Social Dimensions of Environmental Policy

The Social Dimensions of Environmental Policy (SDEP) strategic initiative improves management of earth's environment through research on social and policy dimensions of sustainability. Programs under this new initiative integrate natural and social science research on society's responses to climate change and the role of democracy in making and implementing sustainable environmental policy.

The Social Dimensions of Environmental Policy (SDEP) strategic initiative aims to understand the social and political-economic forces shaping just and sustainable environmental policy.

SDEP Director: Jesse Ribot
Administrative Support: Marsha Dunlap

News and Announcements

Will REDD+ undermine democracy or transform it? CIFOR Blog Posting pre-Doha

RFGI Newsletter Vol 2.1 - April 2012

GESTION ET GOUVERNANCE FORESTIERE: Le CODESRIA s’implique - August 2012

SDEP at ICARUS III Conference Report - May 2012

RFGI Newsletter Vol 1.1 - December 2011

Courses Taught in Fall 2012

The following courses will be offered by SDEP faculty in fall 2012. Click on the links for previously used syllabi or other details. Please contact the professor for more up-to-date information. See also Related Courses for a complete overview.

GEOG 410 The Geography of Development and Underdevelopment by Tom Bassett
GEOG 595 DAE/ GEOG 390 Democracy and the Environment by Jesse Ribot
SOC 447/ ENVS 447/ RSOC 447 Environmental Sociology by Zsuzsa Gille
HDES 598 Studies of Humans in Environment by Michael Krassa

New Visiting Scholars

Jacques Pollini, Visiting SDEP Scholar

Jacques Pollini is a visiting RFGI scholar in the SDEP program since August 2012. He completed a PhD in Natural Resources at Cornell University and studies agrarian changes on forest frontiers, with special emphasis on decentralized resources management, the political ecology of sustainable land uses, and the resilience of peasant societies. For more information, see the SDEP RFGI webpage and the CODRESIA RFGI webpage.

Zuo Ting, Visiting SDEP Scholar

Zuo Ting is a visiting scholar in the SDEP program during the month of August 2012. He is Deputy Dean and Professor at China Agricultural University's College of Humanities and Development Studies. Zuo Ting is extensively trained in social and environmental sciences and natural resource management. He has worked for more than 20 years in rural development, and environment, forestry and natural resources with focus on community participation in Yunnan Province, China, and in neighboring SEA countries.

Lecture Videos

Diana Liverman, Professor of Geography and Development, University of Arizona: "New narratives of environment and development: imagining and governing carbon offsets and climate adaptation" (Sep 23, 2011)

Paul Robbins, Professor of Geography and Development, University of Arizona: "Producing Wildlife: Informal Management and Undemocratic Sustainability in India's Conservation Lands" (Nov 12, 2010)

Leo Zulu, Assistant Professor of Geography, Michigan State University: "Arrested Democracy: Decentralized Environmental Governance, Sustainable Livelihoods and Environmental Policy in Africa -- the Case of Malawi" (Oct 29, 2010)

2012-2013 Occupy Nature Lecture Posters

Hannah Appel, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of California: "The Everyday Life of Capitalism: The contract form in Equatorial Guinea's hydrocarbon industry" (Sep 21, 2012)

Melissa Leach, Director, STEPS Center, University of Sussex: "Green Grabbing: New appropriations of nature, new carbon political ecologies/economies in West Africa's forest margins" (Sep 12, 2012)

See here for full Occupy Nature speaker series