal of Science, 110(5/6), Art. #2013-0265, 7 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/ sajs.2014/20130265 | LT1 | T4 | Provides students with case studies on the application of TD thinking and research. | How was a TD approach applied in this case and what was the role of the researcher? | This article contributes to the increasingly significant discussion about the science-policy interface. The challenge therein is that such a discussion tends to revolve around two seemingly mutually exclusive approaches: the reflexive approach inspired by Maarten Hajer's work that deconstructs the discourses of participatory policymaking, and the more normative transdisciplinary approaches that legitimise researchers as active change agents. With reference to a discussion of three South African case studies characterised by practical involvement of researchers in change processes, it is concluded that both approaches have merit and can improve the other: the reflexive approach could benefit from a better understanding of appropriate research methods for facilitating authentic engagement and participation, and the transdisciplinary approach could benefit from some reflexive caution about the change agent roles of researchers. The dynamics of the case studies and conclusions are significant in light of the fact that the South African research community is being influenced by re-alignments in the global scientific research community, resulting in an increasing emphasis on the need to do transdisciplinary research. For example, the adoption by some of the most significant global scientific associations in the natural and social sciences of the Future Earth platform at the Rio+20 conference in 2012 reflects most clearly this re-alignment. Researchers would be well advised to critically engage this agenda rather than presume it means little more than a rewording of traditional interdisciplinary approaches. | 1.50 | Yes | Blocked by a paywall or library-specific login | http://0-www.scielo.org.za.wam.seals.ac.za/scielo.php?pid=S0038-23532014000300019&script=sci_arttext | ||||||||||||||||||||
11 | 14 | Article | Hernon, P and Schwartz, C. (2007). What is a problem statement? Library & Information Science Research. 29, 307–309. | LT2 | T2 | Very brief outline of how to write a problem statement. | What are the three elements of a problem statement? | The short paper outlines the 4 main parts of a problem statement | 1.00 | http://www.lis-editors.org/bm~doc/editorial-problem-statement.pdf | Blocked by a paywall or library-specific login | to guide problem statement development | ||||||||||||||||||||
12 | 12 | Article | Frantzeskaki, N., Loorbach, D., Meadowcroft, J. (2012). Governing transitions to sustainability. International Journal of Sustainable Development, 15, 19-36. | LT4 | T3 | The paper provides a link between sustainability transitions and the governance of sustainability transitions. | What are 2 sustainability management tools and explain their design, outcome and application? | Our paper addresses the inherent tension between the open-ended and uncertain process of sustainability transitions and the ambition for governing such a process. We explore this tension from two theoretical angles: the sustainability and the governance angles; by showing the implications of sustainability targets in governance processes and governance attempts. We propose transition management as a governance approach that has the potential to overcome this tension through selective participatory processes of envisioning, negotiating, learning and experimenting. Transition management includes a portfolio of tools that have a common objective to enable change in practices and structures directed towards sustainable development targets. We present the transition arena and the transition experiments as two transition management tools elaborating on their process design, expected outcomes and illustrating their application in the Dutch construction transition. | 1.00 | http://www.inderscienceonline.com/doi/abs/10.1504/IJSD.2012.044032?journalCode=ijsd | Blocked by a paywall or library-specific login | Global challenges, urban futures - Mark Swilling https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_sudApATcM | ||||||||||||||||||||
13 | 23 | Article | Markard, J., Raven, B., Truffer, B. (2012). Sustainability transitions: an emerging field of research and its prospects. Research Policy,41, 955-967. | LT4 | T3 | The paper traces the development of the new field of sustainability research = that of sustainability transitions. | What are the main ideas emerging in the field of sustainability transitions? | Sustainability oriented innovation and technology studies have received increasing attention over the past 10–15 years. In particular, a new field dealing with “sustainability transitions” has gained ground and reached an output of 60–100 academic papers per year. In this article, we aim to identify the intellectual contours of this emerging field by conducting a review of basic conceptual frameworks, together with bibliographical analysis of 540 journal articles in the field. It is against this background that we position the six papers assembled in a special section in Research Policy. These papers pave the way for new conceptual developments and serve as stepping-stones in the maturation of sustainability transition studies, by linking with the scholarly literatures of management studies, sociology, policy studies, economic geography, and modeling. | 1.00 | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004873331200056X | Blocked by a paywall or library-specific login | Mark Swilling_Webinar on Anticipation_Anticipatory Thinking from an African Perspective https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyIKO8NzhQU | ||||||||||||||||||||
14 | 24 | Video | Mixed Methods Research ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8Usq_TPfko) | LT3 | T3 | Provides and introduction to transdisciplinary thinking and is an excellent first read to introduce this approach. This should be read alongside the viewing of the clips suggested in the curriculum outline. | What is transdisciplinarity and what makes it different to other conventional research approaches? | There is a shifting landscape for knowledge generation in contemporary societies that suggests a bright future for transdisciplinary (TD) research. Interestingly, however, there is currently no clear consensus on what transdisciplinarity is or how its quality can be evaluated. This paper uses three avenues to advance and clarify our understanding of transdisciplinarity. Firstly, we survey the theoretical literature and identify key characteristics used by authors in the field to distinguish transdisciplinarity from related research approaches. These characteristics are problem focus, evolving methodology and collaboration. In our discussion of these we highlight variations in description that have significance for practice. Secondly, we explore three interesting quandaries that transdisciplinary researchers face (integration, reflection and paradox) discussing how these quandaries manifest in different dimensions and their potential as both challenge and opportunity for practice. Finally, we use our synthesised characteristics and challenges to shape two alternative frameworks for evaluating the quality of TD endeavours. Our first framework is based on strategic questioning and is potentially useful to individuals seeking to improve the quality of their work. Our second framework adapts an existing quality schema to the unique challenges of transdisciplinarity and may be more appealing to those seeking to compare TD research projects. | 1.00 | http://0-www.sciencedirect.com.wam.seals.ac.za/science/article/pii/S0016328706000553 | Blocked by a paywall or library-specific login | |||||||||||||||||||||
15 | 3 | Article | Alagidede, Adu and Frimpong (2015) The effect of climate change on economic growth: evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa | LT1 | T2 | The paper adopts an economic approach to understand the impacts of climate change | Climate change; Sub-Saharan Africa; Economic growth Panel co-integration | This study is a contribution to the empirics of climate change and its effect on sustainable economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Using data on two climate variables: temperature and precipitation, and employing panel cointegration econometric technique of the long- and short-run effects of climate change on growth, we establish that temperatures beyond 24.9 C would significantly reduce economic performance in SSA. Furthermore, we show that the relationship between real GDP per capita on one hand and temperature on the other is intrinsically nonlinear. | 1.00 | http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10018-015-0116-3#/page-1 | Free Access | |||||||||||||||||||||
16 | 32 | Article | Steelman et al. (2015). Practicing the science of sustainability: the challenges of transdisciplinarity in a developing world context. Sustainability Science 10: 581-599. | LT1 | T2 | Case study of challenges related to building relationships and co-creating knowledge in an epistemologically diverse setting in South Africa. This provides a practical perspective.Definition and characteristics of transdisciplinary approaches | What practical aspects of transdisciplinarity emerge in this case study related to community water security in RSA? | Questions related to how we practice sustainability science remain salient in the face of the failure to achieve broad-scale sustainability objectives. Transdisciplinarity is an essential part of sustainability science. Transdisciplinary conceptual scholarship has been more prevalent than empirical scholarship or applications, especially in developing world contexts. In a single case study of a multiyear project addressing water security issues in HaMakuya, South Africa, we used a framework for assessing transdisciplinary objectives to facilitate more systematic learning for those who practice sustainability science. We found that defining the problem and assembling our team were easier than the co-creation of solution-oriented knowledge and the reintegration and application of this new knowledge. Our singular case study speaks to the potential challenges related to building relationships and co-creating knowledge in an epistemologically diverse setting. | 1,5 | http://0-link.springer.com.wam.seals.ac.za/article/10.1007/s11625-015-0334-4 | Free Access | |||||||||||||||||||||
17 | 11 | Article | Folke, C. (2004). Traditional knowledge in social–ecological systems. Ecology and Society 9(3): 7. [online] URL: http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol9/iss3/art7/. | LT1 | T3 | Editorial on a special issued on traditional knowledge in social-ecological systems. Students are referred to other papers in the special issue. It provides students with an introduction to the role of local/traditional knowledge and its importance in addressing sustainability issues. It should be read alongside the video suggested in the curriculum outline. Indigenous/traditional knowledge and its value | What is LEK/TK and why is it important in TD research? | Knowledge of resource and ecosystem dynamics and associated management practices exists among people of communities that, on a daily basis and over long periods of time, interact for their benefit and livelihood with ecosystems. The way such knowledge is being organized and culturally embedded, its relationship to institutionalized, professional science, and its role in catalyzing new ways of managing environmental resources have all become important subjects. This paper and special issue look at this. | 1.00 | http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol9/iss3/art7/ | Free Access | |||||||||||||||||||||
18 | 17 | Article | Lane, S. N., Odoni, N., Landstrom, C. Whatmore, S. J., Ward, N. and Bradley, S. (2011). Doing flood risk science differently: an experiment in radical scientific method. Transaction of the Institute of British Geographers, New Series, 36, 1, 15-36. | LT1 | T3 | This paper relates to how to negotiate the science-policy, science-public interface. Two groups will be formed. Each group will read one of the papers on ‘knowledge controversies’ (Prescribed) for a class discussion of the implications of a public challenge to scientific expertise and the impact on the science-policy interface. Co-production of knowledge | What are the issues identified in the literature around the ‘science-policy interface’? What is a knowledge controversy? How can transdisciplinary knowledge production reduce knowledge controversies? | In this paper, we describe an experiment in which the position of scientists with respect to flood risk management is fundamentally changed. Building on a review of three very different approaches to engaging the public in science, we contrast the normal way in which science is used in flood risk management in England and Wales with an experiment in which knowledge regarding flooding was co-produced. This illustrates a way of working with experts, both certified (academic natural and social scientists) and non-certified (local people affected by flooding), for whom flooding is a matter of concern, and where the event, flooding, is given agency in the experiment. We reveal a deep and distributed understanding of flood hydrology across all experts, certified and uncertified, involved in the experiment. This did not map onto the conventional dichotomy between ‘universal’ scientific expertise and ‘local’ lay expertise. By working with the event we harnessed, produced and negotiated a new and collective sense of knowledge, sufficient in our experiment to make a public intervention in flood risk management in our case-study location. The manner in which the academic scientists involved in the practice of their science were repositioned was radical as compared with normal scientific method. It was also radical for a more fundamental reason: the purpose of our experiment became as much about creating a new public capable of making a political intervention in a situation of impasse, as it was about producing the solution itself. The practice of knowledge generation, the science undertaken, worked with the hybridisation of science and politics rather than trying to extract science from it. | 1.50 | http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1475-5661.2010.00410.x/abstract | Free Access | |||||||||||||||||||||
19 | 31 | Article | Sharp et al. (2011) Positivism, post-positivism and domestic water demand: interrelating science across the paradigmatic divide. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, New Series, doi: 10.1111/j.1475-5661.2011.00435.x | LT2 | T2 | Provides an example of a real research project undertaken by an interdisciplinary team, with natural and social scientists using different approaches to answer the research question. | What are the different problem statement, and research questions provided by the natural versus the social scientists in the project? | The contributions and limitations of the positivist and post-positivist approaches to research into domestic water demand are analysed and compared, and the potential for bringing the two perspectives together is evaluated. The analysis is based on a 4-year investigation of water demand conducted as part of a larger multidisciplinary research programme on sustainable urban environments and specifically the role of water in new developments. The positivist approach is more traditional and offers immediate utility in an evidence-based, legally defensible policy arena. Positivists use concepts such as good ecological status and water scarcity as measures or targets. In contrast post-positivists seek to ‘deconstruct’ concepts and decision processes in order to understand backgrounds, values and contexts that influence outcomes. The positivists typically use large quantitative data sets and seek to establish general ‘truths’ that can be tested and used to forecast. The post-positivists undertake intensive case-study-based investigations, typically drawing on qualitative information to illustrate processes, exceptions and barriers. While each approach can add value to the other, the paper argues that the synthesis of the two approaches to create integrated interdisciplinary frameworks is unlikely to succeed. It argues that the most helpful vision is that of a pluralist research environment with ‘interrelating interdisciplinary research’ in which the relative contributions of generalisations and forecasts are discussed alongside broader interpretations about the inherent values of the current policy process. | 2.00 | https://www.researchgate.net/publication/230291643_Positivism_post-positivism_and_domestic_water_demand_Interrelating_science_across_the_paradigmatic_divide | Free Access | |||||||||||||||||||||
20 | 20 | Article | Lincoln Y. S. and González y González , E.M. The Search for Emerging Decolonizing Methodologies in Qualitative Research: Further Strategies for Liberatory and Democratic Inquiry Qualitative Inquiry July 2008 14: 784-805, doi:10.1177/1077800408318304 | LT3 | T1 | The reading suggests an alternative approach to knowledge for understanding indigenous knowledge. | What methodological approaches are suggested to foreground the knowledge of local/indigenous people? | Many non-Western and non-English-speaking scholars express the need for supporting a methodological approach that foregrounds the voices of nationals and locals (or indigenous peoples). Supporting this stance, Western scholars will reach out in democratic and liberatory ways that effect research collaboration, helping to foster social justice and locally desired change. This article supports this search via presenting some methodological strategies culled from six different cases of cross-cultural and cross-language research in which both Western and non-Western scholars were involved and/or collaborated. A comparative study of the inquiries themselves, with follow-up interviews with their U.S.-based authors, is the strategy that has been chosen to respond to this search for Recommended, emerging methodological and narrative approaches to cross-cultural/cross-national research that is useful to both local and Western scholars equally. | 1.00 | http://qix.sagepub.com/content/14/5/784.full.pdf | Free Access | |||||||||||||||||||||
21 | 36 | Article | Welsh, +34:37M. 2014. Resilience and responsibility: governing uncertainty in a complex world. The Geographical Journal 180, 1, 15-26. | LT4 | T1 | Helps to understand how the concept resilience has been used in the natural and social sciences as well as in theoretical and applied contexts and presents some of the dominant theoretical approaches to climate change. The paper suggests that although the term resilience has been widely used, it is often used to support the current systemic inequalities as it avoids engaging with questions of power. The paper encourages the reader to critically examine the potential for resilience to lead to change. | When do you think the state should take responsibility for risk and when should individuals take responsibility? | ‘Resilience’ has risen to prominence across a range of academic disciplines and political discourses. Situating resilience theories in historical context the paper argues that the resilience discourse of complex adaptive systems, for all its utility as a means for conceptualising and managing change, is allied with contemporary governmental discourses that responsibilise risk away from the state and on to individuals and institutions. Further, in arguing that resilience theories originate in two distinct epistemological communities (natural and social science) in its mobilisation as a ‘boundary object’ resilience naturalises an ontology of ‘the system’. Resilience approaches increasingly structure, not only academic, but also government policy discourses, with each influencing the development of the other. It is argued that by mobilising ‘the system’ as the metaconcept for capturing socio-natural and socio-economic relations resilience theories naturalise and reify two abstractions: firstly, the system itself – enrolling citizens into practices that give it meaning and presence; secondly, the naturalisation of shocks to the system, locating them in a post-political space where the only certainty is uncertainty. With reference to an emerging governmentality through resilience, this paper argues for a critical interrogation of plural resilience theories and wonders at their emancipatory possibilities | 1.00 | https://www.researchgate.net/publication/263120088_Resilience_and_responsibility_Governing_uncertainty_in_a_complex_world | Free Access | |||||||||||||||||||||
