Specific Paper Guidelines
You should follow the general paper guidelines for all upper division geography classes. The following are additional guidelines. The paper topics provided below are only suggestions. You are not limited to these, but you should get prior approval for topic.
Length
5-7 pages
Content
The purpose of this paper is for you to think over and delve deeper into one of the main topics that we have discussed in class. Do NOT take on an entirely new topic.
The paper (at least 2-3 pages) should address a problem, and at least one major theoretical viewpoint towards that problem that we have discussed in class. Clarify how that pertains to your particular topic. You should cite at least 2-3 of the assigned readings.
You should incorporate a new case study or a new idea, citing at least one new reading.
First Paper Topic Ideas (the optional rewrite policy is available)
COMMON POOL RESOURCES
- The liberal economic solution to common pool resources
- Private vs public ownership of fisheries
- A case study in ITQs: Evaluating resource sustainability, allocation, concentration and monitoring
- A case study in common property resource management: What makes it work or fail?
- Common property resource management: A viable solution for the Developed World?
- Private vs public ownership of rangelands
- This historical struggle over common pool resources in the U.S.
Second Paper Topic Ideas (the optional rewrite policy is NOT available)
NON-RENEWABLE RESOURCES
- The pessimist vs optimist schools of non-renewable resources
- Managing for socially and environmentally acceptable rates of extraction of non-renewable resources
- Resource scarcity as a barrier to to economic development vs dematerialization
- Supply security as threat to the national security
- U.S. Mining Law: In the public interest or the great corporate giveaway
- Extractive industries: Boom or Bust for Economic Development
- Indigenous resource rights: Social justice or barrier to national development
ESSENTIAL RESOURCES
- Case study of a recent water conflict in the U.S. West and its roots in U.S. Water Law
- Case study of a recent water conflict and its similarities and differences to the Klamath / Deschutes
- Supply vs demand solutions to water scarcity in the U.S. West
- Water markets as a solution to service deficits in Third World Cities
- Regional Water Scarcity: Stimulous to War or Broker for Peace