Fall 2008
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Environment and Resource Studies
Introduction |
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Scope and Aims of the Program |
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This program provides advanced education guided in part by the theme of "sustainability." Issues associated with sustainability have emerged in reflections upon the future directions of society at all levels, from local communities through to the world of global interdependencies. With an orientation from this wide perspective, students pursue topics of particular interest to them, with guidance from faculty members and other people with appropriate experience. Three broad conceptual themes guide much of the teaching, learning, and scholarly enquiry fostered through the MES in Environment and Resource Studies: - assessing the theoretical foundations and practical implications of progress toward a sustainable society, and application of this analysis as a broad context for specific work;
- understanding ecosystems as self-organizing systems exhibiting the phenomenon of surprise, especially when over-stressed by human activities; and
- examining conventional and alternative social arrangements, including institutions and tools of governance, as means of improving human wellbeing and environmental responsibility.
Within this general perspective and orientation, faculty and student research can be focused on quite specific topics but always with questions in mind about how a specific topic relates to the larger societal and ecological systems within which it is embedded. The research would be applied by virtue of grounding it in the realities of particular situations and orienting it by explicit normative criteria associated with the theme of sustainability. Following are research areas now underway in the Department.
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