| Course Name | Ecology, Politics, Planetary Thinking |
| Code | Semester | Theory (hour/week) | Application/Lab (hour/week) | Local Credits | ECTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GEHU 303 | Fall/Spring | 3 | 0 | 3 | 4 |
| Prerequisites | None | |||||
| Course Language | English | |||||
| Course Type | Service Course | |||||
| Course Level | First Cycle | |||||
| Mode of Delivery | - | |||||
| Teaching Methods and Techniques of the Course | ||||||
| Course Coordinator | ||||||
| Course Lecturer(s) | ||||||
| Assistant(s) | - | |||||
| Course Objectives | This course aims to introduce key issues, major themes, and pressing problems concerning environmental politics and ecological thinking. Massive-scale expansion of urban areas; irreversible processes of deforestation and environmental degradation caused by the idea of "infinite growth"; careless urbanization and suburbanization; local and global threats posed by the climate change; and transnational impacts of changing public consumption habits into blind consumerism; all of these developments in the past few centuries address that in our age, the human-nature relationship takes place in the form of an "ecological crisis," meaning the time for taking significant steps towards rethinking of this relationship. In this respect, this course offers students to comprehend various issues of politics of environment from the perspective of "planetary thinking," which acknowledges contributions of conventional approaches; but it also brings a new approach by studying "human life" and "human health" in relation to planetary health that includes animal health, environmental/ecological health, and biodiversity. |
| Learning Outcomes | The students who succeeded in this course;
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| Course Description | This course will develop in three parts. In the first part, we are going to spend some time in understanding the “ecological crisis” by looking at its symptoms and reasons, also climate denialism, and the idea of “planetary thinking” and “planetary health.” In the second part, we are going to elaborate on the critical perspectives towards the idea of environmental justice with an emphasis on green philosophy and politics as well as international cooperation on sustainability and ecological enhancement. We will devote the final part of the course on current debates. |
| Related Sustainable Development Goals |    |
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| Core Courses | |
| Major Area Courses | ||
| Supportive Courses | ||
| Media and Managment Skills Courses | ||
| Transferable Skill Courses |
| Week | Subjects | Required Materials |
| 1 | Introduction to the course: Objectives and Expectations | John Bellamy Foster (1999), The Vulnerable Planet, (NY: Monthly Review Press), Preface&Ch.1 |
| 2 | Ecology and the Emergence of Environmental Politics | Jaboury Ghazoul (2020), Ecology: A Very Short Introduction (NY and London: Oxford University Press), ch.1-2. Andrew Dobson (2016), Environmental Politics: A Very Short Introduction, (NY and London: Oxford University Press), introduction; ch.1-2. Pamela S. Chasek et al. (2018), “The Emergence of Global Environmental Politics,” Global Environmental Politics (7th ed.), (NY and London: Routledge), pp. 1-49. |
| 3 | The Rise and Fall of Developmentalism and “Infinite Growth” | Kelley Johnson (2010), “Developmentalism Then and Now: The Origins and Resurgence of an Enduring Grand Theory,” Grand Theories and Ideologies in the Social Sciences (ed. Howard J. Wiarda), (NY: Palgrave Macmillan), pp. 19-40. Sukhoon Hong (2010), “Environmental and Geographic Determinism: Jared Diamond and His Ideas,” Grand Theories and Ideologies in the Social Sciences (ed. Howard J. Wiarda), (NY: Palgrave Macmillan), pp. 141-158. Jacobus A. du Pisani (2006), “Sustainable Development: Historical Roots of the Concept,” Environmental Sciences, Vol. 3, No. 2, pp. 83-96. |
| 4 | Actors and Regimes of Environmental Politics | Pamela S. Chasek et al. (2018), “Actors in the Environmental Arena,” Global Environmental Politics (7th ed.), (NY and London: Routledge), pp. 51-103. Lindsay Maizland (2021), “Global Climate Agreements: Successes and Failures,” Council on Foreign Relations (https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/paris-global-climate-change-agreements). |
