EST 426/ ENS 626: Concepts of Sustainable Development
Fall
2005
11:00 to 12:20 T, Th (First class August 30, 2005)
Class will meet in room 300 Bray
Instructor: Jack Manno, 24 Bray Hall, 470-6816, jpmanno@mailbox.syr.edu
Office hours by appointment.
For all students interested in applying the concepts of sustainable development
in their careers and lives.
Course Objectives:
- To understand the relationships between ecological and economic modes of
thought about the future of human life on earth,
- To acquire analytical skills to imagine and develop communities, nations
and a global economy that produces, allocates, distributes and recycles the
material and energy resources necessary to support a high quality of life
while conserving natural resources and protecting the earth's ecological
support systems from significant degradation.
- To apply and integrate concepts of sustainable development to understand
trends in economy and environment,
- To develop transdisciplinary intellectual tools and models where conventional
economics and ecology are by themselves ineffective in addressing the problem
of sustaining economic and human development,
- To learn how individuals apply concepts of sustainable development in their
work and personal lives.
Rationale and Overview of the Course
The key concepts of this course involve the allocation and distribution of
resources, production and consumption, design criteria for minimizing ecological
disruption of economic activity, human development, prosperity, social organization,
community-building, law, policy and human motivation.
Human beings live in groups, in communities. At our best we cooperate to
enhance our ability to achieve material well-being and solve the five basic
challenges of economic life: extracting raw materials from Nature, transforming
those raw materials into things we can use, sharing the efforts and distributing
the products in a way that keeps the community together, storing (or insuring)
what we need for later periods of scarcity, and handling the waste products
of production and human life. These tasks have been accomplished in countless
diverse ways by the many cultures that have existed on Earth. To be sustainable,
a society must not only solve these basic challenges but must do so in a
constantly changing environment. It is this feedback and adjustment that
is at the heart of the sustainable development challenge. In order to thrive,
human communities must be flexible and creative. Information about the environment
has to feed back into the development process and adjustments then have to
be made. Environmental degradation and the inability to adjust to changing
conditions played a major role in the collapse of many highly developed societies
in the past.
The question for this course is how do we obtain raw materials, transform
them into products, distribute the products where and when they are needed
and deal with the waste products of these activities in the manner least
disruptive to the ecological foundations. How do we live well without undermining
the natural systems on which we fundamentally depend? This is a challenge
for natural resource management and also for chemistry, hydrology, engineering,
economics, communication and the social sciences. In this course all disciplines
are welcome. You will be asked to query your own discipline with the question
of how the problem of sustainable development is being addressed.
A
word about definitions - The term "sustainable development" has
been used in many different ways. The term gained international recognition
through the work of the World Commission on Environment and Development also
known as the Brundtland Commission and its report Our Common Future released
in 1983. In this report, sustainable development was defined as "development
that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs." This is one of the most often
quoted definitions. The International Union for Conservation of Nature and
Natural Resources introduced the term earlier in its World Conservation Strategy
(1980), stating, "Development and conservation operate in the same global
context, and the underlying problems that must be overcome if either is to
be successful are identical." They thus recommended a strategy entitled "Towards
Sustainable Development."
Much
can be learned from critiques of the notion of sustainable development.
We will spend some but not much time on
criticizing definitions.
The most cogent of these suggest that "sustainable development" appeared
as a way to postpone facing the fundamental challenge
that the environmental crisis posed to contemporary
patterns of economic
development. Simply
stating that development can be made sustainable doesn't
make it so but may make
some believe the need to actively change economic patterns
of behavior less urgent. Most other critiques would
give the term
(or some
other term of their
choosing) more substance by describing the need for
and path to radical social transformation. If radical
social,
political
or
economic change
is required
to solve the problem of sustainable development, we
will uncover the need in trying to solve the problem.
In this
course, the
emphasis will
be on
solutions.
Course Requirements
This
is a very participatory course. It is designed to engage the student personally.
