2024-2025 Academic Catalog

Dec 03, 2024

2024-2025 Academic Catalog

GEOG 017 - Environment and Society

Relationships between human societies and the natural environment are central to the discipline of geography. Geography 017 introduces students to these relationships and to the analysis of them, integrating perspectives from the natural and social sciences. We examine questions such as: how do environments shape societies; how do societies transform environments; are there environmental limits to economic growth; how does culture shape our relationships with our environments; and what sorts of human-environment relationships are sustainable and just? We examine these questions at many different geographic and temporal scales: from pre-history up to the present, from very local cases to the entire planet, and from pre-industrial or rural landscapes to suburban and urban ones. Cases and discussions will span the entire globe, but will include examples from the Americas, the United States, and New England in order to ground our discussions in the places we know best. One weekly discussion section.

Course Designation/Attribute: GP

Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every year