Courses

ADMN 331: Governance for Planetary Health | THE POLITICS OF KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course provides students a foundational understanding of Planetary Health from an interdisciplinary lens. We focus on transformative governance strategies embracing the environmental, political, economic, social, and cultural dimensions to achieve high standards of health, well-being, equity and ecological prosperity. We will also explore pathways and policy solutions at the local, regional, national and global levels for reconciling natural and human systems.

COURSE LEARNING OBJECTIVES

  • Explore a range of qualitative, participatory, and Indigenous modes of understanding phenomenon;
  • Practice a wide range of qualitative, participatory, and Indigenous data collection techniques;
  • Advance theoretical literacy and methodological competency in the craft of qualitative inquiry;
  • Identify issues (challenges and benefits) with thinking quantitatively in these lines of inquiry;
  • Consider power dynamics, relationality, temporality, and knowledge/space/place/time concerning the ethical process of research involving human participants;
  • Interrogate personal positionality in research and explore researcher reflexivity;
  • Analyze and evaluate quality/rigour in qualitative, participatory, and Indigenous analyses; and
  • Identify and explain findings from data in these lines of inquiry by writing qualitatively.

When you have completed this course you should be able to:

  • Define planetary health and compare/contrast strategies for achieving equitable planetary health; 
  • Examine your relationship to the natural environment, analyze what relational accountability to land is, and assess how such accountability can inform governance for planetary health;
  • Describe the literature concerning the historiography and goals of governance for planetary health;
  • Explain matters of power dynamics, relationality, violence, resistance, and resurgence and critically evaluate these matters in relation to pathways and policy solutions for planetary health; and 
  • Envision ‘stories from the future’ about governing for planetary health.


ADMN 548: Governance for Planetary Health (Graduate level)

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Our planet is in crisis and there is no Planet B. Students taking this course will gain foundational understandings of Planetary Health, drawing on Indigenous, western, and other knowledge systems. Students examine and compare current types of planetary health projects and governance structures, exploring the extent to which these projects and structures are supporting our abilities to achieve local-to-global social-ecological justice. Topics include: historiography of planetary health, socio-political power dynamics, relationality to the land, colonial violence, Indigenous resistance and resurgence, as well as pathways, policy solutions, and change-making action for Planetary Health.

COURSE LEARNING OBJECTIVES

When you have completed this course, you should be able to:

  • Examine your relationship to the natural environment and analyze your accountability to the land;
  • Define planetary health from multiple perspectives;
  • Synthesize the literature regarding the historiography and goals of planetary health;
  • Compare/contrast different governance strategies for achieving equitable planetary health; 
  • Explain matters of power dynamics, relationality, violence, resistance, resurgence, and critically evaluate these matters in relation to pathways and policy solutions for planetary health; and 
  • Envision a socially and ecologically just future through governing for planetary health.