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Explore the intricate web of intersecting economic, social, and ecological processes shaping social and environmental change, challenging traditional boundaries and advocating for trans-disciplinary engagement.
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Non-standard lessons from the 'tragedy of the commons’: From systems to intersecting processes Peter Taylor Univ. Massachusetts Boston Critical & Creative Thinking Science, Technology & Values Education for Sustainability peter.taylor@umb.edu www.faculty.umb.edu/pjt
Classroom activity
Social and environmental change are analyzed as something produced by intersecting economic, social and ecological processes operating across different scales. These processes transgress boundaries and restructure "internal" dynamics, thus ensuring that socio-environmental situations do not have clearly defined boundaries and are not simply governed by coherent, internally-driven dynamics.
1. Intersecting processes involve inseparable dynamics 2. The account represents agency as distributed across different kinds of agents and scale. 3. The account has an intermediate complexity. 4. Intermediate complexity accounts favor the idea of multiple, smaller engagements linked together within the intersecting processes. 5. Intersecting processes accounts highlight the need for trans-disciplinary work grounded in particular locations. 6. Intermediate complexity preserves a role for some kind of social scientific generalization.
Syllabus topics: systems -> intersecting processes Constructions of nature Conservation and early C20 colonialism, patriarchy, and eugenics Post-WW II ecology: systems and selfishness Human ecology: adapted or ambiguous? Nomadic pastoralism: a key subject of research and of development Local knowledge: adapted, flexible, or vulnerable? Political ecology: economics intersects with ecology Insights from understanding peasantries Construction of commodities and the gendered politics of production in agroecology Euro-centric environmentalism and coercive conservation The politics of participation in eco-development The collaborative generation of environmental knowledge and inquiry Theory and discourse: difficulties and ironies