This course emphasizes how political processes affect the agro-ecological determinants of hunger and undernutrition.

Politics is about cooperation and conflict: individuals, groups, and countries working together for mutual benefit or seeking gains at the expense of others. The course is anchored in the analysis of how material interests, values, and social norms lead to cooperation and conflict. Students will build a practical toolkit for the study of politics at household, local, national, international levels.

Through discussions, lectures, and student research presentations, we will examine, for example, how the design of community natural resource management organizations influences soil and water conservation; how cooperation between men and women within families affects child nutrition; and how interest group battles, within and between states, mold international agricultural policy.