Teaching Sustainability In Sociology Courses The Winnebago Sustainability Project University of Wisc

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Teaching Sustainability In Sociology
CoursesThe Winnebago Sustainability
ProjectUniversity of Wisconsin Oshkosh

• Paul Van Auken May 22, 2008

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Sociology 313 Rural Sociology

• Theoretical framework and basis in literature
• Flora and Floras (2008) Community Capitals
  Framework
• Every community has assets
• When invested to create new resources ? capital
• Understanding capitals ? state of the community
  overall ? sustainable path (?)

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Sociology 313 Rural Sociology

• Flora and Floras (2008) Community Capitals
  Framework
• Fuzzy boundaries capitals overlap with one
  another
• They can come together to create sustainable
  communities with
• Health ecosystems
• Vital economies
• Social inclusion
• Or one form of capital can be favored over others
• Others being consumed to maximize the single
  capital
• E.g. Exploiting natural capital (e.g.
  overlogging) can degrade natural capital itself,
  impact financial capital (short-term gains,
  long-term problems), cultural capital (loss of
  traditions, legacy), social capital (loss of
  community connectedness, trust), etc.

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Sociology 313 Rural Sociology

• Key readings
• Rural Communities Legacy Change, Flora Flora
  (2008)
• Changing Works Visions of a Lost Agriculture,
  Harper (2001)
• Newcomers to Old Towns Suburbanization of the
  Heartland, Salamon (2003)
• Population 485 Meeting Your Neighbors One Siren
  at a Time, Perry (2007)
• Excerpts from Ending Hunger in Our Lifetime,
  Runge et al. (2003)

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Sociology 313 Rural Sociology

• Project
• Incremental, multi-step study of one rural
  community
• All but two chose Wisconsin communities
• Using FFs community capital framework
• Put in perspective by comparing to rural
  community in Appalachia, Mississippi Delta,
  American Indian reservation, or a less-developed
  region of the world
• Is rurality meaningful in this urban world?
• Do rural communities in the U.S. appear to be on
  a sustainable path?

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Sociology 313 Rural Sociology

• Key films
• King Corn, Woolf (2007)
• Brothers, Perkins (2008)

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Sociology 315 Population Problems

• Introduction to demography course
• Used Demography The Study of Human Population
  (Yaukey, Anderton, Lundquist, 2007) as textbook
• No section on population and the environment

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Sociology 315 Population Problems

• So, created a section on sustainability
• In-class survey and discussion of ethnicity and
  segregation
• Population and Development from An Invitation
  to Environmental Sociology (Bell, 2004)
• Readings from State of the World 2008 (Worldwatch
  Institute, 2008)
• Discussed UWOs sustainability plan
• Integrated sustainability into final chapters of
  Yaukey et al. on urbanization and population
  diversity
• Focus throughout course on the unsustainability
  of global inequality and socioeconomic inequality
  within our society

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Sociology 315 Population Problems

• Other key readings
• The New Americans, Martinez (2004)
• Plague of Paradoxes AIDS, Culture, and
  Demography, Setel (2000)
• Key films
• The New Americans, Kartemquin Educational Films,
  Inc. (2003)
• Deadly Catch http//www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?
  ReportId61001

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Sociology 342 Social Ecology

• Places need to be connected to the broader world
  in this global age, but
• Key to building sustainable societies is to focus
  on local communities
• Strategies that will increase their economic
  self-reliance and improve relations with nature
• First step ? solid understanding of place and
  community
• Soc 342 organized around learning about the
  social ecology of a particular place
• Hopefully ? love of the land/place ? ecological
  conscience ? land ethic

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Sociology 342 Social Ecology

• Key frameworks
• Flora and Floras (2008) community capitals
  framework
• HEP vs. NEP (Catton Dunlap, 1978, 1980)
• Three primary sociological paradigms (Humphrey,
  Lewis, Buttel, 2002)

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Human Exemptionalism Paradigm (HEP)

• Humans have a cultural heritage that makes them
  quite unlike all other animal species
• Social and cultural factors (e.g. technology) are
  the major determinants of human affairs
• Social and cultural environments are the crucial
  contexts for human affairs ? biophysical
  environment is largely irrelevant
• Culture is cumulative ? technological and social
  progress can continue indefinitely ? all social
  problems can be solved

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New Ecological Paradigm (NEP)

• Humans have exceptional characteristics but are
  only one of many species interdependently
  involved in the global ecosystem
• Human affairs are not only influenced by social
  and cultural factors but also by intricate
  linkages with nature
• Humans live in and are dependent upon a finite
  biophysical environment
• Ecological laws cannot be repealed (we are not
  exempt from the laws of nature)

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Three Sociological Paradigms

• Conservative
• Tradition of Emile Durkheim
• Culture is the primary causal force in society
• Change must start at individual level ? changes
  in individual values, behavior ? changes in
  collective consciousness
• Managerial
• Tradition of Max Weber
• Power is the basic causal force
• Change will result from the elites in power
  (government, business) changing
• Radical
• Tradition of Karl Marx
• Class is the basic causal force
• Change can only occur by changing the economic
  system itself

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Sociology 342 Social Ecology

• Semester-long research project
• In groups, students
• Profile of their capital
• Primarily secondary data
• Primary research about community and
  sustainability in Oshkosh
• Primary method photo elicitation

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Sociology 342 Social Ecology

• Key readings
• Collapse, Jared Diamond (2005)
• A Sand County Almanac, Aldo Leopold (1949)
• Native to Nowhere, Timothy Beatley (2004)
• Ecology of Hope, Bernard Young (1997)
• The Great Good Place, Ray Oldenburg (1999)

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Sociology 342 Social Ecology

• Key films
• Moyerss story about the Earth Conservation
  Corps
• http//www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/07062007/profile
  2.html
• Going Big Box vs. Going Local
• http//www.alternet.org/blogs/workplace/73239/

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• Thanks!
• Questions?
• vanaukep_at_uwosh.edu
• 424.2038