← Back to course website “The Global Economy – Environment, Development and Globalisation”
Here you can find the weekly readings that you need to prepare BEFORE we meet in class. Read and watch all the articles, book excerpts and videos that you can find under “Mandatory Reading/Watching”. Under “Further Reading”, you can find other non-mandatory, material that you can dig into, if you are interested in the topic.
PLEASE CLICK THE HYPERLINKS TO READ MOST ARTICLES
ALSO PLEASE REPORT ANY BROKEN LINKS TO THE COURSE COORDINATORS
We are still awaiting some additional, non-mandatory readings to be set by guest lecturers, so please revise this page in the week preceding the lecture if you would like to read lecturers’ additional recommended readings.
Course Books
- Michael Goodwin (2012). Economix: How Our Economy Works (and Doesn’t Work), in Words and Pictures. Abrams.
- READ BY Literature Seminar 1: September 26th
- Naomi Klein (2015) This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate. Simon Schuster NOTE: Only first two parts are mandatory reading!
- READ BY Literature Seminar 2: October 17th
- Jason Hickel (2018). The Divide: A Brief Guide to Global Inequality and its Solutions. Cornerstone.
- READ BY Literature Seminar 3: November 12th
- Tim Jackson (2016). Prosperity without Growth: Foundations for the Economy of Tomorrow. Routledge.
- READ BY Literature Seminar 4: December 5th
Weekly Readings
Setting the Anthropocene: A Short Introduction to Sustainable Development
Tuesday 3rd September: Course Introduction
Required Readings/Videos
- All course information on the course homepage
- Loudres Beneria. On why economics is so resistant to change
- Johan Rockström: Planetary Boundaries (2014, 4min02)
Recommended Readings
If you want to find out more about the origin of CEMUS and different educational approaches please feel free to check out this small book below!
Thursday 5th September: Welcome to the Anthropocene: Planetary Boundaries, the Great Acceleration and Future Trajectories in our Modern World
Required Readings
- Crutzen, P. J. (2016). Geology of mankind
- Steffen et al. (2015). The trajectory of the Anthropocene: The Great Acceleration
- Rockström et al. (2009). A safe operating space for humanity – Planetary Boundaries.
Additional Readings
- Rockström et al. (2017). A roadmap for rapid decarbonization.
- Steffen, et al. (2015). Planetary boundaries: Guiding human development on a changing planet.
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- Shorter update of the Rockström et al. (2009) paper
- Gaffney & Steffen (2017). The Anthropocene Equation.
- Introducing the terrifying mathematics of the Anthropocene (2017)
THEME 1: The Economy
Tuesday 10th September: What is the Economy?
Course Book:
- Get started on Economix!
Additional Readings
Thursday 12th September: The Value(s) of the Economy
Required Readings
Additional Readings
- Agnar Helgason and Gisli Palsson (1997) Contested Commodities The Moral Landscape of Modernist Regimes
- Fourcade (2011) Cents and Sensibility Economic Valuation and the Nature of “Nature”
- Espeland, Wendy & Stevens, Mitchell (1998) “Commensuration as a social process”
Tuesday 17th September: Economics 101
Required Readings
Thursday 19th September: Alternative Schools of Economic Thought
Required Readings/Videos
- Spash, C. L. (2017) ‘Social Ecological Economics’, in Routledge Handbook of Ecological Economics: Nature and Society. Routledge, pp. 3–16.
- This will be very relevant for your final assignment!
- Rebellious Economics Students Have a Point – The New Yorker
- Capitalism and Socialism: Crash Course World History No. 33 (2012, 14min)
Additional Readings
Tuesday 24th September: Economic Crises
Required Readings
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- Ignore crossed out sections
Additional Readings
Thursday 26th September: Literature Seminar 1 (Economix)
Course Book: Finish Economix before this class
THEME 2: The Environment
Tuesday 1st October: Environmental Economics
Course Book: Start reading This Changes Everything
Required Readings
- Economic recessions and the environment
- Spash, C. The Development of Environmental Thinking in Economics
Additional Readings
- Anas and Lindsey (2014). Reducing Urban Road Transportation Externalities: Road Pricing in Theory and in Practice
- Weitzman (2015). Internalizing the Climate Externality: Can a Uniform Price Commitment Help.
