Themes I use include critiques of the term sustainable development,
the plasticity of "sustainability", and the effort to use sustainable
development rhetoric to sustain development and the status quo rather
than address structural issues. Consumption is important to address,
as are issues of scale, governance, and local solutions.
Some (somewhat dated) readings:
Adams, W. M. 2001. Green Development: Environment and Sustainability
in the Third World. Routledge
Costanza, R., B. S. Low, et al., Eds. 2001. Institutions, ecosystems,
and sustainability. Ecological Economics Series. Boca Raton, FL, Lewis
Publishers.
Helmore, K. and N. Singh. 2001. Sustainable livelihoods: Building on
the wealth of the poor. Bloomfield, CT, Kumarian Press.
Princen, T., M. Maniates, et al., Eds. 2002. Confronting consumption.
Cambridge, MA, MIT Press.
Comforting terms such as "sustainable development" and "green
production" frame environmental debate by stressing technology (not
green enough), economic growth (not enough in the right places), and
population (too large). Concern about consumption emerges, if at all,
in benign ways--as calls for green purchasing or more recycling, or
for small changes in production processes. Many academics,
policymakers, and journalists, in fact, accept the economists? view of
consumption as nothing less than the purpose of the economy. Yet many
people have a troubled, intuitive understanding that tinkering at the
margins of production and purchasing will not put society on an
ecologically and socially sustainable path.
Confronting Consumption places consumption at the center of
debate by conceptualizing "the consumption problem" and documenting
diverse efforts to confront it. In Part 1, the book frames consumption
as a problem of political and ecological economy, emphasizing core
concepts of individualization and commoditization. Part 2 develops the
idea of distancing and examines transnational chains of consumption in
the context of economic globalization. Part 3 describes citizen action
through local currencies, home power, voluntary simplicity,
?ad-busting,? and product certification. Together, the chapters
propose "cautious consuming" and "better producing" as an activist and
policy response to environmental problems. The book concludes that
confronting consumption must become a driving focus of contemporary
environmental scholarship and activism.
Prugh, T., R. Costanza, et al. 2000. The local politics of global
sustainability. Washington, D.C., Island Press.
Sneddon, C. S. 2000. 'Sustainability' in Ecological Economics, Ecology
and Livelihoods: A Review. Progress in Human Geography 24(4): 521-549.
This article reviews the work of several sets of researchers
prominent in current debates over how sustainability might be
interpreted & achieved. The notion of "sustainable development" has
reached a conceptual dead-end. Geographers may offer more effective
investigations & critiques of socioecological transformations by
instead focusing on "sustainability" & its application to multiple
dimensions of human & nonhuman processes. Such a move within geography
demands critical engagement with ongoing debates in ecological
economics, the ecological sciences, & social applications of
sustainability. Geographers are well positioned to address crucial
gaps in these fields of inquiry & to propel debates over
sustainability in several fruitful directions.
Quoting "VanDeveer, Stacy" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
Colleagues,
I need to incorporate more economic and/or sustainable development
themes into my teaching this fall.
Can some of you suggest themes, readings, and assignments you use in you
SD courses and teaching?
--Stacy
Stacy D. VanDeveer
Associate Professor
University of New Hampshire
Dept. of Political Science
Horton SSC
Durham, NH 03824 USA
Visiting Fellow (2006-2007)
Watson Institute for International Studies
Brown University
111 Thayer Street
Providence, RI 02912-1970
Tel: (+1) 603-862-0167
Fax: (+1) 603-862-0178
Mobile: (+1) 781-799-1782
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Christopher A. Thoms, Ph.D.
Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in Environment and Justice
Environmental Studies Program
Colby College
Tel. 207.859.4847
http://www.colby.edu/directory_cs/cathoms/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MAY ALL THAT BREATHES BE WELL!