My belief as an instructor is that learning
happens best when it is directly related to a person's life, goals
and interests.
The purpose
of this course is to sharpen our thinking in relation
to the concepts of sustainable development. Students will be asked
to do personal exploration
into their role as professionals, scholars and consumers.
Each
week we will meet in groups of three or four for listening
and learning (L & L) sessions.
You will be asked to respond to one or more questions and take turns expressing
your thoughts on the question(s). You will also be asked to respond to the
question in writing (no more than 2 pages) to be emailed to me before the
next class. These questions will often involve material from the texts. You
must have completed the readings prior to class and be prepared to share
your thoughts. There are no right answers to the L & L
questions, only more or less thoughtful responses.
Each student will be required to write a term paper in one of three categories:
1) a profile of an individual who is contributing to solving the problem
of sustaining human and economic development; 2) a profile of an organization
or project advancing sustainable development. 3) a report on sector-based
approach to sustainable development, such as sustainable agriculture, sustainable
energy, green construction, etc.
Graduate students will also have one additional assignment, to analyze available
data on the relationship between well-being and energy and material consumption
to seek clues for how to achieve a relatively high level of well-being with
relatively low energy and material consumption. (see Manno and Jamborcic
2005).
There will be a mid-term and final exam. I will hand out last year's midterm
so you know the kind of exam to expect.
Expectations
I expect that students will:
- be at every class session (unless excused in advance) on time,
- be active listeners to whoever is speaking,
- complete reading assignments prior to class,
- complete and turn in writing assignments on time,
- be active learners and teachers as exhibited through thoughtful participation
by asking questions and contributing thoughtfully to classroom discussion,
- treat each other and the instructor with courtesy and respect.
The students should expect the instructor:
- to serve as a facilitator of learning for the students collectively and
individually,
- to come to class prepared,
- to be accessible to students outside class time, and to serve as an effective
consultant to the students in their learning,
- to assist students in finding additional resources when needed to reach
the expected learning outcomes.
Textbooks
The
textbook will only be available at Follett's Orange Bookstore in Marshall
Square Mall:
Ecological Economics: Principles and
Applications, by Herman Daly and
Joshua Farley, Island Press, 2004.
A course reader will also be available
from the business office.
Grading
Final grades will be calculated approximately
as follows:
- L & L session written
responses: 15%
- Term paper: 25%
- Midterm exam: 25%
- Final exam: 35% (for undergrads)
- Final exam: 25% (for grads)
- Data analysis: 10% (for grads)
COURSE SCHEDULE
Week 1
8/30 Session 1: Introduction - What
is Sustainable Development?
Introductions and Review of Syllabus
Listening and Learning Question:
Why have you decided to take this
course?
What do you hope to learn?
9/1 Session 2: The Limits of Mainstream
Development Thought
Reader:,
Manno and Whaley: Sustainable
Development,
Meadows: If
the world were
a Village,
Korten: Sustainable Development p. 159-169.
Listening
and Learning
Session:
At this point
how would
you define
sustainable
development?
Week 2
9/6 Session
3: Sustainability
and Competitiveness
Reader: Hargroves
and Smith:
Natural
Advantage
of
Nations.
McDonough:
The Next
Industrial
Revolution
Listening and Learning Session: What makes you optimistic about the potential for sustainable development? What discourages you?
9/8
Session 4: Systematic
Challenges: Global economy
and fossil fuels
Reader: Korten
pp. 170 - 189, Hall
et al: Hydrocarbons and the evolution
of human culture.
Listening and Learning Session: If you were to decide to take leadership in sustainable development, to what area would you want to contribute? How would you contribute?