- Gies (2013). The real cost of energy, Nature.
Thursday 3rd October: Ecological Economics and Ecosystem Services
Required Readings
- Hahn, T. et al (2015) Purposes and degrees of commodification: Economic instruments for biodiversity and ecosystem services need not rely on markets or monetary valuation.
- Kate Raworth: Introducing ‘The Doughnut’ of social and planetary boundaries for development (2012, 4min)
Additional Readings
Tuesday 8th October: Centre of the Economy (Hågaby Field Trip)
Required Readings
Additional Readings
Thursday 10th October: Tragedy of the Commons
Required Readings/Videos
- Hardin, Garrett (1968) The Tragedy of the Commons
- Elinor Ostrom (2009) Sustainable development and the tragedy of commons (8min)
Additional Readings/Videos
- Dell’Angelo, J (2017) The Tragedy of the Grabbed Commons: Coercion and Dispossession in the Global Land Rush
- Dietz et a (2003) The Struggle to Govern the Commons
Tuesday 15th October: No Class
Thursday 17th October: Literature Seminar 2 (This Changes Everything)
Course Book: Finish “This Changes Everything” before this class
THEME 3: Globalisation
Tuesday 22nd October: A Short History of Globalisation
Course Book: Start reading The Divide
Required Readings/Videos
Additional Readings
Thursday 24th October: War? What is is good for?
Required Readings/Videos
Additional Readings
- Lecturer (Håvard Hegre) to send readings soon!
- Collier, Paul & Hoeffler, Anke (2004) Greed and grievance in civil war, Oxford economic papers 56(4)
- Karlén, Niklas (2016) Historical trends in external support in civil wars. SIPRI Yearbook 2016: Armaments, Disarmaments, and International Security, Oxford: Oxford University Press
Tuesday 29th October: International Trade Workshop
Required Readings
Thursday 31st October: Sun, Sea and Tax Avoidance: Corporations and Finance
Required Readings/Videos
- Zucman, et al. (2015). Ch 5: The Tax Avoidance of Multinational Corporations in The Hidden Wealth of Nations: The Scourge of Tax Havens.
- Palan, Ronen, Richard Murphy, and Christian Chavagneux. Tax Havens: How Globalization Really Works. Cornell University Press, 2009.
- Introduction Chapter, pages 1-13.
- The Guardian (2016). What are the Panama Papers? A guide to history’s biggest data leak
- Mining taxes: how Rio Tinto avoided $700 million in taxes (2018, 4min)
Additional Readings/Videos
- Galaz, V., Crona, B., Dauriach, A., Jouffray, J.-B., Österblom, H., & Fichtner, J. (2018). Tax havens and global environmental degradation. Nature Ecology & Evolution
- Inside Malaysia’s Shadow State (2013, 16min 24sec)
Tuesday 5th November: Systems Thinking
Required Readings
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- Chapter 1 – The Basics
- Chapter 6 – Leverage Points—Places to Intervene in a System
Additional Readings
- Meadows, D. H. (2008), Thinking in Systems: A primer
- Remaining chapters
Thursday 7th November: DEBATE
Required Readings
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- Chapter 4: Making Arguments from First Principles.
- Chapter 5: Rebuttal from First Principles
- Chapter 9: Manner
- Note that this applies to a different debating style, so overlook anything that does not seem applicable to our debating style
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- Chapter 1: Introduction to Public Speaking
- Chapter 12: Environmental Theory
- Chapter 13: Economics
- Note that this applies to a different debating style, so overlook anything that does not seem applicable to our debating style
- In-Class Debate Rules (ignore dates as they are from last year!)
