SOC402 Special Topics: Commons and Climate Justice Course Syllabus
Winter 2022 B3
Course Instructor: Dr. Sourayan Mookerjea Office Hours: by appointment
Email: [email protected]; Please include course number in the subject line; given the volume of email, expect responses to take 2-3 days.
Prerequisite: SOC100 or instructor consent.
Course Delivery: Due to a medical accommodation with regard to the Covid-19 pandemic this course will be remotely delivered and asynchronous for the entire Winter 2022 semester. All course materials will be accessible via e-class.
Course Description
This project based special topics course invites students on a back-stage tour of my current research project Feminist Energy Futures: Powershift and Environmental Social Justice. The course explores the politics of climate justice as this is embedded in the politics of environmental justice which, in turn, is embedded in the politics of social justice.
As we shall see, climate justice requires a "civilizational transition” beyond fossil-racial capitalism which is now in deep crisis, especially as the COVID-19 pandemic has aggravated a range of socio-ecological and economic crises that have been unfolding around the world for quite some time. In this course, we will closely examine the relationship between the crisis-prone character of this dominant, growth-based world- ecological economy and the deepening of environmental and climate injustices.
Deepening socio-ecological crises on a world scale have elicited a diversity of responses from people differentially positioned in historical and hierarchical social relations of collective political power. While subaltern environmental justice
movements, especially in the Global south and Indigenous decolonization movements everywhere, are seeking to regenerate their communities by delinking from fossil-racial capitalism, climate justice movements in the Global North (and Canada especially) have
either pinned their hopes on green capitalism, the Green New Deal, or on the stalled UNFCCC COP process with only minor currents organizing toward more systemic change along degrowth and eco-socialist lines. On the other hand, the ruling global political class either champions fossil capitalism or promotes green capitalism but always defends racial capitalism and daily grows ever more disconnected from the everyday realities of the majority of the world’s peoples while pulling us all toward the brink of new cold and hot wars.
The world has now been in continual crises for a long time. We will examine why this history (and especially the trajectory from the World Financial Crisis of 2008 to the pandemic of 2020 with the deepening of ecological distress during this time)
demonstrates that environmental and climate justice will not result from any quick fixes, either technological or political. Marginalized and disempowered communities will need to endure the long haul of enduring and intensifying socio-ecological crises.
Taking our point of departure from the “dual power” form of resistance and
regeneration adopted by Indigenous Peoples and subaltern autonomous subsistence movements in the Global South where protest against colonization, enclosure and dispossession by racial capitalism is grounded in community regeneration, we will examine debates and arguments in eco-feminist degrowth theory, political ecology, world-ecology and critical political economy which have sought to understand and learn from these realities rather than erase them as do North-centred approaches operating through the colonizer’s model of the world.
In order to move from the domain of theoretical debate and discussion to activist praxis, the course has been designed to be project-based and will engage with the following Feminist Energy Futures Hypothesis:
The Feminist Energy Futures Hypothesis, proposes that the concept of sustainability, if it is to have any real meaning at all, can only be meaningfully operationalized as the intergenerational socio-ecological reproduction of households and the ecosystems on which they depend over the long term. The planetary conditions of possibility of our socio-ecological existence (our common-being) is the diverse forms of care-giving subsistence use-values (services and utilities) that people --mostly women and other feminized social groups-- reproduce cooperatively as common wealth (which is not crisis prone like wealth in the historical form of capital). Delinking from the
accumulating socio-ecological violence of accelerating social metabolism of the growth dynamic of racial capitalism then requires the building of mass movements able to act in substantial solidarity with Indigenous movements and with subaltern environmental justice movements and able to mobilize social economy strategies which posit
subsistence based Earth care forms of value as the mandates of our social institution, political systems and political economies.
We explore this hypothesis through 4 projects which build upon each other culminating in the fourth project which take the form of either a course research paper or a
research-creation project. Project 1 examines the relationship between environmental injustices and the accumulation of capital (growth). Project 2 examines feminist
perspectives on social reproduction, subsistence and a care-based economy. Project 3 examines social economy strategies such as commoning, cooperatives, and solidarity
“donut” economies. Project 4 brings all these projects together in a term paper / research-creation project that speculatively models a self-governing commons/
cooperative with global solidarity capabilities.