| 5 | Approaches 1: Population and Scarcity vs. Institutions and Commons | Paul Robbins et al. (2014), Environment and Society: A Critical Introduction, (UK: Wiley Blackwell), ch.2&ch.4. |
| 6 | Approaches 2: Environmental Justice *Deadline for setting up presentation groups | Paul Robbins et al. (2014), Environment and Society: A Critical Introduction, (UK: Wiley Blackwell), ch.5. |
| 7 | Midterm | |
| 8 | Making Sense of the “Crisis” of Ecology | TBA |
| 9 | Climate Change: Denialist vs. Alarmist Controversy **Deadline for submitting presentation topics with brief descriptions | TBA |
| 10 | Solutions 1: Transnational Activism/ Environmental Movements ***Feedback on presentation topics | TBA |
| 11 | Solutions 2: “Planetary Health” | TBA |
| 12 | Presentations | |
| 13 | Presentations | |
| 14 | Presentations | |
| 15 | Review of the Semester | |
| 16 | Final Exam |
| Course Notes/Textbooks | |
| Suggested Readings/Materials |
| Semester Activities | Number | Weighting |
| Participation | 1 | 10 |
| Laboratory / Application | ||
| Field Work | ||
| Quizzes / Studio Critiques | ||
| Portfolio | ||
| Homework / Assignments | 1 | 20 |
| Presentation / Jury | ||
| Project | ||
| Seminar / Workshop | ||
| Oral Exam | ||
| Midterm | 1 | 30 |
| Final Exam | 1 | 40 |
| Total |
| Weighting of Semester Activities on the Final Grade | 3 | 60 |
| Weighting of End-of-Semester Activities on the Final Grade | 1 | 40 |
| Total |
| Semester Activities | Number | Duration (Hours) | Workload |
|---|---|---|---|
| Course Hours (Including exam week: 16 x total hours) | 16 | 3 | 48 |
| Laboratory / Application Hours (Including exam week: 16 x total hours) | 16 | ||
| Study Hours Out of Class | 16 | 1 | 16 |
| Field Work | |||
| Quizzes / Studio Critiques | |||
| Portfolio | |||
| Homework / Assignments | 1 | 8 | |
| Presentation / Jury | |||
| Project | |||
| Seminar / Workshop | |||
| Oral Exam | |||
| Midterms | 1 | 10 | |
| Final Exams | 1 | 18 | |
| Total | 100 |
| # | Program Competencies/Outcomes | * Contribution Level | ||||
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| 1 | To be able master and use fundamental phenomenological and applied physical laws and applications, | |||||
| 2 | To be able to identify the problems, analyze them and produce solutions based on scientific method, | |||||
| 3 | To be able to collect necessary knowledge, able to model and self-improve in almost any area where physics is applicable and able to criticize and reestablish his/her developed models and solutions, | |||||
| 4 | To be able to communicate his/her theoretical and technical knowledge both in detail to the experts and in a simple and understandable manner to the non-experts comfortably, | |||||
| 5 | To be familiar with software used in area of physics extensively and able to actively use at least one of the advanced level programs in European Computer Usage License, | |||||
| 6 | To be able to develop and apply projects in accordance with sensitivities of society and behave according to societies, scientific and ethical values in every stage of the project that he/she is part in, | |||||
| 7 | To be able to evaluate every all stages effectively bestowed with universal knowledge and consciousness and has the necessary consciousness in the subject of quality governance, | |||||
| 8 | To be able to master abstract ideas, to be able to connect with concreate events and carry out solutions, devising experiments and collecting data, to be able to analyze and comment the results, | |||||
| 9 | To be able to refresh his/her gained knowledge and capabilities lifelong, have the consciousness to learn in his/her whole life, | |||||
| 10 | To be able to conduct a study both solo and in a group, to be effective actively in every all stages of independent study, join in decision making stage, able to plan and conduct using time effectively. | |||||
| 11 | To be able to collect data in the areas of Physics and communicate with colleagues in a foreign language ("European Language Portfolio Global Scale", Level B1). | |||||
| 12 | To be able to speak a second foreign at a medium level of fluency efficiently | |||||
| 13 | To be able to relate the knowledge accumulated throughout the human history to their field of expertise. | |||||
*1 Lowest, 2 Low, 3 Average, 4 High, 5 Highest
