GEOG 352

1. GEOG 352 Managing Natural and Social Capital

2. Welcome to 352 and to a New Term! • I’m Don Alexander and I’ve been at VIU for 9 years. I created this course about 7 yearsago and it continues to evolve. My office hours are Mondays and Wednesdaysfrom 1:00 to 2:00 in Building 359, Room 215, or atother times of mutualconvenience. Read the course outlinecarefully. • My phone numberis (250) 753-3245, ex. 2261. • I willbeaway the week of September 23rd, but will have guest speakers and/or videos. • A Student Free Store willhappen 8:30 to 4 on Thursday at the Welcome Centre and a Student Pancake Breakfast from 8:30 to 11:30 on the 12th in Royal Bank Plaza (near bus loop). • If youcouldjust go around and give me and the rest of the class yourname and whyyou’retaking the course. • In this course, wewill have lectures, guest lectures, discussion, occasionalvideos, and possibly mini-debates.

3. Introduction to the Course • The textbook is Mike Lewis and Pat Conaty. 2012. The Resilience Imperative: Cooperative Transitions to a Steady-State Economy (Gabriola Island, BC). [E-version also available through the VIU Library.] We will start in on it next week. I will also ask you to read occasional other articles and chapters. Read pp. 12-17 Toward Sustainable Communities (2012 ed.) by Mark Roseland on-line at the Library for Thursday and watch the short video, The Story of Stuff, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLBE5QAYXp8. • I also highly recommend Deep Economy by Bill McKibbin, The Economics of Happiness by Mark Anielski, Ecological Economics by Herman Daly and Joshua Farley, and Capitalism as if the World Mattered by Jonathon Porritt. • How many of you have taken Economic Geography? Or an economics course? Bring in what you learned. Why are you taking this course and what do you hope to get out of it?

4. Introduction to the Course • See the web site for lecture notes and assignment instructions: http://web/viu.ca/alexander2 under Courses. I may also do a D2L site. More on that soon. • See the week-by-week description of topics, questions, and readings in the course outline. • The assignments and grading will be based on 15% for attendance and participation (including leading at at least one discussion), 25% for the mid-term, 35% for the case study assignment (including 5% for an outline and 5% for a brief in-class presentation), and 25% for the final exam. • The starting-point of the course is that economic activity can either enhance or degrade natural, social and human capital, and the case studies you look at will be ones that enhance these forms of capital in positive ways.

5. Introduction to the Course • The textisdifferentfrom the one I used last year (EcologicalEconomicsby Daly and Farley). Both are quitetechnical in differentways – Daly and Farley in terms of theory and policy, and Lewis and Conaty in their focus on economic alternatives and how theywork. The book canbe dry at times, but the information itcontainscan’tbefoundanywhereelse. • What do yousee as the relationship of the workings of the economy to the spatial phenomena, bothnatural and cultural, studied by geography? • It maysometimesbeunclearwhatrelationshipthiscourse’s contents has to Geography, but it’sreally about why and how some places prosper and othersdecline and, just as importantly, whatcanbedone about it. I wouldlike to show yousome images thatillustratethis point.

18. Images and the Realities They Reflect • In a capitalist – and especially a global – economy, some places increase in prominence and influence and others decline into, as in Detroit, near-3rd World conditions. Is this just a ‘natural’ phenom-enon or it something that residents can do something about. • In this course, we will read about and discuss instances where people have done something about it. So, geographic endowments and locations may have initially influenced the prominence and role of certain cities, and later these factors became less relevant – especially in relation to what was on offer elsewhere. • Another thing to consider is that different cultural conditions in different places influence how people respond. Some parts of Canada, for instance, have a stronger sense of solidarity and identity that makes it easier for them to take action, and others have less. Can you think of examples?

19. Images and the Realities They Reflect • In a capitalist – and especially a global – economy, some places increase in prominence and influence and others decline into, as in Detroit, near-3rd World conditions. Is this just a ‘natural’ phenom-enon or it something that residents can do something about. • In this course, we will read about and discuss instances where people have done something about it. So, geographic endowments and locations may have initially influenced the prominence and role of certain cities, and later these factors became less relevant – especially in relation to what was on offer elsewhere. • Another thing to consider is that different cultural conditions in different places influence how people respond. Some parts of Canada, for instance, have a stronger sense of solidarity and identity that makes it easier for them to take action, and others have less. Can you think of examples?

20. Key Concepts of Ecological Economics • Externalities- positive or negative impacts of economic activities, the costs of which are not borne by the producer or consumer. • Relationship between economy and ecology- are there limits to growth or can the economy grow infinitely? Are natural resources infinitely substitutable for by human ingenuity? • Carrying capacity- the limits of an ecosystem, at whatever scale, to support life without running short of a critical resource or causing insuperable damage to life support systems. We don’t always know when we will hit carrying capacity limits; hence it makes sense to exercise the precautionary principle.

21. Key Concepts of Ecological Economics • ‘Empty’ vs. ‘full’ world- At one time, there was a lot of room for the economy to expand into (as when the pioneers first settled North America), but now the world is becoming full as an infinitely growing economy tries to keep growing on a finite planet.

22. Key Concepts of Ecological Economics • Growth (quantitative expansion of the economy), throughput (conversion of natural resources into products, pollution and waste), and development (qualitative improvement of things and people), This does not require or primarily depend on growth or throughout. • Marginal utility (resulting value in having or producing one more unit) and increasing marginal cost (the point at which costs outweigh benefits). The latter is related to law of diminishing marginal utility. • Public goods (where individuals cannot be effectively excluded from their use and where use by one individual does not reduce their availability to others. Private goods (whose use is only available to those who own them).