FACULTY & STUDENT RESOURCES
Environmental Courses
Harvard University
John F. Kennedy School of Government
Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government Course Catalog
BGP-204M Food Policy and Agribusiness
R. Goldberg Spring M,W 11:40 - 1:00
Deals with public and private management of an industry sector that encompasses half the world’s labor force, half the world’s assets, and 40% of consumer purchases. The public policy issues of economic development, trade, nutrition, food safety, the environment, maintaining limited natural resources, protecting plant and animal diversity, intellectual property, genetics, and social and economic priorities will all be developed in case study format. Positioning public agencies and private firms within the developed and developing economies will be an integral part of the course. Wherever possible, the CEO or leading government official involved will be a guest at the class. Students may do a reading and research report for an additional one-half credit. Grading for the course is based on class participation (65%) and two written analyses of case studies (35%).
ENR-150Y Seminar: Energy and Environmental Policy
M. Toft Year Th, 4:10 - 5:30
This seminar structures students’ efforts, and supplements their concentrated substantive work with faculty advisors, on a Policy Analysis Exercise (PAE) in the area of energy and environmental policy. The objective of the seminar is to help students select their topics and advisors and to create a supportive social infrastructure for students working on their PAE. Students will be matched with individual advisors (apart from the faculty leading this seminar) who are specialists in the area in which the student is doing the PAE and who are in the best position to give customized advice. The early part of the seminar is organized around topic/client selection, matching students with advisors, and research design. The latter part focuses on how to organize the materials gathered for the PAE. Students will give each other feedback and present their findings to the seminar. Open to MPP2 students only. Taught jointly with ISP-150Y and STP-150Y.
ENR-201 - Environmental and Resource Economics Policy
R. N. Stavins Spring M, W 1:10 - 2:30
Prerequisite: Introductory microeconomics
Provides a survey, from the perspective of economics, of public policy issues associated with environmental protection and natural resources management. Lectures on conceptual and methodological topics are combined with examinations of specific resource and environmental issues. Also offered by the Department of Economics as ECON-1661.
ENR-205 - Environmental Justice as a Public Policy Issue
J. S. Hoyte Fall Tu, 4:10 – 6:00
Prerequisite: There are no prerequisites to enrollment, although some course work in the social sciences, especially dealing with government policy making at the federal and state levels, would be helpful.
Designed to provide students with a perspective on the contention that many people of color and low-income communities suffer disproportionately due to the inequitable siting of industrial plants and waste dumps in their communities and from exposure to pesticides and other toxic chemicals. In examining how the issue of environmental justice has been treated in federal and state legislative and regulatory processes, students should gain insight into how environmental policy is made at the federal and state levels and the role that race plays in the environmental policymaking process. Also offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as ESPP-90d.
ENR-302 - Energy Policy: Technologies, Systems and Markets
J. Holdren, H. Lee Spring Tu, Th, 2:40 - 4:00
Energy is a critical component of every dimension of human society. It is an essential input for economic development, transportation, and agriculture, and it plays an enormous role in environmental problems and solutions, in national security issues, and in science and technology policy. The course discusses the technological, economic, and policy dimensions of the energy choices needed to meet economic and environmental goals in both the near and long term. Electricity-infrastructure policy, energy-supply and end use–efficiency options, environmental impacts, and strategic energy policies will all be covered. The primary focus of the course will be international, but there will be some discussion of U.S. domestic programs and policies.
ENR-319 - Advanced Environmental and Resource Economics for International Development
T. Panayotou Spring M, W 2:40 - 4:00
This is a course in advanced environmental economics as it relates to international development and public policy. It provides an opportunity for students to apply the tools of analysis they have learned in their analytical and quantitative courses to problems of natural resource management, environmental policy, and sustainable development. Some additional tools of inter-temporal optimization are also taught. It assumes the ability to use calculus. The course covers topics in social choice; market and policy failure; property rights and Pigovian taxes; marketable permits and transferable development rights; optimal resource use over time; environmental demand theory; and economic valuation methods. The thrust of the course is on international applications and the integration of resource use, environmental policy, and economic development.
ENR-551Y - Seminar on Environmental Economics and Policy
R. N. Stavins, M. L. Weitzman Year W, 4:10 – 5:30
Prerequisite: A graduate-level course in microeconomic theory, such as Econ. 2010a, Econ 2020a, API-109, API-110, or permission of instructor.
Selected topics in environmental and resource economics. Emphasizes theoretical models, quantitative empirical analysis, and public policy applications. Includes invited outside speakers. Note: Primarily for graduate students in economics or related fields with environmental interests. Cross-listed in Faculty of Arts and Sciences Department of Economics as ECON-2690hf.
HUT-263 - Planning and Environmental Law
B. Blaesser Fall M, W 8:30-9:50
Examines the range of land use and environmental laws that affect the use, preservation, and development of land in the United States. These laws reflect debates over the role of government in a free-market economy, the structuring of development incentives that consider social costs and the carrying capacity of natural ecosystems, and the balance between the government’s police power and the constitutionally protected rights of individuals and organizations. A recurrent theme of the course will be the tension between two distinct legal regimes: Euclidean zoning and other local land use laws versus federal and state environmental laws regulating pollution prevention, pollution cleanup, and resource protection. The course will conclude by examining how growth management or “smart growth” laws and programs may serve to harmonize the land use and environmental law regimes. Course readings include judicial opinions, statutes and ordinances, and secondary critical materials. Also offered by the Graduate School of Design as GSD-5206.