22 | 9 | Article | Bulkeley H., Castan Broto, V. (2013). Government by experiment? Global cities and the governing of climate change. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 38, 3, 361-375. | LT4 | T2 | This paper helps the reader to understand how the concept of governance is applied, though using the case of climate governance in cities. | What are the different ways that governments have engaged in urban climate change? Can you identify a climate change "experiment" in a city in your country? | In this paper, we argue for an approach that goes beyond an institutional reading of urban climate governance to engage with the ways in which government is accomplished through social and technical practices. Central to the exercise of government in this manner, we argue, are ‘climate change experiments’– purposive interventions in urban socio-technical systems designed to respond to the imperatives of mitigating and adapting to climate change in the city. Drawing on three different concepts – of governance experiments, socio-technical experiments, and strategic experiments – we first develop a framework for understanding the nature and dynamics of urban climate change experiments. We use this conceptual analysis to frame a scoping study of the global dimensions of urban climate change experimentation in a database of 627 urban climate change experiments in 100 global cities. The analysis charts when and where these experiments occur, the relationship between the social and technical aspects of experimentation and the governance of urban climate change experimentation, including the actors involved in their governing and the extent to which new political spaces for experimentation are emerging in the contemporary city. We find that experiments serve to create new forms of political space within the city, as public and private authority blur, and are primarily enacted through forms of technical intervention in infrastructure networks, drawing attention to the importance of such sites in urban climate politics. These findings point to an emerging research agenda on urban climate change experiments that needs to engage with the diversity of experimentation in different urban contexts, how they are conducted in practice and their impacts and implications for urban governance and urban life. | 1.00 | http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1475-5661.2012.00535.x/full | Free Access | |||||||||||||||||||||
23 | 34 | Article | Swyngedouw, E. (2009). The Political Economy and Political Ecology of the Hydro-Social Cycle. Journal of Contemporary Water Research & Education, 142, 56-60. | LT4 | T2 | An example of how the social science political ecology approach can be used to interrogate the study of water. The paper suggests that bringing together different approaches to studying water could help to transform water policy. | Provide a definition of the political ecology approach and the main assumption about society and nature. | Political-ecological perspectives on water suggest a close correlation between the transformations of, and in, the hydrological cycle at local, regional and global levels on the one hand and relations of social, political, economic, and cultural power on the other (Swyngedouw 2004). | 1.00 | http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1936-704X.2009.00054.x/full;jsessionid=C758D884170E2DAEBFA86FD5086186EA.f02t01?globalMessage=0 | Free Access | |||||||||||||||||||||
24 | 30 | Reading with associated open access TED talk video | Rockström, J., et al. (2009). A safe operating space for humanity. Nature 461.7263 : 472-475. (This can be replaced with the TEDtalk or both may be used). | LT2 | T1 | Sets the scene for the students to understand the challenges of the 'anthropocene' and why we need to be doing things differently. | What are the key concerns in terms of transgressing planetary boundaries for earth system processes? | New approach proposed for defining preconditions for human development ● Crossing certain biophysical thresholds could have disastrous consequences for humanity ● Three of nine interlinked planetary boundaries have already been overstepped | 0,5 | http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol14/iss2/art32/ | Free Access | TED talk (Youtube) Johan Rockstrom talks about planetary boundaries and the Anthropocene. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgqtrlixYR4 | ||||||||||||||||||||
25 | 28 | Reading with linked open access video | Raworth, K. A safe and just space for humanity: Can we live within the doughnut. Oxfam Discussion Paper. www.oxfam.org/grow | LT1 | T1 | Sets the scene for the students to understand the challenges of the 'anthropocene' and why we need to be doing things differently - i.e. using transdisciplinary thinking and co-creation of knowledge. | Why do we need to think about both the biophysical and and social aspects of the anthropocene? | Humanity’s challenge in the 21st century is to eradicate poverty and achieve a prosperity for all within the means of the planet’s limited natural resources. In the run-up to Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, this Discussion Paper is an exploration of what such a model of prosperity might look like. It presents a visual framework – shaped like a doughnut – which brings the concept of planetary boundaries together with the complementary concept of social boundaries, creating a safe and just space between the two, in which humanity can thrive. Moving into this safe and just space demands far greater equity – within and between countries – in the use of natural resources, and far greater efficiency in transforming those resources to meet human needs. As interest in creating Sustainable Development Goals grows, along with debates about reframing the Millennium Development Goals post-2015, this framework proposes a global-scale compass that can help to chart the course. | 1.00 | https://www.oxfam.org/en/research/safe-and-just-space-humanity?utm_source=oxf.am&utm_medium=oe8&utm_content=redirect | Free Access | https://www.oxfam.org/en/video/2012/introducing-doughnut-safe-and-just-space-humanity | ||||||||||||||||||||
26 | 45 | Video | Fischer J. (2014) What is sustainability? | LT1 | T1 | Stockholm Resilience Centre TV ... Transdisciplinarity, Interdisciplinarity, Reductive Disciplinarity | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRv78EDki6A | Free Access | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
27 | 58 | Video | Leach M. (2015) Planetary boundaries and the Anthropocene | LT1 | T1 | First of 2 talks in a plenary debate between Johan Rockström (Director, Stockholm Resilience Centre) and Melissa Leach (Director, Institute of Development Studies). | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTMY6UAITrQ | Free Access | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
28 | 44 | Video | Pohl, C (2014) Heuristics of Transdisciplinary Research | LT1 | T2 | Plenary talk from the First Global Conference on Research Integration and Implementation: "Heuristics of Transdisciplinary Research." Transdisciplinary research (of the European sustainability style) is research that combines knowledge of different disciplines and engages with societal actors: a. to grasp the complexity of a societal problem; b. to take into account the diversity of perceptions that stakeholders and disciplines may have of a problem; c. to link generalised abstract and case-specific knowledge; and, d. to develop knowledge and practices that promote what is perceived to be the common good. Compared to basic research taking place in the realm of a given discipline, trans-disciplinary projects are an encounter of various realms and their underlying worldviews. For instance, and depending on the projects specific aim and composition, these can involve the natural, medical, engineering or social sciences, the humanities, the private or the public sector or civil society. To appraise, to position and to interrelate the different realms and their underlying worldviews (“worldview-brokering”) is what trans-disciplinary research is all about. Some researchers presume that disciplinary excellence qualifies them for trans-disciplinary encounters, convinced that ‘you just have to do it’. This leads to a great deal of re-inventing the wheel. If experiences drawn from researchers and the projects they are involved in are systematically analysed, common challenges can be identified together with useful heuristics that can enable trans-disciplinary encounters. Among those heuristics are: * To invest substantial time and brain-power in all three stages of trans-disciplinary research: (1) problem framing, (2) problem analysis and (3) bringing results to fruition; * To design research recursively, i.e. to alternate phases of doing research with phases of critically reflecting on research; * To start synthesis with problem framing and to understand consensus as one possible form of synthesis; * To reduce complexity be contextualisation; * And that there is no jack-of-all-trades trans-disciplinarity. | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nx1SNFWkhmI | Free Access | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
29 | 59 | Video | UNU (2012) Land Use, Climate Change Adaptation and Indigenous Peoples | LT1 | T3 | (Combining knowledge systems) | In a recent statement to the Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change (IIPFCC) stated: “…[W]e reiterate the need for recognition of our traditional knowledge, which we have sustainably used and practiced for generations; and the need to integrate such knowledge in global, national and sub-national efforts. This knowledge is our vital contribution to climate change adaptation and mitigation.” | http://ourworld.unu.edu/en/land-use-climate-change-adaptation-and-indigenous-peoples | Free Access | |||||||||||||||||||||||
30 | 42 | Video | How to develop a good research topic | LT2 | T1. | Discusses how to develop a good research topic | What make a good topic? How to narrow a topic? How to broaden a topic? | N/A | 0.20 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXNztCLYgxc | Free Access | |||||||||||||||||||||
31 | 40 | Video | Developing a research question | LT2 | T3. | Discusses how to develop a research question | How does one develop a research question? What is a good example of doing this? | N/A | 0.20 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGdfnc7VBN4 | Free Access | |||||||||||||||||||||