Week
3
9/13
Session 5: The Personal
is Political
Reader: Berry: Conservation is Good Work, Goodland, Environmental sustainability in agriculture: Diet matters. Manno: Defining the Good Life & Time for What Matters
9/15
Session
6: Threshold Hypothesis
Reader:
Max-Neef: Economic Growth and Quality of Life: A Threshold
Hypothesis; Goldemberg
et al: Basic
Needs Met and Much
More on One Kilowatt
per Capita,
Manno and Jamborcic: Sufficiency and
Simple Living: The Path to Personal and
Global Well-Being
Listening and Learning
Session: You live (at
least for now)
in
a developed western
economy. What are the
positives
and negatives
in your life
about living in such
an economy?
Week 4
9/20 Session 7: Sustainable
Resource Management
in the Third
World
Reader: Barkin:
Local Governance:
a model
of
sustainable rural
resource
management
for the third world
9/22
Session 8: Commoditization
and Consumption Efficiency
Reader: Manno: Commoditization and Consumption Efficiency and an Economy of Care and Connection
Week
5
9/27
Session 9: Planning
for Term Paper
and
Presentation
No
reading. Come to
class
prepared to discuss
your term paper project.
Listening & Learning
Session: In
your opinion
what makes
for a
good term
paper project;
what mistakes
do you
want to
avoid?
9/29
Session 10: Introduction
to Ecological
Economics
Textbook
Chapters 1 & 2
Listening
and Learning
Session: What
does economic
growth
mean? Where
and
how did you
first learn
about
economic growth?
Week
6
10/4
Session
11:
The
Nature
of
Resources
Textbook
Chapter 4
Listening and Learning Session: Do you think ecologically? When did you first learn to think that way? How has it changed your understanding of the world around you?
10/6
Session 12:
Market Failures
Textbook
Chapters
10-12
Listening
and learning
session:
Do you think
as a rational
maximizer
of utility?
How?
How
did you learn to
think that
way? Do you
use market
metaphors
in how you
understand
the world
around you?
Week
7
10/11
Session
13: Midterm
Review
10/13 No Class. Yom Kippur
Week
8
10/18
Session 14: Mid-term
Exam
10/20
Session 15:
GNP and
Welfare
Textbook
Chapter 13
Listening and learning session: What have you learned about economic growth and its importance? What's good about measuring GNP? What's wrong with it?
Week
9
10/25
Session 16: Money
and its History
Textbook:
Chapter 14
Listening
and learning
session:
How and what
did
you learn
about money
as a young
child?
10/27
Session 17:
Distribution
Textbook:
Chapter 15
Listening
and learning
session:
What do you
think
about
the way income
and
wealth
are distributed
in
your
country?
Week
10
11/1
Session 18:
International
Trade
Textbook:
Chapter
17
Listening
and Learning
session:
How is your
life
affected
by international
trade?
11/3
Session 19:
Globalization
Textbook:
Chapter
18
Listening
and Learning
session:
What is your
understanding
of the positive
and negative
aspects
of
globalization?
How
have
you come to
this
understanding?
Week
11
11/8
Session 20:
International
Flows
and Macroeconomic
Policy
Textbook
Chapter 19
Listening and Learning Session: Should fairness and equity be a consideration in international investment? If you think so, how would you make it so? If you think not, then why not?
11/10 Session
21:
Policy Design
Principles
Textbook
Chapter 20
Week
12
11/15
Session
22:
Policy
Options – Sustainable
Scale
Textbook
Chapter 21
Listening
and Learning
session:
Talk
about 2
or more
policies
that
you
wholeheartedly
support?
Why do
you?
11/17
Session
23:
Policy
Options – Just
Distribution
Textbook:
Chapter
22
Week
13
11/22
Session
24:
Policy
Options – Efficient
Allocation
Textbook:
Chapter 23
Listening
and Learning
session:
Where
do you see yourself
fitting
in to
this or your
own
sustainable
development
strategy?
11/24
No
Class – Thanksgiving
Week
14
11/29
Session
25:
Presentations
12/1
Session
26:
Presentations
Week
14
12/6
Session
27:
Presentations
12/8
Session
27:
Presentations
Week
15
Final
exam date
to
be
announced.
Finals
week
12/12 -
16