ISP-103 - Global Governance
J. Ruggie Spring M, W, 4:10 - 5:30
This course focuses on the interplay among states, international organizations (such as the UN, WTO, IMF, and World Bank), multinational corporations, civil society organizations, and activist networks in making “public policy” at the global level. Cases are drawn from a broad range of issue areas, including peace and security, economic relations, human rights, and the environment. The objective is to better understand the evolution of global governance arrangements and what difference they make. Also offered by the Law School as HLS-37850A.
ISP-104 - Managing a Living Planet: How Interactions Among Population, Health, Resources, and Environment Shape the Stage of Global Affairs
W.C. Clark Spring Tu, Th 1:10-2:30
Concerns for how human well-being can be increased in a world of finite resources have long been voiced at local and national levels. Increasingly, however, these concerns have escalated to the global stage. Transnational migration, disease pandemics, water wars, and climate change are among the most recent issues that have crowded on to high-level agendas of global governance that were previously reserved for discussions of collective security and world trade. Such high-profile concerns, however, are all symptoms of a more fundamental transformation in which nature and society have become a single complex adaptive system, increasingly tightly coupled at all scales from local to global. This course explores those interconnections. It focuses on analyzing their consequences for efforts to improve human well-being through sustainable utilization of the planet’s energy, land, water, and biotic resources. It seeks to understand how global institutions can be designed to promote such efforts.
PED-269 - Development, Resources, and Contestation
P. Peters Spring M, W 8:40 - 10:00
The premise of the course is that international development generates contestation over ideas, methods, and resources. The course will help develop and refine analytical capacity for understanding the social and cultural dimensions of development; subject conventional ideas and practices in development to critical review; and help reveal and critically assess underlying assumptions about development. Readings are from the social sciences (sociocultural anthropology, sociology, politics, geography) and history; most case materials are based on non-Western countries. To ground the analytical techniques used in the course, we focus on social and political contestation over key resources at the heart of development processes; these include natural resources (land, water, and forests) as well as social resources (knowledge, institutions, and power). The course considers paradigms and narratives of policies for resource management; participatory development; and modernity and globalization. The course will be run mainly as a seminar.
PED-501M - Native Americans in the 21st Century: Nation Building I
J. Kalt January 14-17 M, Tu, W, Th 10:00 - 4:00
This course examines issues Native American tribes and nations face as they enter the 21st century, including: political sovereignty, economic development, constitutional reform, cultural and language maintenance and promotion, land and water rights, religious freedom, health and social welfare, and education. Because the challenges are broad and comprehensive, the course emphasizes the breadth of issues that leaders must confront, from health, education, and social services to politics, economics, and cultural change. Research finds that the viable approaches to such areas of nation building must be compatible with individual societies’ cultures, and American Indian societies are culturally heterogeneous. Hence, there is not “one size” that fits all. Case studies and simulations derived from field research and experience are utilized to engage students in the multidimensional settings that confront Native societies. Scholars and leaders from Native America and the Harvard University Native American Program provide selected presentations. Non-KSG students (graduate and undergraduate) from all schools and departments in the university are welcome by cross-registration. Jointly offered by the Graduate School of Education as GSE-A101.
PED-502 - Native Americans in the 21st Century: Nation Building II
D. Norman Spring Tu, 4:10 - 6:00
Prerequisite: PED-501M or permission of instructor
This field-based research course focuses on some of the major issues Native American Indian tribes and nations face as the 21st century begins. It provides in-depth, hands-on exposure to native development issues, including: sovereignty, economic development, constitutional reform, leadership, health and social welfare, land and water rights, culture and language, religious freedom, and education. In particular, the course emphasizes problem definition, client relationships, and designing and completing a research project. The course is devoted primarily to preparation and presentation of a comprehensive research paper based on a field investigation. In addition to interdisciplinary faculty presentations on topics such as field research methods and problem definition, students will make presentations on their work in progress and findings. Also offered by the School of Education as GSE-A102.
STP-100 - *Science, Technology, and Public Policy
K. Sims Gallagher Fall M, W 10:10 - 11:30
Prerequisite: Permission of the instructor required for non-KSG students
Provides an introduction to the governance of science and technology, especially in the United States, and to major public policy controversies that involve science and technology. Science, technology, and public policy in countries other than the United States will also be examined. Makers of public policy must anticipate the possible consequences of new scientific knowledge and new technologies in order to shape them and to help society utilize them effectively and safely. Among the general issues to be explored are the relationship of experts to democratic decision making, the processes of goal setting and the allocation of resources for science and technology, and the management of risk and uncertainty. The cases will encompass a range of areas of current interest, including information technology, biomedical research, antiterrorism measures, energy production and conservation, and environmental protection.
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