Course Objectives
In this course, students will gain a deeper understanding of:
• How climate justice, environmental justice and social justice depend on each other.
• Why climate injustices and socio-ecological crises are consequences of the economic growth dynamic underpinning the reproduction and accumulation of global fossil- racial capitalism.
• Why the accumulation processes and regimes of racial capitalism result in the development of underdevelopment, ecological unequal exchange, ecological and climate debt, environmental racism, ecological distribution conflicts and accumulated violence.
• How the reproduction and accumulation of capital (growth) depends on on-going, systemic colonialism, commodity frontiers, the commodity form of value, accelerating social metabolism and thus on the intensification of socio-ecological crises.
• The distinction between common wealth and wealth in the historical form of capital.
• The key arguments and debates in commons theory, political ecology, political economy, decolonial feminist degrowth theory, the subsistence perspective and intermedia theory, eco-socialist theory and the perspectives of Indigenous and subaltern environmental justice movements, particularly of the Global South.
• Feminist theories of degrowth, regeneration and care and their significance for building solidarity and care based subsistence and social economies enabling communities and societies to delink from the growth-based, design-for-the-dump linear, toxic, fossil capitalist world-economy.
• How social economy strategies such as commoning, cooperatives, solidarity
economies can both enable Canadian climate justice movements to do their part in a hydrapolitical strategy of delinking from fossil-racial capitalism now being pursued by Indigenous peoples’ decolonization movements and subaltern environmental justice movements in the Global South.
• How critical social science research and social justice activism can connect through the research-creation of intermedia models, prototypes and subaltern counter- environments of concrete utopias.
Course Format
Due to a medical accommodation with regard to the COVID-19 pandemic, this course will be remote-delivered asynchronously and is consequently self-directed and project based. Under the supervision of the course director, students will work on four projects designed to build upon each other for their course requirements. There will also be optional but recommended weekly zoom tutorials where students will discuss readings and their progress with the projects with the course director.
As the course is asynchronous, I am unable to present formal lectures (so I am providing comprehensive lecture notes via e-class instead) but we are nonetheless allowed to discuss course material together and I am happy to answer your questions, give overviews and clarifications. The discussion forum is also a good venue for asking questions, posting insights and sharing thoughts.
Course Materials
Students will need access to internet service and a reasonably up to date personal computer or tablet able to log on to eclass and the UofA domain. Course readings and
resources are listed on eclass.
Course Requirements
Requirement Weight Due Date
Project 1 20% February 2nd, 2022 Analytic paper, 2-3 pages
Project 2 20% February 28th, 2022 Assignment, 2-3 pages
Project 3 20% March 18th, 2022 Assignment, 2-3 pages
Project 4 40% April 8th, 2022 Term Paper / Research-Creation Project , 8-10 pages
Representative evaluative materials and evaluation criteria are included with the project instructions on e-class.
Explanatory Note Re: Requirements
Note that in the evaluation scheme presented above, numerical figures represent percent relative values of each piece of course work; these figures are NOT cumulative marks.
Evaluation & Grading
As you know, the University of Alberta, Faculty of Arts uses a letter grade system. Over the semester I will evaluate your work by assigning letter grades to each requirement you complete. Along with verbal feedback, letter grade evaluations will give you a clear idea of the level of your performance in the course. After I have evaluated all of your course work, including your final exam paper, I will submit a letter grade from the scale described below based on my judgement of your overall level of performance considered in itself and compared with the work of other students past and present, using the relative weights of each requirement described above.
