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IDS 3304 - Issues in Ecology & Environment Sustainable Communities: Course Schedule
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Class One: Sustainable Communities & the Elements of a Good Society
Readings:
Chapter 1 of Etzioni's (1996) The New Golden Rule.
Web Readings:
Communitarian View of a Civil Society
Communitarian Rights & Responsibilities
The Politics of Virtue-Is Not Political at All
Topics: Voluntary Order & Bounded Autonomy (A Communitarian Agenda) / Methodological Notes/ Rearranging the Intellectual-Political Map / Thick Social Order - Fully Respectful of Autonomy / The Need for Thick Social Order / Communitarian Order: Largely Voluntary / Social Conservative Order: Virtue Focused / Pervasive Versus Core; Imposed Versus Voluntary / Autonomy Fully Respectful of Order / Individualists & Unbounded Autonomy / Socially Constructed Autonomy / Autonomy in the Good Society / Implications For Practice & Policy
Format: Discussion, Presentation, Web Research
Homework:
Go to the Web site above for the Institute for Communitarian Policy Studies at George Washington University and in 5 single space pages describe:
- What Communitarians Believe
- What the Communitarian vision entails
- What Communitarians mean by the term "Civil Society,"
- What Communitarians mean when they refer to "rights and responsibilities."
Please attach your homework assignment to the course web board. (5 single spaced pages)
Readings:
Chapter Two of Etzioni's (1996) The New Golden Rule.
Web Readings:
The Golden Rule Across Cultures
Topics: A Diversity of Communitarian Amalgas / The Inverting Symbiotic Relationship / Exhibit I: Individualism - Core Vlae or Malaise? / Exhibit II: Strong Rights Undermine/Presume Strong Responsibilities / Exhibit III: Deregulation / In a Dynamic Perspective / The Causes & Limits of Social Swings / Responses & Breakdowns / Implications for Practice & Policy / The Limits of Communitarian Policing & Regulation / Implications of the Four Criteria for Privacy / The Right Not to Self Incriminate / Notching Liberalization
Format: Discussion, Presentation, & Web Research.
Homework:
Go the the Communitarian Network on the web http://www.gwu.edu/~ccps/rcplatform.html and read the Responsive Communitarian Platform. In two pages, outline how the tenets of this platform relates to issues of social order & autonomy. (2 single spaced pages)
Class Three: The Rise & Fall of America
Readings:
Chapter Three of Etzioni's (1996) The New Golden Rule
Web Readings:
The Problem With Communitarianism
The New Urbanism and the Communitarian Trap by David Harvey
The Nature of Political Correctness, Phillip Atkinson
Topics: Weber Versus Regeneration of the Moral Order / The American Condition: Preliminary Notes / Baseline Fifties: The Old Regime - Orderly, but How Moral? / The Pendulum Swings: 1960 - 1990, Moral Order Deteriorates, Autonomy Expands, But So Does Anarchy / The Link Between Autonomy & Anarchy / New Swing: The 1990s Curl Back / Other Societies / Oversteering / Implications for Practice & Policy /
Homework:
Based upon the web readings, briefly critique in two single space pages the "problems and issues associated with Communitarianism. In another 2 pages, describe the "nature" of political correctness and identify the strengths and weaknesses of such a pursuit. (Total of 4 single spaced pages)
Class Four: Sharing Core Values
Readings:
Chapter Four of Etzioni's (1996) The New Golden Rule
Web Readings:
Community Networking: Underlying Principles
Topics: Basic Definitions of Core Values / Historical Perspective of Values / Context of the Debate / Sources of Values (Cultural Not Personal) / Limits of Deliberations / Danger of Culture Wars / Value Talks / Rules of Engagement for Value Talks / Megalogues / Stages / Directions for Practice & Policy / Virtual Dialogues / Limiting Plutocratic Tendencies /
Homework:
Go to the "Access Sacramento" website and briefly describe what "Access Sacramento" is all about. You will find your way to this site by clicking upon "community networks." (2 single spaced pages)
Readings:
Chapter Five of Etzioni's (1996) The New Golden Rule
Web Readings:
Virtuous Reality: Character-Building in the Information Age by Jeb Bush & Brian Yablonski
Topics: Beyond Sharing: The Need to Convince / The Moral Voice Introduced / The Inner (Personal) Moral Voice / The Moral Voice of the Community / Inner & Community Voices / Critiques & Responses / Within History: America Loses Much of Its Moral Voice / There Should (Not) be a Law / A Comparative Perspective / Implications for Practice & Policy for Building Communities (Nourish Communities) / Graduated Responses / Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Techniques / Making Lawyers (More) Officers of the Court
Homework:
Visit the site above containing the article by Bush & Yablonski. Briefly summarize the essentials of the arguments presented in their essay. (2 single spaced pages)
Class Six: Implications of Human Nature
Readings:
Chapter Six of Etzioni's (1996) The New Golden Rule
Web Readings:
Bowling Alone: America's Declining Social Capital
The Cultural Creation of Citizens, Thomas Bridges
Topics: The Debate About Human Nature / The Sanguine View / The Dour View / Human Nature as Eternal Struggle / Starting Gate: Barbarian at Birth / The Pivotal Role of Internalization / Reinforcing Social Formations: The Moral Infrastructure / The Extent of Intractability & Its Implications / Public Schools as Character Building Agents / Character Building: Practices & Policies / The Community As Moral Agent / Layered Loyalties
Homework:
Go to "Of the State of Nature" by John Locke and the "Introductory" of John Stuart Mills' "On Liberty." Briefly describe how Mill and Lock view "human nature" and the appropriate role of government. (5 single spaced pages).
