PREREQUISITES:
MAS students: Completion of the MAS Core courses, plus permission of the instructor.
MLIS and Dual students: Some electives can be taken in conjunction with the MLIS Core courses; consult with the MLIS Program Chair for recommendations.
GOAL: What opportunities are there for information professionals to contribute to learning about, mitigating, and adapting to the earth’s rapidly changing ecosystems? Through this course we investigate climate change and climate justice informed by theories and approaches (ways of thinking & taking action) from a range of perspectives and knowledge systems (e.g., Indigenous & Black climate scholars, creatives & community-based climate organizers; international climate reports; fossil fuel industry research; and information professionals’ research and activism). Our inquiries will help us identify, question, envision, and strategize opportunities for information professionals to align their practices towards climate justice, while staying alert to forces that derail well-intentioned initiatives (e.g., denial, disinformation, despair). You are encouraged to develop your own ways of thinking about and taking action towards climate justice through engagement with assigned material, class guests, your colleagues, class assignments and activities.
OBJECTIVES:
Upon completion of this course, you will be able to:
- Identify types of information that matter to (are valued by) different groups working on climate related initiatives (e.g., climate research, climate action, climate justice).
- Describe ways that contemporary information systems and platforms are leveraged to influence climate change awareness and denial.
- Illustrate the tensions between climate action and climate justice concerns from historic and contemporary examples (e.g., lack of relationship building and collaboration with First Nations communities).
- Locate, assemble & present information from knowledge sources that feature historic, ongoing, or future-oriented engagement with climate change by IBPOC and other equity-seeking communities.
- Contribute to collaborative, evidence-based, climate change mitigation and adaptation projects within information organizations.
- Explain the influence of disinformation, denial and despair on mitigation and adaptation actions.
- Recognize theories of social change that motivate and influence climate action and climate justice decisions.
- Elaborate upon potential roles for information professionals in an uncertain and unsettled future.
CONTENT:
- What is responsible inquiry on Musqueam territory?
- Approaches to & Theories of Social Change
- Questioning Economic Logics & Elite Capture
- Disinformation & Denial
- Climate Change & Data
- Climate Warnings & Care
- Imagination
- Information & Computing Technologies and Climate Change
- GLAM-Based Climate Initiatives
- Repair & Maintenance
- Longer-term Thinking & Adaptation
- Imperfect Information, Systems & People
- Information Matters: Indicators, Measurement & Stories