Reading for this week:

1
Reading for this week

• Soule, Michael and Daniel Press. 1998. What is
  environmental studies? Bioscience 48(5) 397-406.
  

2
Outline of article

• The origins and development of environmental
  studies (U.S. bias)
• Emerging themes, problems, and conflicts
• A discipline, multidiscipline, or
  interdiscipline?
• Ideological conflicts
• Institutional problems
• Solutions for multi-disciplinary illiteracy
• Conclusions and recommendations

3
The rise of ecology

• Ecology
• the study of interactions among living organisms
  and the biotic and abiotic components of their
  environment

4
The rise of ecology

• Ecologists recognized that
• humans were a part of natural systems
• abiotic and biotic components are linked and
  interdependent
• natural systems could be studied and understood
  in terms of systems principles
• ecosystems have functional limits
• ecosystems can be perturbed and destroyed

5
The rise of ecology

• referred to as a subversive subject by Paul
  Sears (1964) and the subversive science by
  Shepard and McKinley (1969)

the insights and implications of ecology
cannot be ignored when looking at every aspect of
human endeavour ?THIS INCLUDES TOURISM!!
6
Ideological Tensions in Environmental Studies

• Environmental studies covers a broad
  ideological spectrum with two main foci
• Ideologies based in social criticism
• Ideologies based in the natural sciences

7
Social criticism approach

• Humanistic ? Anthropocentric ? Emancipatory
• a broad category of ethical philosophies that
  affirm the dignity and worth of all people, based
  on the ability to determine right and wrong by
  appeal to universal human qualities
  particularly rationality

8
Social criticism approach

• Humanistic ? