Resource Competition and Social Justice

One of the big questions of our time is how to deal with competing claims to scarce natural resources. Given the multiple competing pressures on resources, how can we organize resource access in a fair way? Pressures derived from the climate agenda add to existing problems with land grabbing, water grabbing and green grabbing. Measures related to carbon emission reduction, alternative sources of energy, and climate adaptation all have considerable land footprints. We need to ask ourselves where that land is coming from and whether existing rights and users are duly protected. This course takes students along in these ongoing debates. The course offers students a broad understanding of current day processes of resource competition, approaching these from a concern with social justice, paying particular attention to unequal access and the role of power in resource capture. The course, first, examines resource competition in terms of 'new enclosures', unpacking resource conflict beyond a frame of resource scarcity. Next, we reflect on "green" conflict studies, unpacking the dynamics of resource conflict, the different forms of violence, and the way these are being theorized, introducing insights from political ecology, anthropology, and conflict studies. In the final weeks, the course zooms in on the search for justice. In the context of intense pressures on resources, civil society activists, NGOs, as well as human rights lawyers and policy makers seek to defend those whose rights are at risk and promote social justice. What can we learn from these experiences? What role can academics play?

• Conceptualise sources and manifestations of resource competition

• Analyse dynamics of power and contention in resource competition with the use of suitable, up-to-date theories

• Identify approaches to address natural resource competition and critically reflect on the potential of these approaches to contribute to social justice

• Develop skills in analytical and argumentative writing

• Reflect on their own position and options for professional engagement with resource conflict and social/environmental justice

• Connecting course topics to societal challenges by developing a tutorial

• Assignment essay (45%) Three individual or group assignments; required minimum mark 5.5 (average of three assignments).
• Assignment report (55%)
• Performance (%) Participation tutorials.

This course is open to students from different disciplinary backgrounds. We expect you to have prior knowledge in one of the following fields- broadly defined: development studies, natural resource management (land, water, forest etc), social geography, land use planning, social anthropology. If you have doubts about your entry level or the added value of the course, please contact the course coordinator to discuss your concerns. We welcome students from a range of programs, including BIL, BIN, BES, BMS etc.

• The course literature will be made available through Brightspace prior to the start of the course.