Books
Fischer, Frank and Maarten A. Hajer: Living with Nature: Environmental Politics as Cultural Discourse, 1999. New York: Oxford University Press.
Witoszek, Nina: The Origins of the Regime of Goodness, 2011. Oslo: Unipub
Diamond, Jared: Collapse: How societies choose to fail or survive. New York: Viking Press, 2005.
Required readings in the compendium:
Bell, Daniel: "Technology, Nature and Society", pp. 1-33 in The Winding Passage: Sociological Essays and Journeys. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 1999 :
Bell, Daniel: "The Disjunction of Realms", pp. 3-35 in The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism. Basic Books, 1996.
Chakrabarty, Dipesh: “The climate of history: four theses”, pp. 197-222 in Critical Inquiy 35, 2009.
Crewe, Emma: "The silent traditions of developing cooks", ch 3 in Grillo, R.D. and Stirrat, R.L. Discourses of development: Anthropological perspectives. Oxford, UK: Berg 1997.
Croll and Parkin: "Anthropology, the environment and development", ch 1 in E. Croll and D. Parkin, Bush Base, Forest Farm: Culture, Environment and Development. London: Routledge, 1992.
Darlington, Susan M.: “The Spirit(s) of conservation in Buddhist Thailand”, in H. Selin: Nature across cultures. Dordrecht: Kluwer, 2003.
Gardner, Katy and David Lewis: “Beyond Development?”, ch. 7 in Anthropology, Development and the Post-Modern Challenge. London: Pluto Press. 1996.
Harrison, Lawrence E. & Samuel Huntington: “Introduction”, in Culture matters: how values shape human progress. Basic books, 2000.
Harriss, John: “The Trojan Horse?”, ch. 6 in Depoliticizing Development. New Delhi: Leftword, 2001.
Hobart, Mark: “Introduction: The Growth of Ignorance?”, in An Anthropological Critique of Development, pp. 1-30. New York: Routledge, 1993.
Mawdsley, Emma: “The abuse of religion and ecology: The Vishva Hindu Parishad and Tehri Dam”, pp. 1-24 in Worldviews 9 (1), 2005.
Mawsdley, Emma: “Hindu nationalism, neo-traditionalism and environmental discourses in India”, pp. 380-390 in Geoforum 37, 2006.
Nanda, Meera: “The ecofeminst critique of the green revolution”, ch. 9 in Prophets Facing Backward, pp. 225-246. Delhi: Permanent Black, 2004.
Schama, Simon: "Blood in the Forest", pp. 81-100 in Landscape and Memory, 1995. Harper Collins Publisher. Schech, Susanna and Jane Haggis: Ch 1 and 2 in Culture and Development: A Critical Introduction. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2000.
Witoszek, Nina and Andrew Brennan, eds: Ch. 1 (Næss), ch. 2 (Næss), ch. 40 (Ramachandra Guha), ch. 42 (Stephan Harding), ch. 53 (Nina Witoszek), in Philosophical Dialogues: Arne Næss and the Progress of Ecophilosophy, 1999. Rowman & Littlefield.
Required readings available on internet:
Shiva, Vandana: “Poverty and Globalisation”. BBC Reith Lectures, 2000.
Deb, Debal: “The Role of Religious Ethics in Biodiversity Conservation in India”. 2006.
Brundtland Commission: “Our Common Future, Chapter 2: Towards Sustainable Development”, 1987.
Horowitz, Leah Sophie: “Perceptions of Nature and Responses to Environmental Degradation in New Caledonia”, pp. 237-250 in Ethnology 40 (3), 2001. Available at:
Sontag, Susan: “Fascinating fascism”.New York Review of Book, 6 February, 1975. Available at:
White, Lynn Jr.: The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis, pp. 1203-1207 in: Science, 155, 1967. Available at:.
Optional readings:
Derr, Thomas S. 1975. “Religion's Responsibility for the Ecological Crisis: An Argument Run Amok”, pp. 39-45 in: Worldview 18. Avaliable at:.
Gadgil, Madhav and M.D. Subhas Chandran: “Sacred Groves”, India International Centre Quarterly, 19 (1-2): 183-187 (Spring-Summer, 1992). Write to k.b.nielsen@sum.uio.no for a pdf version.