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Class Notes
 1. January 9, 11
 2. January 16, 18
 3. January 23, 25
 4. January 30, Feb. 1
 5. Midterm Exam
 6. February 13, 15
 7. February 20, 22
 8. February 27, Mar. 1
 9. March 6, 8
 10. March 13, 15
    Final Exam
 
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Assigned Readings

Gottlieb, R. (2005). Forcing the Spring: the transformation of the American environmental movement. CWashington, D.C., Island Press: 1-29. (jump to notes below)

National Research Council (U.S.). Policy Division. Board on Sustainable Development. (2000). Our common journey: a transition toward sustainability. Washington, D.C., National Academy Press: Chap. 6. (jump to notes below)

Pezzoli, Keith (2005) "Building a Global Planning Grid for Progressive Research, Pedagogy and Civic Engagement." Paper presented at the 2005 ACSP conference, Kansas City , October 25, 2005.
(jump to notes below)

Topic introduction

To build consensus for sustainability and to translate it into public policy will require novel forms of social learning, collaboration, and political action, including new forms of coalition building and networking. While sustainable development may require long-term integrated planning, partnerships, and coordinated action, it must also rely on the use of advanced information and communications technology (ICT). ICT has an increasingly important role to play in promoting collective goals of accessibility, accountability, transparency, efficiency, and equity. Yet, as a growing number of analysts point out, electronics-based networks segregate as much as they connect, and they do so selectively (there are serious digital divides within as well as across regions and nations). The development of advanced computational infrastructure should empower new forms of participatory governance committed to peer-reviewed science, civic engagement, state-society synergy and efforts to advance principles of social democracy. At the heart of this challenge is the task of strategically reaping benefits through distributed intelligence, federation, dynamic knowledge networking and collaborative learning. Research universities can play an important role in this regard, for instance, by developing Regional Workbenches--- collaborative, web-based networks for sustainability science, regional ecology and the linkage of knowledge to action.

Gottlieb, R. (2005). Forcing the Spring: the transformation of the American environmental movement. CWashington, D.C., Island Press: 1-29.

Robert Gottlieb proposes a new strategy for social and environmental change that involves reframing and linking the movements for environmental justice and pollution prevention. According to Gottlieb, the environmental movement's narrow conception of environment has isolated it from vital issues of everyday life, such as workplace safety, healthy communities, and food security, that are often viewed separately as industrial, community, or agricultural concerns. This fragmented approach prevents an awareness of how these issues are also environmental issues.

What does Gottlieb say is the challenge for environmentalism now at the dawn of the 21st century?

National Research Council (U.S.). Policy Division. Board on Sustainable Development. (2000). Our common journey: a transition toward sustainability. Washington, D.C., National Academy Press: Chap. 6.

We must consider our planet to be on loan from our children, rather than being a gift from our ancestors ... As caretakers of our common future, we have the responsibility to seek scientifically sound policies, nationally as well as internationally. If the long-term viability of humanity is to be ensured, we have no other choice. Gro Harlem Brundtland.

Three priority tasks for advancing the research agenda of what might be called "sustainability science":

1. Develop a research framework for the science of sustainable development that integrates global and local perspectives to shape a place-based understanding of the interactions between environment and society.

2. Initiate focused research programs on a small set of understudied questions that are central to a deeper understanding of those interactions.

3. Promote better utilization of existing tools and processes for linking knowledge to action in pursuit of a sustainability transition. (p. 279)

Figure 6.1: Four interlinked, research-based components of sustainability science (p. 281)

What do the authors of Our Common Journey (NRC 1999) say under each of these headings:

Integrating Global, National, and Local Institutions into Effective Research Systems (p. 299)
Linking Academia, Government, and the Private Sector in Collaborative Partnerships (p. 300)
Integrating Disciplinary Knowledge in Place-Based, Problem-Driven Research Efforts (p. 301)

 

Sustainability Science is the integrated study of society-nature interdependencies and the quest to balance economic, equity and environmental objectives in urban, regional and global development trajectories.

Illustrative Quote:
"The new quality of sustainability science makes explicit the character of social learning that was implicit in the scientific enterprise since its beginnings. (fn 25). In a world put at risk by the unintended consequences of scientific progress, social trust in scientific knowledge claims and institutions cannot be taken for granted. Participatory procedures involving scientists, stakeholders, advocates, active citizens and users of knowledge are needed to transform knowledge claims into trustworthy, socially-robust, usable knowledge about the realities which matter in social and environmental change and in the transition to sustainability.26 In addition, scientists will need to be increasingly sensitive to shifts in patterns of governance that could assist their endeavors." Robert Kates, et al. (2000, 3)

Reference:
Kates, R. W. et al. (2000, p.3) Research and Assessment Systems for Sustainability, Environment and Natural Resources Program, Sustainability Science, Belfer Center for Science & International Affairs, Harvard University. Click to access a pdf of this source

Core questions of science and technology for sustainability
http://sustsci.harvard.edu/questions/intro.htm

Knowledge Systems for Sustainable Development
http://ksgnotes1.harvard.edu/BCSIA/sust.nsf/pubs/pub81

David W. Cash, William C. Clark, Frank Alcock, Nancy M. Dickson, Noelle Eckley, David H. Guston, Jill Jäger, and Ronald B. Mitchell. 2003. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 100(14) (8 July): 8086-8091. An article included in the PNAS Special Feature on "Science and Technology for Sustainable Development."