32 | 50 | video | How to use Mendeley | LT2 | T4 | practical training | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gv6_HuCYExM | Free Access | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
33 | 60 | Video | Research paradigms | LT3 | T1 | Simplification of research paradigms | This video sumarizes major concepts including positivism, post-positivism, social constructivism and critical theory. | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0T4GSgOiqM | Free Access | |||||||||||||||||||||||
34 | 61 | Video | Women of the Lagoon: confronting climate Change in coastal Vietnam" Vietnam | LT3 | T2 | Example of participatory action research work undertaken to understand gender/development. | This documentary from Vietnam isa result of a Climate Justice Feminist Participatory Action Research by Center for Sustainable Rural Development (SRD) and Asia Pacific Forum on Women Law and Development (APWLD). This video tells the story of the impacts of climate change in communities along coastal Vietnam tackling issues such as erratic weather patterns, salinisation of water and soil and the increase of natural disasters, notably floods.By collaborating with SRD, this programme has empowered women to cope with these impacts by developing adaptation measuresand teaching disaster relief skills.Vietnamese women share the story of their struggle against climate change and how their participation in climate solutions is bringing change in their rural life. | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BLeM59odY0 | Free Access | |||||||||||||||||||||||
35 | 63 | Video | Bryan (2011) Conducting Mixed Methods Research | LT3 | T3 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8Usq_Tpfko | Free Access | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
36 | 62 | Video | Bryman (2009) Research methods | LT3 | T3 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHzM9RlO6j0 | Free Access | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
37 | 51 | book | Sayer, A. (1984) Methods in Social Science. Figure 13, Intensive and Extensive Research Design: A summary, p. 222. | LT3 | T3 | Comparison of intensive/extensive research design | http://samples.sainsburysebooks.co.uk/9781136961915_sample_850022.pdf | Free Access to section of the book | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
38 | 49 | Article | Collins, K., & Ison, R. (2009). Jumping off Arnstein's ladder: social learning as a new policy paradigm for climate change adaptation. Environmental Policy and Governance, 19(6), 358-373. | LT1 | T3 | Social learning | Participation of citizens, groups, organizations and businesses is now an essential element to tackle climate change effectively at international, European Union, national and local levels. However, beyond the general imperative to participate, major policy bodies offer little guidance on what this entails. We suggest that the dominance of Arnstein's ladder of citizen participation in policy discourses constrains the ways we think about, and critically the purposes we ascribe to, participation in a climate change context. We suggest an alternative framing of climate change, where no single group has clear access to understanding the issue and its resolution. Thus adaptation is fundamentally dependent on new forms of learning. Drawing on experiences of social learning approaches to natural resource managing, we explore how a commitment to social learning more accurately embodies the new kinds of role, relationship, practice and sense of purpose required to progress adaptive climate change agendas and practices. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. | http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/eet.523/epdf | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
39 | 46 | Article | Corburn, J. (2009) Cities, Climate Change and Urban Heat Island Mitigation: Localizing Global Environmental Science in Urban Studies 46 (2). Provides a very practical illustration of grappling with different knowledge systems at the local level in the management of a real climate problem (urban heat island). | LT1 | T3 | This paper explores how city planners engaged with global climate scientists to devise contextually relevant strategies to address the urban heat island effect—a potentially dangerous heat event expected to increase along with global warming. Drawing original data from the New York City Regional Heat Island Initiative, a collaborative effort between scientists and urban planners, the paper highlights how global climate science is ‘localised’ as researchers and policy-makers struggle to make technically legitimate and politically accountable decisions. The paper argues that the localisation of global science often involves a process of co-production, where technical issues are not divorced from their social setting and a diverse set of stakeholders engage in analytical reviews and the crafting of policy solutions. The paper argues that the co-production framework can contribute to more scientifi cally legitimate and publicly accountable decision-making related to urban climate change. | http://usj.sagepub.com/content/46/2/413.full.pdf+html | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
40 | 48 | Article | Cundill, G., S. Shackleton, L. Sisitka, M. Ntshudu, H. Lotz-Sisitka, I. Kulundu, and N. Hamer. (2014) Social Learning for Adaptation: A Descriptive Handbook for Practitioners and Action Researchers. Rhodes, South Africa: IDRC/Rhodes University. | LT1 | T3 | Social learning | This handbook presents the experience of a participatory social learning process that evolved to support individual and community level adaptation to the myriad of stressors affecting rural people. While the social learning process is presented as a ‘package,’ this is more out of convenience than attempting to represent a perfect model. In other words, genuinely responsive social learning processes may well vary in content, but possibly not in core features from what is presented here. This handbook should therefore be considered as a framework to guide thinking and reflection around how such processes might unfold, and further provide guidance towards possible approaches and activities that may be appropriate in some circumstances | http://www.preventionweb.net/files/36923_52e626a294068handbookfinal23jan2014.pdf | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
41 | 10 | Article | Chilisa, B.(2005) Educational research within postcolonial Africa: a critique of HIV/AIDS research in Botswana, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 18:6, 659-684, DOI: 10.1080/09518390500298170 | LT3 | T1 | Despite its application to the issue of HIV/AIDS, the paper provides an argument for the use of more indigenous knowledge systems and ways of knowing. | How has indigenous knowledge systems come to be marginalised? How has this continued in the postcolonial setting? Describe the 'otherness' ideology? | This paper uses the postcolonial lens to highlight that mainstream research in postcolonial societies still ignores, marginalizes and suppresses other knowledge systems and ways of knowing. The marginalization of local knowledge systems, it is argued, was established in the colonial times that relegated all things indigenous or from the colonized communities as unworthy, uncivilized, barbaric and superstitious. Systematic efforts to inscribe Western ways of cultural, economic, political and social systems were applied during the colonial times and maintained in the post-independence era. The educational system did not escape the colonial construction of the colonized subjects and their relegation to otherness. Years after the struggle for independence the content of what is taught, methods of teaching and research remain Western in non-Western contexts. This does not only alienate the ‘othered’ from their own knowledge systems, it can be a matter of life and death as demonstrated by the HIV/AIDS information and education campaign. Using excerpts from studies on This paper uses the postcolonial lens to highlight that mainstream research in postcolonial societies still ignores, marginalizes and suppresses other knowledge systems and ways of knowing. The marginalization of local knowledge systems, it is argued, was established in the colonial times that relegated all things indigenous or from the colonized communities as unworthy, uncivilized, barbaric and superstitious. Systematic efforts to inscribe Western ways of cultural, economic, political and social systems were applied during the colonial times and maintained in the post-independence era. The educational system did not escape the colonial construction of the colonized subjects and their relegation to otherness. Years after the struggle for independence the content of what is taught, methods of teaching and research remain Western in non-Western contexts. This does not only alienate the ‘othered’ from their own knowledge systems, it can be a matter of life and death as demonstrated by the HIV/AIDS information and education campaign. Using excerpts from studies on HIV/AIDS, the paper highlights that interventions to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS, legitimized by conventional/ Western research knowledge and frameworks, have alienated the people from the struggle to prevent the spread of the virus. Findings from a number of research studies on HIV/AIDS in Botswana are analysed within the framework of current prevention strategies, more specifically posters and cartoons used in the campaign against HIV/AIDS, to illustrate the marginalization of other knowledge systems and the intersection of the ‘otherness’ ideology with mainstream First World research methodologies. | 1.00 | http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/09518390500298170?needAccess=true | ||||||||||||||||||||||
