Università Roma Tre

We will explore the advent of fossil fuels with the emergence of the age of coal, then of hydrocarbons, and the most recent trend towards renewable energy sources. This will be done by analysing great power politics, political and economic debates on energy, the expansion of Fordism and consumerism, the role of multinational oil companies, the pressures stemming from decolonization and form the emergence of the environmentalist debate from the 1970s up to the more recent debate on the "Anthropocene" and "decarbonization".

Questions and concepts such as “resource curse”, “conservationism”, “Dutch disease”, “limits of growth”, "peak oil", "sustainable development", "extractivism", will be discussed and informed by the relevant literature (and possibly archival material), and with the help images and documentaries.

This course is taught in English.

For everyone (2 books):

1. Textbook:
- Bruce Podobnik, "Global Energy Shifts. Fostering Sustainability in a Turbulent Age"

2. One book among the following:
- Giuliano Garavini, "The Rise and Fall of OPEC in the 20th Century"
- Adam Hanieh, "Crude Capitalism: Oil, Corporate Power, and the Making of the World Market"
- Stephen G. Gross, "Energy and Power: Germany in the Age of Oil, Atoms, and Climate Change"
- Brett Christophers, "The Price is Wrong: Why Capitalism Won't Save the Planet"

3. Only for "non frequentanti", in addition to the above books also:
- Van De Graaf/Sovacool, "Global Energy Politics"

We will explore the advent of fossil fuels with the emergence of the age of coal, then of hydrocarbons, and the most recent trend towards renewable energy sources. This will be done by analysing great power politics, political and economic debates on energy, the expansion of Fordism and consumerism, the role of multinational oil companies, the pressures stemming from decolonization and form the emergence of the environmentalist debate from the 1970s up to the more recent debate on the "Anthropocene" and "decarbonization".

Questions and concepts such as “resource curse”, “conservationism”, “Dutch disease”, “limits of growth”, "peak oil", "sustainable development", "extractivism", will be discussed and informed by the relevant literature (and possibly archival material), and with the help images and documentaries.

This course is taught in English.

For everyone (2 books):

1. Textbook:
- Bruce Podobnik, "Global Energy Shifts. Fostering Sustainability in a Turbulent Age"

2. One book among the following:
- Giuliano Garavini, "The Rise and Fall of OPEC in the 20th Century"
- Adam Hanieh, "Crude Capitalism: Oil, Corporate Power, and the Making of the World Market"
- Stephen G. Gross, "Energy and Power: Germany in the Age of Oil, Atoms, and Climate Change"
- Brett Christophers, "The Price is Wrong: Why Capitalism Won't Save the Planet"

3. Only for "non frequentanti", in addition to the above books also:
- Van De Graaf/Sovacool, "Global Energy Politics"