Additional Readings
- General review of course material
- Don’t get bogged down on the details, rather review what the key ethical dilemmas and challenges are in the Global Economy.
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- Chapter 7: Classic Aff Mistakes and Opp Tactics.
- Chapter 8: General Tactical Mistakes
- Other sections according to interest.
Tuesday 12th November: Literature Seminar 3 (The Divide)
Course Book: Finish “The Divide” before this class
THEME 4: Development
Thursday 14th November: Defining Development
Course Book: Start reading Prosperity Without Growth
Required Readings/Videos
-
- Only read pp. 3-10
Additional Readings
- Chapters 1, 2 & 7 (and missing page) of Gender, Development and Environmental Governance by Seema Arora-Jonsson
- Arora-Jonsson, 2017, Blind spots in environmental policy-making: How beliefs about science and
development may jeopardize environmental solutions.
Tuesday 19th November: Neocolonialism and Ecological Marxism
Required Readings
- Hornborg, A. (2019). Colonialism in the Anthropocene: the political ecology of the money-energy-technology complex. Journal of Human Rights and the Environment, 10(1), 7-21.
- Why you can’t have free trade and save the planet (2018)
Additional Readings
- Rethinking the Ontology of Technology (1hr 10mins)
- Malm, A., & Hornborg, A. (2014). The geology of mankind? A critique of the Anthropocene narrative. The Anthropocene Review, 1(1), 62-69.
Thursday 21st November: Gender (+) Inequality
Required Readings
- England, Paula (2005) Gender Inequality in Labor Markets: The Role of Motherhood and Segregation
- Wright, Melissa W. (2006). Disposable Women and Other Myths of Global Capitalism. Routledge
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- Chapter 1
Additional Readings
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- Chapter 2
Tuesday 26th November: How Migration Shapes the World
Required Readings
Additional Readings/Videos
- Adger et al (2015) Focus on environmental risks and migration: causes and consequences
- Sullivan, Kate (2016) Migration: new perspectives on an old story, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
- Calais migrants: Life in the Jungle | Guardian Features (13min 24sec)
- Where next? The last days of the Calais refugee camp (6min 40sec)
Thursday 28th November: Conflicts of Interests – Its not what you know, its who you know
Required Readings
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- Skim through
Additional Readings
- Fossil fuel lobby could be forced to declare interests at UN talks
- Corporate Accountability, Polluting Paris!
- GLOBAL CORRUPTION REPORT: CLIMATE CHANGE
- Executive summary, chapter 1-2.2 (esp 2.2.1)
- Understanding the UNFCCC
- Clearing the Air: Avoiding Conflicts of Interest Within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
- Corporate Accountability, Polluting Paris
- Conflicting Interests of Climate Negotiations
Tuesday 3rd December: Textiles – The True Cost
Required Readings
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- Chapter 8 Implications and Conclusions
Additional Readings
- Afroza Begum, S.M. Solaiman, (2016) “Rana disaster: how far can we proceed with CSR?”, Journal of Financial Crime, Vol. 23 Issue: 4, pp.748-768
- Bebbington, J., Spijkers, J., and Österblom, H. Slavery in marine fisheries. THE AMERSFOORT DIALOGUE
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- Background briefs.
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- Ch 1: From Fashion to Fast Fashion,
- Ch 5: The Carbon Footprint of Textile Manufacturing for Fast Fashion,
- Ch 6: The Direct and Social Costs of Low Prices,
- Ch 7: The Economics, Demographics, and Ethics of the Low Price Quest
Thursday 5th December: Literature Seminar 4 (Prosperity without Growth)
Course Book: Finish “Prosperity Without Growth” before the Literature Seminar
Tuesday 10th December: Edge of the Economy
- No Readings
Thursday 12th December: Collaborative Exam
- No Readings
Tuesday 17th December: Final Assignment Presentations
- No Readings