Discussion Questions: Week 9
Peluso "Coercing Conservation"; Roy "The greater common good"; WRI "Village by Village"
Note: these questions are possible areas for discussion in response to the "standard" discussion questions. ("What was the point the author was trying to make?" "How did the author support his/her point?" "What are the strengths of this reading?" "What are its weaknesses?")
1. A quote from last week's reading on "The Dilemma of Sustainability" noted that "debate about the environment, like that about development, is inherently political." How does each of this week's readings illustrate that point? (What are the environmental and political issues being discussed?)
2. Hardin's article told us that we would never solve environmental problems without "mutual coercion." Peluso's favored definition of the state (from Skocpol) is that they are "compulsory associations claiming control over territories and the people within them. Administrative, legal, extractive, and coercive organizations are the core of any state." Yet Peluso and Roy are both extremely critical of the state's role in solving environmental problems. Can these Hardin's view be reconciled with this week's readings or are they fundamentally opposed? How does coercive management backfire, according to Peluso and Roy and in the cases each describes?
3. How does the core thesis of the Population Bomb manifest itself in the Peluso and Roy articles? How do these authors themselves seem to view population growth?
4. How are local people portrayed in the Peluso article, the Roy article, and the WRI article? Consider portrayals which are attributed to other sources as well as the implicit portrayal of locals by each of the authors. Do the implicit portrayals by the authors illustrate different assumptions about local communities?
5. Does Peluso offer a way out of the problems she identifies? What might she be hoping to change in writing this article? Does Roy offer solutions? What might she be hoping to change? What are the solutions offered in the WRI article?
6. Over the last few weeks we have read several articles connected to sustainable development. Such discussions usually place economic development against conservation of flora and fauna. Yet the articles by Roy, WRI, and Peluso, as well as the book by Safina, clearly illustrate that economic development may also lead to the extinction of human cultures. Does the preservation of such human cultures necessarily have the same goals as the preservation of flora and fauna? More specifically, can we achieve a balance between economic development, cultural preservation, and the conservation of our natural resources?