Outline of Principles of Sustainability for prospective students
January 2009
The unit Principles of Sustainability provides an opportunity for students to develop general insight relating to the fundamentals of sustainability thinking and action, both in preparation for studying other units in the course and as the basis for effective sustainability practice. The approach taken in the unit is founded on the view that responses to the sustainability challenges that we humans perceive, are most effective when our appreciation of these challenges takes into account the ways through which we make sense of the world and understand ourselves in relation to it. In light of this, the unit starts by considering human mind and culture from perspectives consistent with this view, as the foundation for engaging with what might be more readily recognisable as the realm of sustainability principles and concepts (ample attention is given in the unit to this realm also!). It is in this context that Lakoff and Johnson‘s Metaphors We Live By, an exploration of human cognition and the philosophy of mind, has for several years now been one of two principal texts for the unit (the second principal text being Fisher‘s Response Ability: Environment, Health and Everyday Transcendence)
This approach to studying sustainability principles is a path less travelled. It is our experience that some prospective students will find the approach is not relevant to their specific needs, but others who may not at first be sure what to make of it come to regard it as both compelling and rewarding. Students tend to gain most value from the approach when willing to leave their preconceptions (but not their critical faculties) at the door—a key attribute for effective learning, the importance of which is not restricted to this unit alone.
Most students find the unit to be both provocative and intellectually challenging; almost all students find the learning process demanding. Given this, we feel a particular responsibility to provide prospective students with an opportunity to explore what this might mean for them individually. To this end, we ask that everyone who has applied to study first reads three pieces of writing that are both related to and indicative of what will be encountered in the unit. In this way you will be better positioned to decide if the course is one for which you feel an affinity. This introduces an element of reciprocity to the application process those who proceed will find this to be highly congruent with the understanding of sustainability principles that the unit is intended to cultivate. Our aim is to meet with you as participants in rather than recipients of the learning system. We hope that through this experiential approach to learning, you will come to actively embody sustainability principles as well as to conceptually understand about them.
Click here to download further readings to this introduction (pdf, 233kb)
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