42 | 16 | Article | Knudson, S. (2015). Integrating the Self and the Spirit: Strategies for Aligning Qualitative Research Teaching with Indigenous Methods, Methodologies, and Epistemology | LT3 | T1 | See Section 3 for outline of Prescribed Elements of Indigenous Worldviews, Methodologies, and Methods | What are the Prescribed elements of indigenous knowledge? What is the argument for including indigenous knowledge in teaching and research? | Many universities internationally now make concerted efforts to promote curriculum development and classroom and campus cultures that recognize diversity in student viewpoints and life experiences. Increasingly, these efforts have involved promoting recognition and inclusion of indigenous knowledges in the university setting. If adopted in the classroom, the promotion of indigenous perspectives suggests exciting possibilities for teaching qualitative research critically. Existing educational resources, however, offer little guidance on achieving this through undergraduate qualitative methods teaching. Using examples of Canadian undergraduate teaching initiatives, I suggest that by integrating indigenous methods, perspectives, and epistemology, particularly through student opportunities for community-engaged learning and exposure to participatory action research, teaching qualitative research can promote critical recognition of multiple ways of knowing. | 1.00 | http://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/2362/3845 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
43 | 21 | Article | Lincoln, Y. S., Lynham, S. A. and Guba, E.G. (2011). Paradigmatic controversies, contradictions and emerging confluences, revisited, in Denzin , N. K. and Lincoln, Y. S (eds.), The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research, 4thEdition, Sage, Los Angeles, 97-128. | LT3 | T1 | The reading provides the Prescribed knowledge for understanding the Western paradigms/approaches to knowledge, their epistemological, ontological assumptions and methodologies & how the quality of knowledge produced is assessed in each approach. | What are the epistemological, ontological assumptions and methodologies of the four main approaches to knowledge | The chapter presents 5 paradigms or approaches to knowledge: positivist, post-positivist, critical, social constructivist and participatory action research paradigm. It presents and compares the epistemological, ontological and methodological assumptions of each approach. | 4.00 | https://books.google.co.za/books?hl=en&lr=&id=AIRpMHgBYqIC&oi=fnd&pg=PA97&dq=Lincoln,+Y.+S.,+Lynham,+S.+A.+and+Guba,+E.G.+(2011).+Paradigmatic+controversies,+contradictions+and+emerging+confluences,+revisited,+in+Denzin+,+N.+K.+and+Lincoln,+Y.+S+(eds.),+The+Sage+Handbook+of+Qualitative+Research,+4thEdition,+Sage,+Los+Angeles,+97-12&ots=knGNAEewha&sig=MhlCedNbPwYixM0Q17qWdFIxsa4#v=onepage&q&f=false | ‘Research Paradigms’ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0T4GSgOiqM) | |||||||||||||||||||||
44 | 22 | Article | Lotz-Sisitka, H., Wals, A.E., Kronlid, D. and McGarry, D., (2015). Transformative, transgressive social learning: rethinking higher education pedagogy in times of systemic global dysfunction. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 16, pp.73-80. | LT3 | T1 | The reading provides a counter view to the dominant western view of the main approaches to knowledge/learning and is highly relevant in the context of Africa, particular the postcolonial and decolonisation theories it describes | How does the postcolonial approach to knowledge/ learning challenge the spectrum of approaches provided by Lincoln et al | The nature of the sustainability challenges currently at hand is such that dominant pedagogies and forms of learning that characterize higher education need to be reconsidered to enable students and staff to deal with accelerating change, increasing complexity, contested knowledge claims and inevitable uncertainty. In this contribution we identified four streams of emerging transformative, transgressive learning research and praxis in the sustainability sciences that appear generative of a higher education pedagogy that appears more responsive to the key challenges of our time: (1) reflexive social learning and capabilities theory, (2) critical phenomenology, (3) socio-cultural and cultural historical activity theory, and (4) new social movement, postcolonial and decolonisation theory. The paper critiques the current tendency in sustainability science and learning to rely on resilience and adaptive capacity building and argues that in order to break with maladaptive resilience of unsustainable systems it is essential to strengthen transgressive learning and disruptive capacity-building. | 1.00 | http://ac.els-cdn.com/S1877343515000822/1-s2.0-S1877343515000822-main.pdf?_tid=4a443bf4-768d-11e6-ab6a-00000aacb35d&acdnat=1473426169_1a5796475246fb8953f4518ec99ac3c6 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
45 | 27 | Article | Ravenek, M.J. and Rudman, D.L.(2013). Bridging conceptions of quality in moments of qualitative research. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 12(1), pp.436-456. | LT3 | T1 | The reading demonstrates how the quality of knowledge or evidence is assessed in each approach/paradigm | How does the assessment of the quality of qualitative research differ from that presented by the positivist approach. | Quality assessment in qualitative research has been, and remains, a contentious issue. The qualitative literature contains a diversity of opinions on definitions of and criteria for quality. This article attempts to organize this diversity, drawing on several examples of existing quality criteria, into four main approaches: qualitative as quantitative criteria, paradigm specific criteria, individualized assessment, and bridging criteria. These different approaches can be mapped onto the historical transitions, or moments, in qualitative research presented by Denzin and Lincoln and, as such, they are presented alongside the various criteria reviewed. Socio-political conditions that have led us to a fractured future, where the value and significance of qualitative work may be marginalized, support the adoption of bridging criteria. These broadly applicable criteria provide means to assess quality and can be flexibly applied among the diversity of qualitative approaches used by researchers. Five categories that summarize the language used within bridging criteria are presented as a means to move forward in developing an approach to quality assessment that fosters communication and connections within the diversity of qualitative research, while simultaneously respecting and valuing paradigmatic and methodological diversity. | 1.00 | http://ijq.sagepub.com/content/12/1/436.full.pdf+html | ||||||||||||||||||||||
46 | 15 | Article | Kitchin, R and Tait, N. Conducting Research in Human Geography: Theory, Method and Practice, Prentice Hall. Chapter 2. | LT3 | T1 & T4 | This chapter provides a short overview of qualitative and quantitative methodology and reasons for using either or both. | What are the main differences between quantitative and qualitative methodology | The chapter provides a simple overview of how to create a research design and discusses the differences between quantitative and qualitative research. | 1.50 | https://www.amazon.com/Conducting-Research-Human-Geography-methodology/dp/0582297974 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
47 | 7 | Article | Blue, G. (2016). Framing climate change for public deliberation: What role for Interpretive social sciences and humanities? Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning, 18, 1, 67-84. | LT3 | T2: | The paper argues that opening up the debate over climate change to diverse stakeholders through public participation can " open up public deliberation on climate change such that alternative questions, neglected issues, marginalized perspectives and different possibilities can gain traction for policy purposes" (Blue, 2016, 67) | What are the disadvantages of framing cite science as a science-based issue? What is epistemic diversity? What process can be used to open up the debates as to the definition of climate change and it solutions, and the political issues involved? | Public deliberation is increasingly marshalled as a viable avenue for climate governance. Although climate change can be framed in multiple ways, it is widely assumed that the only relevant public meaning of climate change is that given by the natural sciences. Framing climate change as an inherently science-based public issue not only shields institutional power from scrutiny, but it can also foster an instrumental approach to public deliberation that can constrain imaginative engagement with present and future socio-environmental change. By fostering the normative value of pluralism as well as the substantive value of epistemic diversity, the interpretive social sciences and humanities can assist in opening up public deliberation on climate change such that alternative questions, neglected issues, marginalized perspectives and different possibilities can gain traction for policy purposes. Stakeholders of public deliberation are encouraged to reflect on the orchestration of the processes by which climate change is defined, solutions identified and political collectives convened. | 1.50 | http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1523908X.2015.1053107 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
48 | 74 | Article | Colenbrander, C., Cartwright, A. and Taylor, A. (2015) Drawing a line in the sand: managing coastal risks in the City Of Cape Town. South African Geographical Journal 97, 1, 2015. | LT3 | T3 | Empirical studies | This paper describes the process and highlights the potential for unanticipated conflict and resistance when notions of ‘best practice’ fail to consider local institutional interests and pre-existing legislation. This insight is important as coastal municipalities in South Africa look to implement set-back lines in compliance with the Integrated Coastal Management Act (Act 24 of 2008) | http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/03736245.2014.924865?needAccess=true | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