Class Seven: Pluralism Within Unity
Readings:
Chapter Seven of Etzioni's (1996) The New Golden Rule
Web Readings:
Civic Friendship, Communitarian Solidarity and the Story of Liberty
Topics: Order & Autonomy Among Communities / Melting Pot, Rainbow or Mosaic? / High Heterogeneity , Weak Societal Integration / Coping with Rising Diversity / Diversity & the Need for a Framework / The Framework: Thin or Thick? Procedural or Substantial? / Core Element I: Democracy as a Value (Not Only a Procedure) / Core Element II: The Constitution & Its Bill of Rights / Core Element III: Layered Loyalties / Core Element IV: Neutrality, Tolerance, or Respect / Core Element V: Limiting Identity Politics / Core Element VI: Society-Wide Dialogues / Core Element VII: Reconciliation / A Core Language? / Implications for Practice & Policy
Homework:
In two single spaced pages describe how civic friendship differs from communitarian solidarity. (2 single spaced pages)
Class Eight: The Final Arbiters of Community Values
Readings:
Chapter Eight of Etzioni's (1996) The New Golden Rule
Web Readings:
Dorothy Day on Personalism versus Communitarianism
Topics: Values are Not Broccoli: The Need for Accountability / The First Criterion: Community As Arbiter / Internal Democracy (A Political Process) / Consensus Building (A Social Process) / Community-Based Relativism & Particularism / The Second Criterion: Societal Values as Moral Frameworks / A Third Criterion: Cross - Cultural Moral Dialogues / Procedural Dialogues / Dialogues of Convictions / Fourth Criterion: Global Community / Cross-Cultural Relativism / Empirical & Moral Globalists / Human Rights / Cross Societal Moral Voice / Compelling Moral Causes / The Basic Virtues: (Like Life & Health) / The Moral Voice Revisited: Virtuous Versus Errant / Particularism & Universalism / Social Versus Personal Virtues / Ultimate Versus Expedient / Corollary & Secondary Values / Must One Be Religious to be Communitarian? /
Homework:
Explain the difference between communitarianism and personalism according to Dorothy Day. (2 single spaced pages)
Spring Break! March 11-17
Readings:
Carol Merchant's "Reinventing Eden: Western Culture as a Recovery Narrative." In William Cronon's Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature.
The Garden
Ceres in the Garden of the World The image of America as Garden dates back to the earliest settlements. Two distinct perceptions of this New World Garden developed. The Puritan image was of a garden to be hewn out of the savage wilderness. Early settlers of Virginia viewed the new continent as a pre-lapsarian garden, which the colonizer need not change but from which he should profit, both spiritually and materially. From these two points of view came very different ideas concerning the role of the inhabitants of this garden. Whereas the New England farmer found his vocation in tilling the soil, the southern planter saw his in the education of the mind.
The struggle between the two ideals carried the greatest weight in the newly settle territories just east of the frontier. Ultimately, the outcome of the clash of the two myths and the models they put forth would become the conflict between the free and slave states. The failure of the Southern system to prevail can be traced to the failure of its hold on the states forming in the Midwest. While literature and public papers of the time offer examples of both Jeffersonian agrarianism and apologism for slavery, Smith blames the weakness of the plantation myth for the decline of the institution. He writes "pro-slavery advocates of annexation failed entirely to create symbols comparable to the free-soil symbol of the yeoman. They were prepared to defend slavery as such with the standard doctrines, and to state of familiar propositions of manifest destiny, but they were not able to endow the westward expansion of the slave system with imaginative color"(VL,152.)
Henry Nash Smith, author of Virgin Land presents the myth of the garden in its American form. The symbols are the yeoman farmer and the planter. One tills the soil, deriving his virtue from contact with Nature and through Nature communion with God. The other enjoys the benefits of the luscious garden given to him by God, developing virtues through intellectual, social, and spiritual pursuits.
These two myths do battle in the nineteenth century for a hold on the American imagination, with the yeoman emerging as victor. But while we can easily identify the planter class, who exactly is the yeoman farmer? He is the small independent farmer who lives a harmonious existence, free from the burden of a landlord and from the responsibility and taint of slaves (or, in the Southern version, possessed of very few, with whom he works side by side.) He is the model of self-sufficiency and the backbone of democracy. Yet he is not alone. In fact the yeoman shares his rural landscape with his degraded cousin, the poor white. There is not a single clear line of division between these two figures. They often have similar names and live under similar conditions; however that the two are very different in the minds of the nineteenth-century American population is very evident in literary representations of the two.
Web Readings:
Virgin Land: (Read Chapter 11, "Garden of the World" by Henry Nash Smith.
