Course Description
Provides students a broad background in the institutional and governance aspects of environmental sustainability, while supporting students in the application of relevant themes to their ongoing research. Themes will vary by semester and according to student interests, but a balance of conventional and critical perspectives will be sought on selected themes. Core topics tend to include theories for understanding idealized governance forms (state, market, community) and cross-cutting themes (property, rights, sovereignty, identity).
Athena Title
Institutional Dimen of Sustain
Semester Course Offered
Offered spring
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
By the end of this semester, students should have a basic understanding of institutional drivers of environmental practices and outcomes at multiple levels of socio-political organization, from the village level to the international level. They should be familiar with different types of governance instruments, including regulatory and market-based, and the conditions under which they emerged and gained prominence. They should also have an understanding of the extent to which different types and levels of institutions shape the behavior of individuals, groups and corporations (and related outcomes) in different contexts. While these drivers are relevant to any society and most locations, the course places emphasis on developing countries and in equipping students with an interpretive lens to enable them to understand many of the deficiencies in social and environmental sustainability observed in the global South.
Topical Outline
PART 1: LOCAL LEVEL INSTITUTIONS 1. Course introduction 2. Defining sustainability 3. Customary law and institutions 4. Property regimes 5. Common pool resources and common property regimes 6. Collective action theory 7. The consequences of formalizing / privatizing / individualizing customary tenure 8. Approaches to the legal recognition of customary tenure PART 2: NATIONAL LEVEL INSTITUTIONS 1. Institutional forms 2. National policy making processes 3. Environmental impact mitigation and management 4. Regulating land tenure and access 5. Governing large-scale land acquisitions PART 3: GLOBAL AND MULTI-LATERAL INSTITUTIONS 1. History and evolution of international law 2. International environmental law 3. International labor and human rights law 4. Multi-lateral financial institutions 5. Legislation in consumer blocs PART 4: MARKET-BASED INSTRUMENTS 1. Governing beyond the state 2. Perspectives on certification 3. Perspectives on industry codes of conduct PART 5: EMERGING FORMS OF GOVERNANCE 1. Multi-level governance 2. Hybrid institutions