Your final grade will therefore be determined by whether your work over the term can be characterized overall as either:
Grade Description GPV
A+ Excellent: original, exceptional outstanding in all respects 4.0 A Excellent: distinctly outstanding work 4.0
A- Excellent: careful, thorough and insightful work 3.7
B+ Good: insightful work in most respects 3.3 B Good: very good, solid work 3.0
B- Good: good work in most respects 2.7
C+ Satisfactory: good work in some respects 2.3 C Satisfactory: satisfactory work 2.0
C- Satisfactory: satisfactory but significant flaws 1.7
D+ Poor: Substantial incomprehension of course material 1.3 D Minimal Pass 1.0
F Fail
Schedule
This course is asynchronous. See Project deadlines for progress timelines.
Course Policies
Missed Grade Components
Students are required to contact me within three working days following term work (or as soon as possible, considering the circumstances) to apply for an excused extension.
Excused extensions are not automatic and are at my discretion. Below is a list of acceptable documentation to support an absence:
For incapacitating medical illness, students can present one of the following:
o "University of Alberta Medical Statement” signed by a doctor (this cannot be required, but must be accepted if provided in lieu of other documents).
o "Request for Excused Absence or Deferral of Term Work” Faculty of Arts form
o Statutory Declaration" (to be obtained from the Office of the Registrar).
For all other cases, such as domestic afflictions or religious convictions, the student should submit documentation appropriate to the situation. This could include the following:
o For a death in the family - a copy of the death certificate o For a religious conflict - a letter from the church or pastor o For a car accident - a copy of the accident report
o For other serious afflictions - consult the Instructor or Department about appropriate documents.
Policy for Late Assignments
Late course requirements without excused extensions will be penalized for lateness as follows: One letter grade deduction (ie. A+ goes to A, etc) per 2 days late (including weekends and holidays in the day count). Course requirements more than 1 week late may not be accepted by my discretion.
STUDENT RESOURCES:
The best all-purpose website for student services is: https://www.ualberta.ca/current- students.
Accessibility Resources (1-80 SUB)
The University of Alberta is committed to creating work and learning communities that inspire and enable all people to reach their full potential. Accessibility Resources promotes an accessible, inclusive, and universally designed environment. For general information or to register for services visit the Accessibility Resources webpage.
Learning and Working Environment:
The Faculty of Arts is committed to ensuring that all students, faculty and staff are able to work and study in an environment that is safe and free from discrimination and harassment. It does not tolerate behaviour that undermines that environment.
It is the policy of the University of Alberta that sexual violence committed by any member of the University community is prohibited and constitutes misconduct.
Resources and more information can be found at https://www.ualberta.ca/campus-life/
sexual-violence
Ongoing Colonialism Acknowledgement
The University of Alberta acknowledges that we are located on Treaty 6 territory, and respects the histories, languages, and cultures of the First Nations, Métis, Inuit, and all First Peoples of Canada, whose presence continues to enrich our vibrant community.
Academic Integrity
"The University of Alberta is committed to the highest standards of academic integrity and honesty. Students are expected to be familiar with these standards regarding academic honesty and to uphold the policies of the University in this respect. Students are particularly urged to familiarize themselves with the provisions of the Code of Student Behaviour (online at https://www.ualberta.ca/governance/) and avoid any behaviour which could potentially result in suspicions of cheating, plagiarism,
misrepresentation of facts and/or participation in an offence. Academic dishonesty is a serious offence and can result in suspension or expulsion from the University.”
All students should consult the Academic Integrity website. If you have any questions, ask your instructor.
An instructor or coordinator who is convinced that a student has handed in work that he or she could not possibly reproduce without outside assistance is obliged, out of consideration of fairness to other students, to report the case to the Associate Dean of the Faculty. See the Academic Discipline Process.
Audio or Video Recording
"Audio or video recording, digital or otherwise, of lectures, labs, seminars or any other teaching environment by students is allowed only with the prior written consent of the Instructor or as a part of an approved accommodation plan. Student or Instructor content, digital or otherwise, created and/or used within the context of the course is to be used solely for personal study, and is not to be used or distributed for any other purpose without prior written consent from the content author(s).”
Course Outline Policy
"Policy about course outlines can be found in Course Requirements, Evaluation Procedures and Grading of the University Calendar."
Copyright: Sourayan Mookerjea, Faculty of Arts, University of Alberta (2022).
