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CH541/ Environment and Policy

Canyon College
Community Health Education Program

Syllabus

CH541 Environment and Policy

This course is intended for professionals working in health care and human services and environmental protection although any student of social or natural sciences would benefit from its content and applications. Dale Mueller, Ed.D., M.S., R.N., N.H.A., C.N.A.A. dmueller@canyoncollege.edu

Course Description | Overview | Course Objectives | Assignment Objectives
Course Policies | Course Calendar & Activities | Grades | Required Text | Contact Instructor

I. Course Description

This course introduces graduate students to social theory, analysis, and issues related to environmental policy and its influence on health promotion. The primary emphasis of this course is understanding the social impacts of environmental decision making and how it is deployed for intended and unintended consequences. Topics discussed in this class include conflicts over environmental pollution based on class, race, gender, age, sexual orientation, and culture; and the social construction of roles and the meanings we attach to them as pertinent issues in defining community and community health. Within this context, groups divide over environmental and health issues in the struggle over ideology and economics.

II. Course Objectives

Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Utilize social theory as an analytical filter to understand issues in environment and health.
• Understand public policy formation as it relates to environmental protection.
• Be able to articulate the relationship between environmental quality and health promotion.
• Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of social activism for public policy change.

III. Assignment Objectives

Assignments are designed to:

• Facilitate students working with textual information.
• Encourage research from additional sources other than the text.
• Critically think, discuss, and write about environmental policy and its implications on health promotion.

III. Overview

Are you and I just commodities and consumers? Do we exist merely to provide labor and consumption for the benefit of power? Are we responsible for our own health, or are there factors beyond our control which impairs health? How does environmental policy liberate or subjugate health? Do public policies exist to pacify certain classes in order to maintain stability for society? What are methods used by dominant groups to maintain the status quo? Why don’t common interests organize to speak truth to power? When have groups been effective in speaking truth to power? These are but a few of the questions we will be thinking about as we learn social theory, how to use it to analyze public policy, and take a look at social activism as an intervention and challenge to public policy.

This course is divided into four units of study:

• Unit 1: Basics of Social Theory: Filtering power by asking the right questions - who benefits from pollution?
• Unit 2: Public Policy: Do I have a right to environmental quality and health?
• Unit 3: Inequalities: Social structure and agency of disadvantaged groups – am I only important as a commodity and consumer?
• Unit 4: Activism and Social Justice: Speaking truth to power – I have only one life, will I accept the status quo?

IV. Textbook - Online Bookstore

1. Bunton, Robin, Sarah Nettleton, and Roger Burrows eds. 1999. The Sociology of Health Promotion: Critical Analysis of Consumption, Lifestyle, and Risk. London and New York: Routledge ISBN #: 0415116473

2. Kraft, Michael. 2004. Environmental Policy and Politics 3rd ed. New York: Pearson Education, Inc.
   ISBN #: 0321159772

V. Course Policies

This is a semi-independent study course. Follow the course calendar which will guide you through the completion of this course. Students have 8 weeks to complete this course.

Course Week and Due Dates. Monday is the first day of the course week, and Sunday at 11:59 pm the last day. Follow the course calendar for when assignments begin and are to be completed. I will accept assignments electronically in Word or Wordperfect format or by mail. Be sure and include a self-addressed, stamped envelope with adequate postage for the return of your assignment. You should be sure that you allow for mailing time if sending by postal service. All assignments for the week should be in by Saturday.

A required midterm examination and final examination will be given. In addition, students will research a topic, approved by the instructor, which uses social theory to both filter an environmental policy related to health, and used as advocacy for a quality environment and health promotion. This paper should be no less than ten pages in length, be presented in an appropriate format such as MLA or APA with a bibliography. All sources or ideas not original with the student should be cited. Plagiarism will not be tolerated. This paper is due in my mailbox the Monday of the last week of class. It may be sent electronically in Word or Wordperfect format. If it is mailed it must be in my mailbox that Monday. Send with it a self-addressed, return envelope with adequate postage.

VI. Course Calendar & Activities

Class begins on Monday and ends on Sunday. This is a calendar to help you organize yourself. You may read ahead if you so desire. Remember this is not a self-paced course but there is flexibility built in with regards to reading. Be prepared to think, assimilate ideas, organize material, and write. Deadlines are firm on written work, the term paper, and examinations. As a suggestion be sure and organize your note taking in reference to the units noted above in “Course Overview.” Look for information that speaks to power, inequality, rights to health and health care, and social activism. Record and note where you find this information under respective headings. Finally, as you are reading and note taking, think how this information informs environmental policy and how environmental policy constrains equity, power, rights, and social change.

VII. Grades

The following activities are required to complete this course.

Environment and Policy Paper 21% Midterm 21% Final 21% Assignments

21% 21% 21% 37%

The grading scale for this course is:

95-100% 94-90% 89-85% 84-80% 79-75% 74-70% 69-65% 64-60% 59 <

= = = = = = = = =

A A- B B- C C- D D- F

VIII. Instructor Contact

Dale Mueller, Ed.D., M.S., R.N., N.H.A., C.N.A.A.
dmueller@canyoncollege.edu