Course Information

Course Description

The course is focused on natural resource management arrangements linked to notions of ecological modernization. Ecological modernization is the hypothesized process by which ecological limits are meaningfully integrated into social and economic policy and practice, leading to sustainable development. Through a mixture of lectures, field trips, guided research, and student-led discussion, participants in the course will explore cutting edge natural resource management strategies that strive to harmonize economic and ecological demands. The course will provide students with an opportunity to explore the logic of sustainable development and to develop practical understanding of a set of market-based conservation tools. Course modules include working landscapes (i.e., sustainable agriculture and integrated forest management) and redesign of industrial society (i.e., industrial ecology and greening of households).

Our primary object of study is a diverse set of experiments and germinal ideas in need of further refinement, refinement that will come, if it comes at all, through learning-by-doing. This learning involves interaction among entrepreneurs, natural resource users, policy makers, citizens, environmentalists, consumers, scientists, and educators. Studying and advancing efforts to transform the relationship between society and nature from one of extraction to one of regeneration demands creativity and synthesis of variously formatted information. For this reason, course assignments provide students an opportunity to explore their own interests and to enhance their research and communication skills. The course is structured as a research seminar with a heavy emphasis on student presentation of independent/team research and student lead discussion of assigned readings.

Visit Course Resources to see the syllabus and reading list, or Student Products to see examples of projects students have created for this course.