Re: [gep-ed] PoliSci & Climate Change

[Reed M. Kurtz]

Hi everyone,

First of all, thank you for the responses and feedback to my comments last
week. Please note that, then and now, I offer my thoughts in the spirit of
this list’s purpose. For that reason, I wish to (try to) remain brief and
speak as I see this discussion relating to matters of education and
knowledge production on global environmental politics.

Thanks to Dr. Lipschutz and others who responded privately for offering
your thoughts and experiences. I appreciate the fact that these discussions
- regarding the relationship between climate change politics and the
discipline, critical theories of capitalism and climate politics, etc. -
have been going on for many decades (since at least the 1970s), and indeed,
have been integral to the formation of global environmental politics as a
disciplinary subfield of political science and IR. And many (if not most)
of you on this list have made important contributions to my own knowledge
and understanding about the subject.

I also note that discussions about the relative marginalization of
environmental politics within the discipline are nothing new either: in
1993, Steve Smith wrote that “Powerful reasons, essentially political in
nature, may keep the environment on the periphery both within the practice
of international relations, and within the academic subject of
international relations… Environmental scholars, and environmental issues,
may be marginalised unless the fundamental relationship between knowledge
and power is addressed.”

Certainly, we may take issue with many of Smith’s specific diagnoses, and
note that much has changed in both the “practice” and “academic subject” of
global environmental politics over the past quarter century. And yet, as
someone finishing their PhD in political science in 2019, it is striking to
me how much of Smith’s analysis bears out. If anything, the importance and
salience of international environmental politics *as* a matter of (global)
politics has only become more significant; what hasn’t changed
proportionately, it appears, is environmental (and climate) politics status
along the “periphery” of our discipline(s) - at least in IR and political
science that is.

This question of disciplinarity - that is, to what extent it *is* in fact a
problem for knowledge production in general whether political science (or
for that matter, any particular discipline in general) ‘leads’ in the
production of knowledge on climate change politics - is of course a tricky
one. Here all I can do is simply reiterate the rather puzzling, and indeed
paradoxical, fact that much of what counts as the cutting edge of research
on climate change politics, one of the most pressing political issues of
our time, is not coming from the “core” of political science, but rather
its peripheries - or even from other fields, including but not limited to
(human) geography, sociology, anthropology, history, among others.

As far as I can tell, this (justifiable) hand-wringing over the
marginalization of environmental issues in general and climate change in
particular is more or less unique to political science and IR. Elsewhere,
you will find environmental politics much closer to the core of the field,
as a respective subfield on par with other subfields (as in the case of
political ecology within Geography or Anthropology), and/or you will find
the top journals of the field with environmental issues front and center
(e.g. the journal Environmental History is one of the top journals in all
of the discipline).

Again, this is not say that there isn't great work being done on climate
change politics from political science and IR, nor that there aren't great
efforts being made to change these circumstances (the WPSA conference on
climate politics for example) - it's just that we need more! And here I
recognize I'm largely preaching to the choir - the problem you could say is
that we're the exception, not the norm in our field. This isn't to praise
or to condemn, but rather to ask: what can we do to change these
circumstances? How can we ensure that (arguably) the greatest political
challenge we've ever faced - the crisis of climate change and its related
disasters - is no longer relegated to the margins of our field?

There's obviously lots of things that can and perhaps ought to be done, in
addition to continuing already great work, but given the purpose of this
list, and speaking on behalf of my experience as someone reaching the end
of my formal training in this field, I would encourage us to think in terms
of the education and training we can provide to young scholars in our
field. I recognize and appreciate the contributions that have already been
made, including in the original post that sparked this discussion. But I
would like to ask also to consider two points that could help address this
situation in political science which I observe being done in other fields:
1.) That we (re)consider the role and place of the critique of capitalism
and 

[gep-ed] Global Envt 5th Ed!!

[Stacy VanDeveer]

Dear Gep-Ed Colleagues,

Regina Axelrod & I are excited to announce this month’s publication of the 5th 
edition of THE GLOBAL 
ENVIRONMENT!
We know that some on this list use the book in class, so we thought you might 
want this information for fall syllabi. The link above also includes a tab to 
use to request exam copies.

The Amazon link to THE GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT, 
5th
 Edition has more open access “look inside” sample material, if you want that.

Happy August from Regina & Stacy,

--
Stacy D. VanDeveer
Professor & Graduate Program Director
Global Governance and Human Security
McCormack Graduate School of Policy & Global Studies
www.global.umb.edu

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[gep-ed] Job vacancies at Rainforest Foundation Norway

[Wil Burns]

FYI. wil






[Institute for Carbon Removal Law & Policy]
Wil Burns, Co-Director & Professor of Research
Institute for Carbon Removal Law & Policy | American University
Phone: 650.281.9126
Web: 
www.american.edu/sis/centers/carbon-removal
Email: wbu...@american.edu
Skype: wil.burns
Address: 917 Forest Ave., Evanston, IL 60202 USA
Follow us:
[https://img.mysignature.io/s/v3/7/c/f/7cf1bbde-db4e-51b2-ac59-ab19344bad51.png]
[https://img.mysignature.io/s/v3/c/8/9/c897a27d-c2c0-5e72-b299-b784e320fe4d.png]

Dear all,
Do you want to protect the rainforest and to do so with our dedicated staff in 
Oslo?

We are looking to recruit an advisor/senior advisor on International policy and 
communication
 and an advisor / senior advisor on International politics - 
biodiversity.

The closing date for the first round of applications to be considered is on 
Monday, 12th August 2019.

Please do pass this on to other you think might be interested.

Best regards

Anders Haug Larsen
Head of policy
Phone: (+47) 93 21 76 26 | rainforest.no/en

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