ABOUT
Over the course of the fall 2017 semester, students in GEOG 300, Global Awareness, became well-versed in a handful of frameworks and perspectives from which to understand global issues – population and scarcity, institutions and the commons, risks and hazards, markets and commodities, social construction of nature, political economy, and environmental ethics. Employing the framework established in our primary textbook, 'Environment and Society: A Critical Introduction' (2nd ed.) by Paul Robbins, John Hintz, and Sarah A. Moore, we then applied these lenses to particular ‘objects of concern:’ from trees and lawns to bottled water and French fries, tuna and wolves to uranium and e-waste. By delving into the puzzle presented by a particular object, we can see how history, power, space, and culture converge, how everything is ultimately interconnected, and we can layer different lenses to more holistically understand both the roots of these puzzles and approaches to solving them, allowing us to be more informed global citizens poised to help make the cultural change needed urgently in this historical moment.
For students' final projects, they were asked to pick their own ‘Object of Concern’ – from beer to burgers, cell phones to blue jeans, avocados to sushi, elephants to wild horses. They were prompted to situate their object historically and spatially, to follow it through time and space, and to apply at least two lenses or frameworks, considering: How can each framework shed light on the puzzle presented by this object, and how does this particular object represent a microcosm of broader global issues? What power structures, cultural assumptions, social values, histories and contemporary debates shape and surround it? And what does this illustrate more broadly about the relationship between environment and society in our world?
This blog is the culmination of students' projects, collectively forming an 'Encyclopedia of Objects of Concern.' We hope this site might inspire others to consider how seemingly mundane, ordinary objects are in fact intricately linked to socio-cultural, ecological, political, and economic structures that connect people, places, and beings across the globe, prompting us to (re)consider assumptions about the human-nature relationship and to imagine new ways of being in the world.
Please enjoy!
For students' final projects, they were asked to pick their own ‘Object of Concern’ – from beer to burgers, cell phones to blue jeans, avocados to sushi, elephants to wild horses. They were prompted to situate their object historically and spatially, to follow it through time and space, and to apply at least two lenses or frameworks, considering: How can each framework shed light on the puzzle presented by this object, and how does this particular object represent a microcosm of broader global issues? What power structures, cultural assumptions, social values, histories and contemporary debates shape and surround it? And what does this illustrate more broadly about the relationship between environment and society in our world?
This blog is the culmination of students' projects, collectively forming an 'Encyclopedia of Objects of Concern.' We hope this site might inspire others to consider how seemingly mundane, ordinary objects are in fact intricately linked to socio-cultural, ecological, political, and economic structures that connect people, places, and beings across the globe, prompting us to (re)consider assumptions about the human-nature relationship and to imagine new ways of being in the world.
Please enjoy!
