Re: Community & environmentalism | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: David Hungerford (dghungerford![]() |
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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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Community & environmentalism Graham Meltzer, May 17 1995
- RE: Community & environmentalism Rob Sandelin, May 17 1995
- Re: Community & environmentalism Peter Starr, May 18 1995
- Re: Community & environmentalism David Hungerford, May 23 1995
- Re: Community & environmentalism ALBERT HARDY 286-6331, May 23 1995
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