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From Society and the Anthroposcene
Welcome to the Society and the Environment open education project
For many years I have taught a Sociology of the Environment module on the undergraduate Sociology and Social Policy degree programmes at the University of Leeds. I am retiring in July 2011 but have been invited to continue to teach the module part-time for a year after which the module is likely to be discontinued. With this in mind, this wiki has been set up to gather materials and ideas for converting what was a formally taught module (objectives, learning outcomes, lectures, tutorials, seminars, assessment by essay and examination, and so on) into an openly available resource for individuals and groups who are interested in studying and understanding the complex relationships between societies and the environment. Ideally I would like this to become a collaboratively developed, produced and maintained resource so that it will be relevant to a broad range of potential learners and groups. This would also make it possible to draw upon a broader range of expertise, essential to an understanding of environmental issues, problems and possible solutions.
What I would really like to see develop and be part of is a collaborative learning and research community consisting of a loose network of individuals, activists, groups and organisations with a broadly common interest in environmental and ecological problems and strategies and solutions that promote humanitarian values and environmental justice. Ideally this could develop into an open learning community that collaboratively specifies, writes, resources and learns about society and the environment in order to meet individual and group needs and objectives. A learning network like this would constantly update and renew itself and its resources, responding to changes in knowledge and the political and cultural environment. The various roles and forms of commitment and engagement in this community enterprise might be summarised (rather grandiosely) as "from each according to their ability, to each according to their need" - to paraphrase Marx.
This project is unavoidably and therefore unashamedly political in the sense that, although undoubtedly of extreme importance in their own right, the environmental problems of today are to a large extent the consequence of political, economic and cultural systems that are self-destructive and unsustainable. This inevitably necessitates a critique of these systems and a discussion of how they can be changed or superseded and what sorts of worlds and social institutions and relationships should we be seeking to promote and strategize to bring about.
A number of 'seed' pages have been created and added to the navigation menu in the left-hand sidebar - Course structure, Issues and Topics, Perspectives, Learners, Resources and Links. This is provisional and is likely to change as ideas about the 'why' and 'how' of this resource are firmed up.
NOTE: This project wiki was originally open to registration for anyone interested. Unfortunately this was exploited by some commercial interests. If you are interested in helping develop this resource, for instance helping to develop content or commenting on discussion pages, please email me or contact me via Twitter. At this early stage the project is primarily concerned with design, structure and content. However, a related discussion is to be had about the forms of Web 2.0 applications and platforms that will be used to support individual and group learning and research activities.
Terry Wassall [t.wassall(at)leeds.ac.uk http://twitter.com/TerryWassall]
27/06/2011