49 | 75 | Article | De Wit, S. (2015) Changing patterns of rain or power? Working Paper 11 of the Priority Programme 1448 of the German Research Foundation, Edited by Engel, U. and Rottenburg, R. Adaptation and Creativity in Africa: technologies and significations in the making of order and disorder. (Ethnographic method). | LT3 | T3 | Empirical studies | Moving beyond objectivist stances that are largely dominating the climate change research agenda and international policy making, this paper explores an alternative ontology of the Adaptation to Climate Change discourse. By tracing a travelling idea about ‘Adaptation to Climate Change’ (ACC) along a variety of places and multiple encounters the epistemological and political challenges that are entailed by this narrative in the making are laid bare. It focuses on the power dynamics that are revealed by and fostered through the discursive practices that characterize the emergence of this nascent discourse in Tanzania. It is argued that this travelling idea – which is continuously coproduced and reshaped by varying actors in its journey to the ‘local’ level – brings longstanding tensions to the fore that exist between Maasai agropastoralists and the Tanzanian government. Whereas the government portrays the pastoralists in the debate both as victims as well as perpetrators of a changing climate, the grassroots organizations representing the pastoral communities view the Maasai rather as masters of adaptation. It will be shown how the ACC paradigm is wholeheartedly embraced by several actors along its journey until it reaches the rural village of Terrat, where it is by and large rejected. By shining light on these translation practices it is argued that in face of this emerging discourse, adaptation should not solely be seen as a collective human response to (external) changing bio-physical stimuli, but rather as an integrated process that cannot be detached from adaptations to its discursive formations. | http://www.spp1448.de/fileadmin/media/galleries/SPP_Administration/Working_Paper_Series/SPP1448_WP11_de_Wit.pdf | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
50 | 76 | Article | Pasquini, L. Cowling, T. M, Ziervogel, G. (2013) Facing the heat: Barriers to mainstreaming climate change adaptation in local government in the Western Cape Province, South Africa. Habitat International 40, 225-232. (Qualitative social science method) | LT3 | T3 | Empirical studies | Local government represents a key opportunity for implementing local adaptation to the impacts of climate change. The need for adaptation is most urgent in developing countries, yet most research has focused on the barriers to climate change mainstreaming in municipalities of the global North. This paper presents the results of a study that investigated barriers to action on climate change adaptation in eight municipalities in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. Forty-seven municipal actors (officials and councillors) were interviewed regarding the experience of their municipality with climate impacts and adaptive actions (focussing on ecosystem-based adaptation), as well as their knowledge and belief on climate change and adaptation issues. Results show that multiple barriers affect the ability of municipalities to mainstream adaptation issues, from individual-level barriers (such as a lack of understanding of climate change and adaptation options) to regulatory/institutional barriers (such as the problems posed by party politics) to socio-cultural barriers (such as a lack of interest within municipal constituencies for climate change issues). These numerous barriers are not significantly different to those encountered so far in municipalities of the developed world, suggesting that across the globe there are common problems that national and provincial governments need to address in order to mainstream climate change adaptation at the local level (such as changing planning and other laws by which local governments operate in order to recognise climate change impacts). Our research draws attention to a couple of under-researched issues, that of the effects of party politics and councillor qualifications on local government operation and performance, and suggests that much further research should address these topics in both developed and developing countries. | http://ac.els-cdn.com/S0197397513000477/1-s2.0-S0197397513000477-main.pdf?_tid=7e33323c-7690-11e6-a7ee-00000aab0f01&acdnat=1473427544_06fea13e4ac907ec2e312dc4008fd106 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
51 | 77 | Article | Rinne, P. and Nygren, A. (2016) From Resistance to Resilience: Media Discourses on Urban Flood Governance in Mexico. Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning 18, 1, 4-26. (Discourse analysis) | LT3 | T3 | Empirical studies | This article examines the continuities and changes in newspaper coverage of urban flood governance in Tabasco, southeastern Mexico, where highly destructive floods have made flood risks a socially sensitive and politically contested public issue. The analysis draws upon post-Foucauldian critical discourse analysis, paying special attention to different actors’ discursive strategies to further their agendas amid the shifting forms of environmental governance. We argue that in recent years, discourses that promote integrated flood governance, based on cultural adaptation and social resilience instead of technological control, have become prominent in the media presentation of flood governance. These discourses endorse neoliberal views of flood governance as an issue of public–private co-governance and civil self-responsibility while being reluctant to consider flood risk from the perspective of the uneven distribution of vulnerabilities or as an issue of human rights. | http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1523908X.2015.1021414 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
52 | 78 | Article | Sango I, and Godwell N. (2015) Climate change trends and environmental impacts in the Makonde Communal Lands, Zimbabwe. South African Journal of Science 111(7/8), Art. #2014-0266, 6 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/ (Mixed methods including collecting meteorological data) | LT3 | T3 | Empirical studies | During the last century, climate has increasingly become variable and changeable, with significant deviations from the observed normal averages, which often leads to disruptive consequences to ecosystems and livelihoods. Climate change induced environmental challenges are viewed to be particularly severe to economically challenged tropical societies including the Zimbabwean rural communities. We sought to determine local level climate change trends and associated biophysical implications in the Makonde Communal Lands of Zimbabwe. Our findings suggest that there has been significant climate change in the Makonde Communal Lands since 1962. The climate change observed has induced the deterioration of ecosystem productivity, diversity and services, to the detriment of human livelihoods. We provide insights into how to better understand local level dynamics between climate change and local ecosystem goods and services as the basis of livelihood in marginalised rural communities. Among the key reasons for concern about impacts of anthropogenic activities on climate is the fact that changing climate has direct impacts on the biophysical world, which in turn is a vital asset for human livelihoods, economies and general well-being. | http://www.scielo.org.za/pdf/sajs/v111n7-8/18.pdf | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
53 | 79 | Article | Smith, H., & Jenkins, P. (2015). Trans-disciplinary research and strategic urban expansion planning in a context of weak institutional capacity: Case study of Huambo, Angola. Habitat International, 46, 244-251. (Transdisciplinary/mixed methods). | LT3 | T3 | Empirical studies | objectives. This paper reflects on the experience of an Urban Development Priority Action Strategy being developed for the city of Huambo, Angola, by the city administration in partnership with local NGO Development Workshop (DW), with support from a European academic institution, the Centre for Environment & Human Settlements (CEHS). This initiative seeks to embed trans-disciplinarity in a meaningful manner at the local level to permit the identification and implementation of a realistic set of priority actions. This paper reports on the type of information and understanding that is generated through this approach, as well as on the de facto constraints and boundaries that are created by the relationships between the key stakeholders, their capacities and interests. It also illustrates the more immediate and short-term results that can be achieved through this approach in comparison with traditional master planning approaches e including key stakeholder engagement with identified actions and proposal of new organisational and financial models for urban land development and management e as well as highlighting the advantages of mutual knowledge exchange between praxis and research | http://ac.els-cdn.com/S0197397514001441/1-s2.0-S0197397514001441-main.pdf?_tid=55730be6-7691-11e6-87b0-00000aab0f27&acdnat=1473427905_e9de8d15efdeb979cd874bd8027a9d70 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
54 | 80 | Article | Weissner et al. (2014) Translating the ‘adaptation to climate change’ paradigm: the politics of a travelling idea in Africa. The Geographical Journal, 180, 2, June 2014, pp. 111–119, doi: 10.1111/geoj.12037 (Discourse analysis) | LT3 | T3 | Empirical studies | In the past few years, adaptation to climate change has emerged as a dominant new theme in development politics, to an extent that it can almost be considered as a new development paradigm. Yet, this new paradigm and its effects are not unproblematic, as the empirical research in three East African countries presented in this article indicates. The article argues that the current transformation of environmental governance reflects not only climate change as such, but also – and perhaps even more so – the discourse of a changing climate and its effect on development politics. The empirical evidence shows that African farmers, politicians and government officials often respond to the new ‘adaptation paradigm’ more readily than to directly felt phenomena caused by a changing climate. We therefore argue that the ontology of the concept of adaptation to climate change needs to be readjusted. Epistemologically, our concern is to trace the discourse of adaptation to climate change across multiple sites, i.e. how it ‘travels’ between global epistemic communities and adaptation projects in developing countries. Drawing on actor-network theory and its concept of translation, we provide an alternative view of adaptation to climate change by highlighting the contested and multi-sited narratives and practices that bring adaptation into being. | http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/geoj.12037/epdf | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