Institutions for Research, Observation, Assessment, and Decision Support.
David W. Cash, William Clark, Jill Jäger, and Frank Alcock. May 2002. Essay for the Forum on Science and Technology for Sustainability. http://sustainabilityscience.org/questions/inst.htm

Research Systems for a Transition Toward Sustainability.
William C. Clark. 2002. In Challenges of a Changing Earth. Proceedings of the Global Change Open Science Conference, Amsterdam, NL, 10-13 July 2001. Edited by W. Steffen, J. Jäger, D. Carson, and C. Bradshaw. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.
http://sustainabilityscience.org/keydocs/fulltext/BC_ResSys_Amsterdam02.pdf

Sustainability Science Links:
Initiative on Science and Technology for Sustainability

Forum on Science and Technology for Sustainability

Sustainable Development Gateway

Global System for Sustainable Development

The Regional Workbench Consortium (RWBC) is a collaborative network of university and community-based partners dedicated to enabling sustainable city-region development. We promote multidisciplinary research and service learning aimed at understanding how problems of environment and development interrelate across local, regional and global scales.

The RWBC focuses on the Southern California-Northern Baja California transborder region--especially the San Diego-Tijuana city-region and coastal zone. RWBC partners come from academia, industry, government, and community organizations. Our partnership-driven approach explicitly integrates issues of equity, environmental stewardship, and economic efficiency (the so-called 3 Es of sustainable development). In the process, we are weaving together innovative advances in three domains: Information and Communications Technology, New Regionalism, and Sustainability Science.

The RWBC is building a trusted Internet-based research portal and toolkit (i.e., workbench) to facilitate problem-driven projects that require region-wide data integration and information sharing. Currently we are placing a major emphasis on GIS, Quality of Life Indicators and on-line interactive mapping. Specific projects currently focus on water, toxics, housing, community development, land use and regional planning. Our aim is to create more efficient, interactive, and equitable methods for integrating university-based science with the fast-changing needs of industry, government, non-profit and community-based organizations. The RWBC also serves as a platform for innovative education, outreach and workforce development.

Presentation to the Business Council for Sustainable Development,
December 11, 2003 8 megabyte ppt

RWBC's main source of funding: the Superfund Basic Research Program, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, click here for details on the competive renewal process.

SANDAG meeting ppt file

1. A two-page pdf flyer describing our Regional Workbench Consortium (RWBC):
http://regionalworkbench.org/about.php

2. RWBC Mission Statement:
http://regionalworkbench.org/mission.php

3. RWBC projects:
http://regionalworkbench.org/databank/rwbc_search.php?page=viewall

4. Report documenting the first RWBC Expo 2003, including our demos of advanced information and visualization technologies: http://www.regionalworkbench.org/expo/expo2003.php

5. Doing Critical Research for Sustainable City-Regions
A bibliographic guide to philosophy, theory, discourses, ethics, skills and collaborative praxis
http://www.regionalworkbench.org/education/biblio_guide.php

6. Some images of our 3D Regional Canvas of the Californias initiative
http://www.regionalworkbench.org/tools/3dmodels.php

Pezzoli, Keith (2005) "Building a Global Planning Grid for Progressive Research, Pedagogy and Civic Engagement." Paper presented at the 2005 ACSP conference, Kansas City , October 25, 2005. (pdf)

The global planning schools movement Global-mindedness is an increasingly important dimension of planning research, pedagogy and civic engagement. Activist scholars in the Global Planning Educators Interest Group (GPEIG) and the Global Planning Education Association Network (GPEAN) are striving to increase global-mindedness in a number of ways. GPEIG is part of the U.S.-based Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP). GPEIGs mission is to enable planning educators and students to collaboratively: (1) share global perspectives in planning education and research, (2) foster an understanding of the global perspectives in planning education and research, (3) foster an understanding of the global context of local and regional issues; and (4) engender an appreciation of and respect for cultural, economic, and political dimensions of planning; and the recognition of the rich array of planning processes that can be fully appreciated only by learning about what is being done in other countries. GPEAN is a significant new network of national and multi-national associations of university level planning programs and schools in urban and regional planning. GPEANs mission is to facilitate international communication on equal terms amongst the university planning communities in order to improve the quality and visibility of planning pedagogy, research and practice, and to promote ethical, sustainable, multi-cultural, gender-sensitive, participatory planning.