The concept of sustainability necessarily entails the question, “What ought to be sustained?” In other words, sustainability is the site of a debate over the proper relationship of humankind to the nonhuman world. This course will examine sustainability from this perspective. It will begin by surveying the various and sometimes conflicting ways the term is used in political, ethical, environmental, and institutional contexts. Criticisms of and alternatives to dominant views of sustainability will be considered, including agrarian, environmental justice, and political ecological perspectives.
Learning Goals: On completing this course, students will be able to:
- Reflect critically on the concept of sustainability and its implications.
- Describe major models of sustainability, the problems they seek to address, and the ethical questions they raise.
- Read ethical arguments and analyze their strengths and weaknesses.
- Articulate their own ethical positions and defend them.
Texts Recommended for Purchase:
- Berry, Wendell. Our Only World: Ten Essays. Berkeley: Counterpoint, 2015.
- Peppard, Christiana Z., and Andrea Vicini. Just Sustainability: Technology, Ecology, and Resource
- Extraction. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2015.
Readings:
Introduction: “Chairman’s Forward” (pp.5-9) and “Chapter 2: Towards Sustainable Development” (pp. 41-59) in Our Common Future: Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development; Willis Jenkins, “Sustainability Theory”, from the Berkshire Encyclopedia of Sustainability: Vol. 1: The Spirit of Sustainability.
Ecological Models: Edward O. Wilson, from “Biodiversity Reaches the Peak,” in Glen Adelson, James Engell, Brent Ranalli, and K. P. Van Anglen, eds., Environment: An Interdisciplinary Anthology;; Stuart L. Pimm et al., “Can We Defy Nature’s End”; Tim O’Riordan, “Protecting Beyond the Protected,” in Tim O’Riordan and Susanne Stoll-Kleemann, eds., Biodiversity, Sustainability and Human Communities: Protecting Beyond the Protected.
<span”>Issues in Sustainability: Food Richard Manning, from “The Oil We Eat,” in Environment: An Interdisciplinary Anthology; Robert Stock, from “Agrarian Development and Change,” in Environment: An Interdisciplinary Anthology; Wendell Berry, “For the 50-Year Farm Bill”</span”>
Economic Models: Robert Solow, “Sustainability: An Economist’s Perspective,” in Robert Dorfman and Nancy S. Dorfman, eds., Economics of the Environment; Wendell Berry, “Local Economies to Save the Land and People,” in Our Only World.
Issues in Sustainability: Energy “14. Energy” (Introduction), in Environment: An Interdisciplinary Anthology; National Commission on Energy Policy, “Ending the Energy Stalemate,” in Environment: An Interdisciplinary Anthology; Wendell Berry, “Less Energy, More Life,” in Our Only World.
Political Models: Ken Saro-Wiwa, from Genocide in Nigeria: The Ogoni Tragedy, in Environment: An Interdisciplinary Anthology; Richard N. L. Andrews, from Managing the Environment, Managing Ourselves, in Environment: An Interdisciplinary Anthology; Zygmunt B. Plater, et al., from “The Three Economies,” in Environment: An Interdisciplinary Anthology; Wendell Berry, “The Commerce of Violence” and “On Receiving One of the Dayton Literary Peace Prizes,” in Our Only World.
Challenges to Sustainability: Sharachchandra Lélé, from “Sustainable Development: A Critical Review,” in Environment: An Interdisciplinary Anthology; Wendell Berry, “On Being Asked for A Narrative of the Future,” in Our Only World.
Case Study 1: University Sustainability Decisions: University Sustainability Master Plan, other readings TBD.
Communicating Sustainability: Framing, Pragmatism, and Art TBD
Sustainable Communities/Environmental Justice Michael Northcott, Place, Ecology, and the Sacred, Ch. 7. “The Moral Ecology of Sustainable Communities,” other readings TBD.
Religious Views of Sustainability David Loy, “The Religion of the Market”; Celia Deane-Drummond, “Technology, Ecology, and the Divine: A Critical Look at New Technologies Through a Theology of Gratuitousness,” in Christiana Z. Peppard and Andrea Vicini, eds., Just Sustainability; Ann Marie Mealey, “Feminism and Ecology,” in Just Sustainability
Sustainability and Justice Selections from Just Sustainability TBD