55 | 39 | Article | Wiid, N. & Ziervogel, G. 2012): Adapting to climate change in South Africa: commercial farmers' perception of and response to changing climate,South African Geographical Journal, 94:2, 152-173. | LT3 | T3 | The paper provides an example of a mixed methods methodology for studying climate change | What are the characteristics of a mixed methods approach? | Understanding how and why farmers have responded to past climatic change is a necessary step to informing how to support current and future adaptation. This paper explores commercial farmers' perceptions of and responses to shifting climates in the Little Brak River area along South Africa's south coast. It aims to evaluate changes in the climate experienced in the area by comparing quantitative statistical analyses of temperature, rainfall and wind data recorded from 1967 to 2009, with qualitative historical narratives and formulated perceptions of change for the same period. This was undertaken in order to test the robustness of the narratives and to understand how farmers' perceptions and experiences drive their climate-related decisions. The narratives revealed that the farmers perceived a gradual but dramatic shift in climate over almost four decades, including increasing temperatures, changing annual rainfall patterns and shifts in predominant wind direction, mirrored by the recorded weather data that show similar results to the narratives. It is evident that farmers' experience with shifting climates has played a large part in driving their adaptive decision-making, but financial capital of these commercial farmers has also been a major factor enabling certain responses. This research contributes to the growing local and regional evidence of variability and change to climate systems, and documents how people have already responded to change in order to help build locally relevant climate change adaptation approaches that could potentially benefit a wider range of farmers. | 1.00 | http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/03736245.2012.742783?needAccess=true | ||||||||||||||||||||||
56 | 4 | Article | Arias-Maldonado, M. (2013). Rethinking sustainability in the Anthropocene. Environmental Politics, 22, 3, 428-446. | LT4 | T1 | The paper presents the 'new' concept of sustainability that has emerged in the Anthropocene | How is sustainability defined compared with the more conventional green approach? Why should sust. Be thought of within a 'post-natural stance'? | Climate change is provoking a pragmatic turn in our approach to sustainability, resulting in a more pluralistic debate about both the desirable sustainable society and the means by which it is to be achieved. The traditional green approach, founded on a moral view of the socio-natural relationship and inclined to a radical transformation of the current social system, now seems misguided. In this regard, sustainability should be considered as an inherently open principle for guiding social action that also serves as a framework for discussing the kind of society we wish to have. The distinction between an open and a closed account of sustainability aims to reflect this. But, at the same time, sustainability should go beyond the common distinctions between strong and weak versions of the principle, turning substitutability into a much more flexible criterion that puts cultivated (rather than natural and human-made) capital at its centre. Sustainability is thus to be freed from nature. Adopting a post-natural stance with regard to sustainability is a key part of the much-needed renewal of environmentalism itself. | 1.50 | http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09644016.2013.765161 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
57 | 52 | Article | Davoudi, S. (2012) Resilience: A bridging concept or a dead end? Planning Theory and Practice, 13, 2, 299-333. | LT4 | T1 | Complexity theory and resilience | We live in challenging times with a heightened sense of uncertainty and constant reminders of the unpredictability of what might be lurking around the corner; be it catastrophic climate events, terrorist attacks, credit crunch, youth riots, or mass redundancies. For planners in the UK, this wider sense of unease is exacerbated by a decade of constant change and perennial attacks on the value of their professional contributions to society. Among the prescribed remedies for dealing with such a state of flux, the one that is rapidly gaining currency is “resilience”. It appears that resilience is replacing sustainability in everyday discourses in much the same way as the environment has been subsumed in the hegemonic imperatives of climate change (Davoudi, 2012Davoudi, S. 2012. Climate risk and security: New meanings of ‘the environment’ in the English planning system. European Planning Studies, 20(1):49–69.). | http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/14649357.2012.677124?needAccess=true | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
58 | 53 | Article | Turner II, B.L., 2010. Vulnerability and resilience: Coalescing or paralleling approaches for sustainability science? Global Environmental Change, 20(4), pp.570–576. | LT4 | T1 | Vulnerbility | Vulnerability and resilience constitute different but overlapping research themes embraced by sustainability science. As practiced within this science, the two research themes appear to coalesce around one of the foundational pivots of sustainability, the coupled human–environment system. They differ in regard to their attention to two other pivots, environmental services and the tradeoffs of these services with human outcomes. In this essay I briefly review the emergence of sustainability science and the three foundational pivots relevant to vulnerability and resilience. I outline the distinctions and similarities between the two research themes foremost as practiced within sustainability science and especially in regard to the attention given to the three pivots. I conclude with the observation that improvement in the capacity of vulnerability and resilience research to inform sustainability science may hinge on their linkages in addressing tradeoffs. | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959378010000622 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
59 | 2 | Article | Adger, W.N., (2006). Vulnerability. Global Environmental Change, 16(3), pp.268–281. | LT4 | T1 | Covered in Module 1. The paper presents the dominant understanding of vulnerability in relation to resilience as well outlining a definition of socio-ecological systems | How is resilience defined in the dominant conception . What is the critique of the dominant view. What is systems theory, and socio-ecological systems and the critique of this very dominant theoretical framework. | This paper reviews research traditions of vulnerability to environmental change and the challenges for present vulnerability research in integrating with the domains of resilience and adaptation. Vulnerability is the state of susceptibility to harm from exposure to stresses associated with environmental and social change and from the absence of capacity to adapt. Antecedent traditions include theories of vulnerability as entitlement failure and theories of hazard. Each of these areas has contributed to present formulations of vulnerability to environmental change as a characteristic of social-ecological systems linked to resilience. Research on vulnerability to the impacts of climate change spans all the antecedent and successor traditions. The challenges for vulnerability research are to develop robust and credible measures, to incorporate diverse methods that include perceptions of risk and vulnerability, and to incorporate governance research on the mechanisms that mediate vulnerability and promote adaptive action and resilience. These challenges are common to the domains of vulnerability, adaptation and resilience and form common ground for consilience and integration. | 2.00 | http://ac.els-cdn.com/S0959378006000422/1-s2.0-S0959378006000422-main.pdf?_tid=12d85a3c-7693-11e6-b2db-00000aacb361&acdnat=1473428653_d9683a849c0bf97c75a6c9e86fa1e028 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
60 | 64 | Article | Armitage, D. et al., (2012) The interplay of well-being and resilience in applying a social- ecological perspective. Ecology and Society, 17(4). | LT4 | T2 | Wellbeing and resilience | "Innovative combinations of social and ecological theory are required to deal with complexity and change in human-ecological systems. We examined the interplay and complementarities that emerge by linking resilience and social well-being approaches. First, we reflected on the limitations of applying ecological resilience concepts to social systems from the perspective of social theory, and particularly, the concept of well-being. Second, we examined the interplay of resilience and well-being concepts in fostering a social-ecological perspective that promises more appropriate management and policy actions. We examined five key points of interplay: (1) the limits of optimization thinking (e.g., maximum sustainable yield), (2) the role of human agency and values, (3) understandings of scale, (4) insights on 'controlling variables,' and (5) perspectives on thresholds and boundaries. Based on this synthesis, we offer insights to move incrementally towards interdisciplinary research and governance for complex social-ecological systems." | http://dlc.dlib.indiana.edu/dlc/bitstream/handle/10535/8695/ES-2012-4940.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
61 | 66 | Article | Braun, B. (2014) A new urban dispositif? Governing life in an age of climate change. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 32, 49 – 64. | LT4 | T2 | In an interview in 1977 Michel Foucault proposed the term dispositif for a heterogeneous set of discourses, practices, architectural forms, regulations, laws, and knowledges connected together into an apparatus of government. Drawing upon later articulations of the concept by Gilles Deleuze and Giorgio Agamben, and exploring a range of innovations in the ‘management’ of urban life, this paper reworks Foucault's concept as a means for understanding—and potentially contesting—new modes of government that have emerged in response to the crisis of climate change. Against understandings of ‘government’ in terms of a totalizing plan from which new practices and technologies usher forth, this paper emphasizes the ad hoc, and ex post facto nature of ‘government’ as a set of diverse and loosely connected efforts to introduce ‘economy’ into existing relations in response to a perceived ‘crisis’. The paper concludes by exploring Agamben's notion of ‘profanation’ as an adequate political response to thedispositif of resilient urbanism. | http://epd.sagepub.com/content/32/1/49.full.pdf+html | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
