Sustainability:
Principles and Practice

PHIL 5960.01 - Spring 1995


Course Description

This course examines sustainability from a number of perspectives, including the historical, political, economic, ecological, and philosophical. Among the aspects of sustainability considered are bioregionalism, ecological economics, industrial ecology, intergenerational justice, deep sustainability, and so-called Third World issues.

Required texts

Vandana Shiva, Staying Alive: Women, Ecology and Development (Zed Books).

Bormann and Kellert, Ecology, Economics, Ethics: The Broken Circle (Yale).

Herman Daly, Steady State Economics, 2d ed. (Island Press).

Paul Ekins, Green Economics (Anchor Books).

Hawken, The Ecology of Commerce (HarperCollins).

D. Kemmis, Community and the Politics of Place (Univ. Oklahoma).

McCloskey, The Rhetoric of Economics (Univ. of Wisconsin).

National Commission on the Environment, Choosing a Sustainable Future (Island Press).

Mark Sagoff, The Economy of the Earth (Cambridge Univ. Press).

Charles Wilkinson, Crossing the Next Meridian: Land, Water, and the Future of the West (Island Press).

Optional Texts (available in the bookstore; buy at least one of these)

Wright, Wild Knowledge (Univ. of Minnesota).

Course Requirements

Précis. A two page précis (typed, 500-700 words w/ double spacing), more interpretive essay than summary, is required for every assigned text or assigned pages. Straight summaries or digests of the reading assignments are not acceptable. As the semester progresses, earlier reading and class discussion should bear on your interpretations. For example, the Sagoff reading should bear on your reading of Daly; Chapter 7 of Daly should bear on your reading of Shiva; and so on. Late précis are deducted 10 points per week.

Midterm examination. A midterm exam consisting of fifty objective questions on the assigned reading (to that date) and one essay question will be given during the sixth week. Please bring a blue book.

Term paper. Your term paper should develop one specific aspect of the sustainability idea in detail. The paper should be at least ten and no more than fifteen pages. Draft due week thirteen or sooner. (Why not plan on working on your term paper over spring break?) While submitting a draft for my comments is optional, few students can achieve an __A__ without at least one critical reading. I expect quality conceptual work with excellent mechanics. Final draft due at the last class meeting. Late term papers deducted 5 points per day.

Final examination. A take-home essay examination will be handed out in class (week fourteen); finished exam is at the last class meeting. Late finals deducted 10 points per day.

Semester grade. Précis scores count for 25%; midterm exam 25%; final exam 25%; and term paper 25%. Grades will be distributed on the basis of a flat scale where 90% = A, 80% = B, and so on.

Attendance. More than one unexcused absence will result in a one letter grade deduction for the semester.

Weekly Class Schedule

1. Jan. 16. Martin Luther King Jr. Day (University holiday).

2. Jan. 23. Overview of the course and the readings. Introduction to the sustainability idea in its various iterations, including so-called sustainable development. Discussion of the sustainability idea in the context of so-called environmental crisis as an ecosocial crisis. Read Bormann and Kellert (pref. & chs. 1, 3-4, 7-11, 13).

3. Jan. 30. Bormann and Kellert précis due. Why does the sustainability idea elude easy categorization? Consider the wide variety of issues discussed in Bormann and Kellert. Is sustainability the answer to all questions? to some questions? Is sustainability an umbrella, under which many different aspects of environmental studies and sciences find shelter? Does the sustainability idea exist in the conceptual space lying at the convergence of ecology, economics, ethics, and other sciences? Pay particular attention to Goldfarb (in this context). What are the implications of Goldfarb's multidisciplinary-interdisciplinary thesis for the education of environmental scientists and ethicists? Make sure you don't run out of steam before the concluding essay.

4. Feb. 6. Sagoff précis due. Why is the sustainability idea not just a question of economics? What drives the attempt to reduce environmental issues, including for example pollution and economic development in the Third World, to market questions? You might consider looking ahead to (e.g.) Heilbroner's remark in Ekins that economics cannot be considered separately from ethical and ecological concerns, and Daly, chapter 8.

5. Feb. 13. McCloskey précis due. Why does mainstream (neoclassical) economic theory have such a hold on the conventional wisdom? Does the sustainability idea depend on a paradigm shift from an economics based on classical physics to an economics based on evolutionary science? chaos theory? non-equilibrium thermodynamics? (See C. S. Holling, New Science and New Investments for a Sustainable Biosphere,__ in Investing in Natural Capital.) What are the limits of a traditional economic purview? (Daly contends that the standard economic approach is much like rearranging the deck chairs of the post-iceberg Titanic.) Can sustainability be quantified? Even if not, are quantitative studies of various proposals for sustainability, such as the Brundtland report, worthwhile? (For example, Duchin and Lange argue that, after analysis, it is apparent that the recommendations of the Brundtland Report cannot achieve the stated economic and environmental objectives simultaneously.)