A Brief History of The European Myth of the Garden
America as Garden During the Renaissance
Fredrick Jackson Turner: Western Expansion and
the Turner ThesisFredrick Jackson Turner & The Significance of the Frontier in American History
The Problem of the West, By Fredrick Jackson Turner
Additional Readings
The Frontier in American History by Fredrick Jackson Turner
Topics: Native American & Puritan Agriculture Origins Stories / The Garden of Eden Story / The Christian Recovery Project / Greco-Roman Roots of the Recovery Narrative / The American Heroic Recovery Narrative / Indians in the Recovery Narrative / Female Nature in the Recovery Narrative / The City in the Garden / Critiques of the Recovery Narrative / Chaos Theory & Partnership Ethics /
Homework:
What is the European myth of the garden and how did this vision influence the colonization and development of America? (3 single space pages)
Class Ten: The Trouble with the Wilderness…"
Readings:
William Cronon's "The Trouble with the Wilderness, or Getting Back to the Wrong Nature." In William Cronon's Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature.
Web Readings:
Topics: Rethinking the Wilderness / Natural versus Unnatural / The Meaning of Wilderness/ Biblical Parallels / Conservation Controversies in America / Wilderness as a "Sacred" Concept / Doctrine of the Sublime / Wordsworth & Thoreau / The Frontier Myth & Rugged Individualism / The National Frontier Myth / Removing Indians to Create Uninhabited Wilderness / The Concept of Wilderness as a Quasi-Religious Foundation of Modern Values / Habits of Thinking Flowing from the Concept of Wilderness / Endangered Species & Unintended Consequences / The Unacceptability of Human Suicide in Saving the Wilderness / The "Farm" as the Forefront for Saving the Wilderness / Rethinking the Concept of Wilderness
Homework:
Please explain what the term "wilderness" means. Also, discuss the major features of the Wilderness Act as well as present a brief history of the legislation.(3 pages single spaced)
Class Eleven: On the Search for a Root Cause
Readings:
Jeffery Ellis's "On the Search for a Root Cause: Essentials Tendencies in Environmental Discourse." In William Cronon's Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature.
Web Readings:
Human Population Growth and Environmental Carrying Capacity David L. Trauger, Director of Natural Resources Programs, Northern Virginia Center, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Falls Church, Virginia
Topics: Controversy Surrounding Global Warming: Politics in Action / The Debate over Root Causes in the Politics of Environmentalism / Barry Commoner & American Neo-Malthusians / The Commoner - Ehrlich Debate / Battling for Control Over Environmental Policy / Bookchin's Critique of Mainstream Environmentalists / Social Versus Deep Ecology / Reconciling Differences
Homework:
In Trauger's essay, what does he see is the root cause or causes of the environmental crisis? (2 single spaced pages)
Class Twelve: Sustainable Communities
Readings:
Christopher Rice's "What is Sustainability?" Western Social Science Association, Fort Worth Texas, April, 22.
Web Readings:
Sustainable Communities Network
Ecological Checklist (Frog Stick Checklist)
Topics: How Wal-Mart is Destroying America / Sustainability & Sustainable Development / Sustainable Community Indicators / Economic Models: Ricardo, Smith, Daly & Cobb / More Economic Models: Keynes & Durning / The Evolution of Community / Bio-Region as Community / Sustainable Practices / Does Community Have a Value? / Sustainable Communities / Global Dependence & Local Independence / Going Local /
Homework:
Go to the Sustainable Communities Network and find the case study entitled "QUALITY INDICATORS FOR PROGRESS: Jacksonville, Florida." and briefly describe how Jacksonville conceptualizes indicators of a quality "sustainable" community. (2 single spaced pages)
Readings:
Alan Bloom's "Our Virtue" In A. Bloom's The Closing of the American Mind., New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster
Web Readings:
The Closing of the American Mind: Our Virtue, Alan Bloom
Topics: Separateness / The Eventual Downfall of the State of Nature Perspective / Hobbes & Locke / Undermining the Family Relationship / Avoiding Interdependence / Divorce as an Indicator of Separateness / "I Love You" / Gratification & Love / Relationships Among Men & Women / Feminism / The Unreliability of Men /
Homework:
Briefly present the central tenet of Bloom's essay (Our Virture) and give your personal thoughts on his position (for or against). (3 single spaced pages)
Class Fourteen: Are You an Environmentalist? Or Do You Work for a Living?
Readings:
Richard White's "Are You an Environmentalist or Do You Work for a Living?: Work & Nature." In William Cronon's Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature.
Web Readings:
Read Wendell Berry's Essay on "Conserving Community" in Another Turn of the Crank
Global Problems, Local Solutions, Wendell Berry
Topics: Are Environmentalists Opposed to Work? / Work & Nature / Work, Nature & Play / Opposition to Environmentalism / Work & the Fall from Grace / Popular First White Men / Masking the Work of First White Men / Work as a Link to Nature / Demonization of Technology / Using History Without Being Historical / Connecting with the Land Through Work / Examining All Work / Is Nature Separate from Work? / Modern Work
Homework:
Prepare for your Final Exam.