62 | 67 | Article | Brosius, J. P. (2009) Green dots, pink hearts: Displacing politics from the Malaysian Rain Forests. American Anthropologist, 101, 1- | LT4 | T2 | http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1525/aa.1999.101.1.36/epdf | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
63 | 68 | Article | Castree, N., Kitchin, R. and Rogers, A. (2013) Agency- structure debate. A Dictionary of Human Geography. | LT4 | T2 | https://books.google.co.za/books?hl=en&lr=&id=eYWcAQAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP2&dq=Castree,+N.,+Kitchin,+R.+and+Rogers,+A.+(2013)+Agency-+structure+debate.+A+Dictionary+of+Human+Geography.+&ots=kCb4PAxgjJ&sig=lK9cbdTuAUFmQb36bcODfFZ-NQc#v=onepage&q&f=false | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
64 | 65 | Article | Frank Biermann et al. (2015). Down to Earth: Contextualising the Anthropocene, Global Environmental Change | LT4 | T2 | The ‘Anthropocene’ is now being used as a conceptual frame by different communities and in a variety of contexts to understand the evolving human–environment relationship. However, as we argue in this paper, the notion of an Anthropos, or ‘humanity’, as global, unified ‘geological force’ threatens to mask the diversity and differences in the actual conditions and impacts of humankind, and does not do justice to the diversity of local and regional contexts. For this reason, we interpret in this article the notion of an Anthropocene in a more context-dependent, localized and social understanding. We do this through illustrating examples from four issue domains, selected for their variation in terms of spatial and temporal scale, systems of governance and functional interdependencies: nitrogen cycle distortion (in particular as it relates to food security); ocean acidification; urbanization; and wildfires. Based on this analysis, we systematically address the consequences of the lens of the Anthropocene for the governance of social-ecological systems, focusing on the multi-level, functional and sectoral organization of governance, and possible redefinitions of governance systems and policy domains. We conclude that the notion of the Anthropocene, once seen in light of social inequalities and regional differences, allows for novel analysis of issue-based problems in the context of a global understanding, in both academic and political terms. This makes it a useful concept to help leverage and (re-)focus our efforts in a more innovative and effective way to transition towards sustainability. | http://ac.els-cdn.com/S0959378015300686/1-s2.0-S0959378015300686-main.pdf?_tid=bc14aa14-7694-11e6-8f45-00000aacb35d&acdnat=1473429366_6d1ccdd53dc845f072b58e88b2fe630c | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
65 | 69 | Article | Goodwin, M. (1999) Structure-Agency, in Cloke, P. et al. (1999) Introducing Human Geography, London, Arnold. 35-42. | LT4 | T2 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
66 | 70 | Article | Lebel, L. et al. (2006) Governance and the Capacity to Manage Resilience in Regional Social-Ecological Systems. | LT4 | T2 | The sustainability of regional development can be usefully explored through several different lenses. In situations in which uncertainties and change are key features of the ecological landscape and social organization, critical factors for sustainability are resilience, the capacity to cope and adapt, and the conservation of sources of innovation and renewal. However, interventions in social-ecological systems with the aim of altering resilience immediately confront issues of governance. Who decides what should be made resilient to what? For whom is resilience to be managed, and for what purpose? In this paper we draw on the insights from a diverse set of case studies from around the world in which members of the Resilience Alliance have observed or engaged with sustainability problems at regional scales. Our central question is: How do certain attributes of governance function in society to enhance the capacity to manage resilience? Three specific propositions were explored: ( 1) participation builds trust, and deliberation leads to the shared understanding needed to mobilize and self-organize; ( 2) polycentric and multilayered institutions improve the fit between knowledge, action, and social-ecological contexts in ways that allow societies to respond more adaptively at appropriate levels; and ( 3) accountable authorities that also pursue just distributions of benefits and involuntary risks enhance the adaptive capacity of vulnerable groups and society as a whole. Some support was found for parts of all three propositions. In exploring the sustainability of regional social-ecological systems, we are usually faced with a set of ecosystem goods and services that interact with a collection of users with different technologies, interests, and levels of power. In this situation in our roles as analysts, facilitators, change agents, or stakeholders, we not only need to ask: The resilience of what, to what? We must also ask: For whom? | http://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1051&context=sms_facpub | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
67 | 71 | Article | McLaughlin, Paul, and Thomas Dietz. (2008) “Structure, Agency and Environment: Toward an Integrated Perspective on Vulnerability.” Global Environmental Change 18 (1): 99–111. | LT4 | T2 | We review five perspectives on human vulnerability to environmental change—biophysical, human ecological, political economy, constructivist and political ecology—and assess their respective strengths and weaknesses. While each of these perspectives offers important insights, and some theoretical convergence is evident, the field remains divided along a number theoretical fracture lines. Two deeply rooted metatheoretical assumptions—essentialism and nominalism—are hindering the construction of a more integrated perspective on vulnerability, one capable of addressing the interrelated dynamics of social structure, human agency and the environment. We conclude by suggesting that an evolutionary perspective on social change, grounded in a critical realist epistemology, provides the best prospect for avoiding the above pitfalls and advancing our understanding of vulnerability. | http://ac.els-cdn.com/S0959378007000386/1-s2.0-S0959378007000386-main.pdf?_tid=acff5082-7695-11e6-aa30-00000aacb35f&acdnat=1473429770_ded20ce4d3891d52c9336df6432b0823 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
68 | 72 | Article | Sen, Amartya (2001) Development as freedom (2nd Ed) Oxford New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780192893307. | LT4 | T2 | Development theory | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
69 | 73 | Article | Sultana, F. (2013) Water, technology, and development: transformations of development technonatures in changing waterscapes. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 31, 337 – 353. | LT4 | T2 | Social science theory | Delivering safe drinking water is often equated with delivering development in much of the Global South. Yet different arrangements of technologies, waters, and social relations constitute uneven waterscapes and produce different water — society relations across sites and scales. Analyzing the contradictory roles of water-producing technologies and differentiated waters in enabling and challenging processes of development thus becomes important to explaining the political ecologies of development. In order to investigate the technonatural relations of power that constitute development, I look at the ways that different types of waters, water technologies, nature (aquifers, groundwater, arsenic), and power relations coproduce water (in)securities and (un)healthy development subjects, with a case study from waterscapes of the Bengal Delta. Contaminated tubewells have resulted in a drinking water crisis and a reconfiguration of hydro — social relations. Groundwater usage for drinking water purposes was introduced via tubewell technology, creating a public health success story as ‘safe’ groundwater offered alternatives to the consumption of unsafe surface water sources that had caused high morbidity and mortality rates. But a situation of millions of tubewells producing water with unsafe levels of naturally occurring arsenic has resulted in challenging such development narratives of success, where the tubewells that embodied social status and notions of progress (producing ‘good water’) came to slowly poison people across the delta (with ‘bad water’). I detail the ways that hybrid waters (safe/unsafe/untested and good/bad) and the discourses of water poisoning are produced by water technologies, aquifers, and social relations that are enrolled to support notions of development; in addition, I critically analyze the ways that development goes awry when these technonatural assemblages are unexpectedly altered by the agencies and materialities of variously contaminated waters, differentiated aquifers, and the changing status of water-producing technologies. In contributing to political — ecological analyses of water and technology, I raise questions about the troubled relationship between development and so-called appropriate technologies by bringing attention to the articulations and mutual enrollments of technologies, ecologies, discourses, and subjects in the technonatural processes of development. | http://epd.sagepub.com/content/31/2/337.full.pdf+html | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
70 | 57 | Video | Lorimer J. (2014) Wildlife in the Anthropocene | LT1 | T1 | Public lecture hosted by the Innovation and Engagement Unit and endorsed by the Environment Research GroupThe diagnosis of the anthropocene marks the public end of the idea of nature as a pure place removed from society and revealed by natural science. This problematic idea has been central to wildlife conservation. This lecture offers new ways of thinking and doing conservation that need not make recourse to nature. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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