Environmental Justice - Presentation Session Part 1

Presentation from Morteza Honari: "Ecology of Sustainability:
 Managing Changes in a Changing World"

‘Ecology of Sustainability’ will present on my experience in life and work across contrasting ecosystems from the central desert of Iran to the tropical forests of Australia; from the metropolitan cityscape of Tehran to the academic garden of Ann Arber, the University of Michigan; and from the University of Edinburgh in the ancient capital of Scotland, to the meticulously planned capital city of Australia, Canberra.

These physical settings are as diverse as the cultural halos in villages, tribes, cities, deserts, forests, mountings, and valleys.

It was me living and working in such a vast different places and cultures, have to live and work and communicate and be a part of their ecosystems.

With an academic background in geography, anthropology, culture, health and the environment, coming from a family of teachers, poets, and social activists, finding myself conducting research, writing and publishing books and papers in two languages, lecturing and teaching, and planning television and radio interviews.

All these pasts have left traces in my mind and in my understanding the concepts and human ecology and of the human.

This presentation is to share my experience of the concepts of health, culture, human settlements, environments and development through the window of human ecology.

Presentation from Fransisco Padilla: "Recognition of Cultural Diversity in International Cooperation: only words?"

Today we celebrate cultural diversity, however when it comes to knowledge or to the transfer of knowledge and expertise from one part of the word to the other, often we tend to hold on to western knowledge and to the transfer of it from the west to non-western cultures and environments. This tendency can often be found within international cooperation for development. International cooperation for development and science itself aren't far away from each other, since often within development projects we find the transfer of scientific knowledge.
Therefore, this behavior can be explained by implementing a post-development-perspective. Among many things that post-development-theory criticizes about international initiatives for development, there is the western dichotomy of developed and underdeveloped. This dichotomy on one hand legitimizes a linear model of development, where the western standard lies at the top and other development paradigms are like previous steps. On the other hand, the developed-underdeveloped-dichotomy also builds the foundation for the dominance of western knowledge and often marginalizes non-western knowledge, that shows a different human-nature-relation. This dichotomy builds a barrier for a true recognition of cultural diversity in knowledge and its transfer within international cooperation for development or even for investigation. In order to truly celebrate cultural diversity, it's time for a multipolar model of development and knowledge.

Environmental Justice - Presentation Session Part 2 - Discussion

Transdisciplinarity - Presentation Session Part 1

Presentation from Sister Jayanti:

Transdisciplinarity - Presentation Session Part 2

Presentation from Ian Douglas: "Teaching Human Ecology by walking round an old gravel pit"

The study of human ecology cannot be disentangled from a process of becoming both ecological and sociological in the field. Bringing practical experience to the forefront of education in human ecology helps people to become aware of the need for sensitivity towards all other human beings and to all components of the ecosystems in which they live. In teaching about the urban environment and sustainable development in Manchester, beginning in 1979, I found field excursions and small field projects to be among the things that students recalled the most vividly decades later. In a complex city whose character has changed over 50 years or more, a walk lasting two hours can unravel many examples of environmental management, cultural change, ecological restoration, recreational demands on the landscape and the consequences of engineering works. A walk around a former gravel pit adjoining the River Mersey in South Manchester demonstrates flood management, sewage treatment; the impact of golf courses, the ecological restoration of landfills, eighteenth century canal building; the valley as a transport corridor for highways, powerlines and gas mains; nature conservations and regulation of the use of lake waters for recreation. Other walks show changes in use of buildings, including canal warehouses, but especially religious buildings that have changed uses, reflecting the cultural history of inner-city suburbs. I urge all engaged in human ecology education to explore the local environment with their students.

Presentation from Adam Douglas Henry: "Mapping University Research & Education Networks to Support Learning for Sustainability"

Universities are an important focal point for scientific innovation around grand challenges of sustainability (“learning”). As such, universities engaged in environmental research have repeatedly considered how to organize their research and education landscape through the creation of a “networked system” including centers, institutes, departments, as well as incentives for collaboration. In practice, these efforts have often faced a fundamental challenge of learning in networks: Learning is supported through networks that promote diversity and integration across disciplines, whereas real-world networks tend towards fragmentation and the creation of disciplinary silos. A persistent challenge for universities is thus to overcome disciplinary fragmentation so that research networks include a broad array of perspectives. It is believed that cross-disciplinary networks will promote the “convergence science” needed to adequately address grand research challenges. This presentation discusses the general problem of learning in networks and presents a network-analytic method for systematically mapping university landscapes. This approach may be used to evaluate university approaches to environmental research and education, and suggest new strategies for organizing universities efforts to promote learning for sustainability.

Transdisciplinarity - Presentation Session Part 2 - Discussion

Visions for Environmental Learning - Round Table

Presentation from Mitchell Thomashow: "To Know the World: A New Vision foir Environmental Learning"

This presentation will be an overview of my relatively new book, To Know the World: A New Vision for Environmental Learning (published by The MIT Press in 2020). I present a comprehensive approach to revitalizing environmental learning, emphasizing new ways to think about the migration of people and species, ecological and social networks, the relationship between local and global, improvisation as the foundation for adaptation, and the necessity of perceptual reciprocity in our connections to the biosphere. I provide a strong pedagogical orientation, focusing on place-based learning, the necessity of field-based natural history, and the uses of mapping, personal experience, and memory to access theoretical concepts. To Know the World is a sequel to my previous book, Bringing the Biosphere Home: Learning to Perceive Global Environmental Change (The MIT Press, 2001). To Know the World is based on my forty-five year career in the environmental studies field and the urgency that our field (including human ecology) adapts to changing circumstances in higher education as well as global ecology and politics.

Presentation by Joachim Schütz: "The Return of the Ouroboros" - and Discussion

System Theory - Organized Section Part 1

Presentation from Tobias Knoch: "A Systems-Evolutionary Human Ecology Educational Canon"

Presentation from Karl-Heinz Simon: "Education in Systems Thinking in Human Ecology - Challenges and Responses"

Human Ecology in theory and practice is mainly based on interactions: interactions between anthropologic, social, and societal phenomena on the one side, and environmental or natural phenomena on the other. Often those interactions can only be understood in their consequences when their feedback structures and their dynamics are taken into account, as well as different types of actors involved. Systems approaches provide tools helping to get a better understanding confronted with that complexities. For example, simulation tools help to omit falling into the trap of “counterintuitive behaviour”, where well-meant interventions bring forth additional problems, hierarchical structuring helps to reduce complexity, and soft systems approaches or a critical systems theory allows for a adequate involvement of stakeholders and persons concerned with different interests. In higher education these tools should be, in our opinion, part of the curriculum.

Presentation from Gabriele Harrer-Puchner: "How can universities teach systems thinking in the context of human ecology?"

The current multi-crises as the war in Ukraine, energy supply, climate change, famines, pandemics, and more, are consequences of decisions made in single areas. In addition, these crises are interconnected and their  interdependencies amplify the effects to unintended consequences and major systemic problems. The high complexity and dynamics can not be solved with traditional, linear thinking and (university) education in separate disciplines. To develop solutions to these global, systemic challenges, systemic, transdisciplinary and holistic new concepts are essential. The authors demonstrate experiences from their training and scientific work in the implementation of systemic thinking in the context of university education. An interactive exercise will complete the session.

Presentation from Felix Tretter: Systems Thinking for Higher Education in Human Ecology