First-Year Research Seminar: Innovation and Sustainability

Semester and Year	SP 2011
Course Number	FIRST-UG723
Section	001
Instructor	Jose Perillan
Days	Tue,Thu
Time	2:00 PM - 3:15 PM
Units	4.0
Level	U
Foundation Requirement

Description

How was the concept of environmental sustainability born? How did the idea of sustainability transform into the goal of sustainable development? Is innovation helping or hindering achieving the aims of sustainable development? These are some of the questions we will address in this course. While working to define sustainability within various contexts, students will explore how the complexity of a particular system can complicate the task of sustaining it. Building off of a diverse set of texts, we will examine the concept of sustainability from many different perspectives including agriculture, economic development, health care, international law, urban planning, engineering, and religion. Readings may include texts by Henry David Thoreau, Richard Muller, Elinor Ostrom, John Young, Ann Thorpe, Richard Norgaard, Sharachchandra Lélé, David Pearce, Janis Birkeland, and David MacKay. Students will write several critical essays throughout the semester culminating in a final research paper.

Course Type

First-Year Program: Research Seminars (FIRST-UG)