Courses

Course Description for CSDE 595A (Spring 2008)

Course: CSDE 595 A
SLN: 11863
Schedule: M, W 12:30-2:20, Parrington 120

Instructor: Wolfram Latsch

Title: Sustainability: People, Institutions, Knowledge, and the Environment

Description:

The idea behind this course is to introduce students to concepts, tools and ideas used in political economy to understand the way people use and manage resources as they construct livelihoods for themselves. Political economy tries to understand the way institutions work and how they mediate between individuals and resources, how institutions affect people's decisions to have children or invest in children: broadly, political economy seeks to understand how the allocation of power affects the allocation of resources. "Institutions" include markets but also non-market institutions and states and the rules that communities design and enforce to enable cooperation and manage risks. This course will introduce the concepts and tools necessary to think about human institutions, concepts such as property rights and exchange, and apply these ideas to issues such as "sustainable development", population growth, the management of common-pool resources, the historical evolution of institutions, and the dynamics of institutional change as they relate to populations, environment and development. Readings will include introductory texts on property rights and collective action, on the evolution of institutions in the American West, the diversity of institutions for common property management, on the "demographic transition" associated with economic development, and on the challenges of institutional change and reform. The course does not assume familiarity with economics.

For more information contact Prof Wolfram Latsch

Download the Readings [ Word ]