6. Feb. 20. MIDTERM EXAM.

7. Feb. 27. Ecological economics (part one): introductory discussion. Ekins précis due. Explain Ekins' contention that ecological economics entails ecology, economics, and ethics. Set up a dialectic, if you can, with McCloskey. For example, does ecological economics violate the canons of __objective science,__ at least as this has been defined in terms of classical physics. In your précis be attentive to distinguishing standard economic analysis (and theory) from the analysis (and theory) of ecological economics. For example, contrast ecocapital with human capital, or accounting for income via green accounting in contrast with standard economic accounting. (If you need to reduce your reading, slide on pp. 110-129, 132-137, 148-153, 158-167.)

NOTE: A national conference, __An Aging Population, an Aging Planet, and a Sustainable Future,__ will be held at UNT February 26-28, beginning at 4:00 PM on Sunday. Your attendance is optional, but there will be some interesting sessions.

8. Mar. 6. Hawken précis due. Hawken and the National Commission text represent an attempt to __get down,__ that is, to give some flesh to the __bare bones__ of sustainability theory. Too often environmental intellectuals come off as utopians; in Hawken and the National Commission text we find some nitty-gritty materials. Note some of the resonances between Hawken and Ekins, e.g., on the importance of aesthetically pleasing and psychologically satisfying work. What are the core notions of industrial ecology? Is industrial ecology (roughly) the application of ecosystem science, ecological economics and ecoethics to business? Also consider the rhetorical dimensions of Hawken's book: do you think his discourse is effective for business readers?

SPRING BREAK: March 13-17.

9. Mar. 20. Daly précis due, through chapter 6 (skip chapter 4). Ecological economics (part two): intermediate level discussion. Given that Daly's theory is comprehensive, its complexity is to be expected. He covers more ground in less space, in my opinion, than any other theorist. The problem with Daly is that it's easy to miss seeing the forest because of all the trees. As a frame for your précis, read Daly's argument as lying at the intersection of ecology, ethics, and economics. Show how his argument for a steady-state economy necessarily rejects the standard economic paradigm. Again, a dialectical relation with McCloskey will help in your analysis. Another note re. rhetoric: too often, environmentalists get their tails kicked because the pro-growth, business as usual, MPE crowd, sets the ground of the conversation. Consider the argument that solar energy and public transportation are impractical because they are not cost effective. If you accept this premise, you've lost the argument. Daly overturns the rhetorical applecart. How?

10. Mar. 27. National Commission on the Environment précis due. Read this report sympathetically, yet critically. Your task is to separate the wheat from the chaff in light of Ekins, Daly, and so on. For example, you might compare the NCE recommendations for taxes with Daly's recommendation for quotas. Are the NCE recommendations better conceptualized as beginning the process of socioeconomic transformation toward sustainability than as an ending? Do the NCE recommendations lie within the __envelope of rhetorical possibility__?

11. Ap. 3. Daly précis due, chapters 7-9, 11-13. Ecological economics (part three): advanced level discussion. Use Daly as a springboard for criticizing the NCE report. Does Daly mend the broken circle? Looking ahead to the Wilkinson reading, ask yourself this question: Is Daly's discourse impossibly technical, and therefore condemned to oblivion, or is his theory analytically robust, that is, applicable to the kinds of meat and potato issues that Wilkinson raises?

12. Ap. 10. Wilkinson précis due. (Term paper draft due.) Case studies of non-sustainability. What are the Lords of Yesterday? Do the Lords block the path to sustainability? Does Daly help deconstruct the Lords? For example, apply Daly's distinction between marginal utility and total utility to Wilkinson's account of the existing water economy. Attempt to summarize Wilkinson's position on sustainability (see esp. last ¶, p. 297ff.). But how can this be done? Do vested private property interests preclude societal movement toward sustainability?

13. Ap. 17. Kemmis précis due. Bioregionalism and local politics. Develop insofar as you can a comparison-contrast between the implications of Kemmis' vision for sustainability and that suggested by GATT, NAFTA, and the ongoing processes of globalization. Does Kemmis' vision resonate with what Ekins has to say about the importance of community, work, and so on? With Daly's vision of the quality of life? And Hawken's vision of industrial ecology?

14. Ap. 24. Shiva précis due. Sustainability and Third World issues. Summarize Shiva's analysis of Western theories of development and her alternatives. Does Shiva's approach contradict those of Kemmis, Daly, Ekins, and so on, or does it offer useful cultural, social, and geographical qualification? Is gender an issue, or should it be an issue, in sustainability?

15. May 1. Summing up and taking stock. What have we learned? Be prepared to offer your account of the semester's proceedings. Take home final due. Term paper due.