Re: Community & environmentalism
From: David Hungerford (dghungerforducdavis.edu)
Date: Tue, 23 May 95 11:23 CDT
On Wed, 17 May 1995, Graham Meltzer wrote:

> Dear friends, I need your help.
> 
> I have a beleif that living in community leads to a greater environmental
> conciousness. And I suppose that one reason for my being attracted to
> cohousing is that I see it as a means to raising that conciousness and
> ultimately, as a force for improved neighbourhoods and cities in terms of
> environmental quality. I am doing post-grad research which is attempting to
> establish this link.
> 
> The trouble is, that my supervisor doesn't agree. He is Bill Metcalf, a long

Well, Graham, I'm afraid I'll have to agree with your supervisor.  
Community CAN facilitate environmental awareness, but it doesn't 
NECESSARILY do so.  Your thesis is falsified by many examples, some 
mentioned by your supervisor.  The link between caring for other people, 
the empathy that engenders, and environmental awareness is, I think, 
tenuous or, more properly, highly contextual.  You might focus on 
locating and describing the context in which community DOES foster 
environmental awareness--that, IMHO, would be a useful and significant 
contribution. 

As far as a literature goes, you might check out the sociology of 
technology lit (Wiebe Bijker is a good start) looking for how behavior 
is affected by social context.  Sorry I can't give you more off the top 
of my head, but this is a subject that a lot of people talk about, but 
only peripherally.  The whole technology and society lit, including Leo 
Marx, Langdon Winner, Jacques Ellul, Lewis Mumford, Lynn White, and Don Ihde 
may add some background.  Good Luck.

David Hungerford
dghungerford [at] ucdavis.edu  

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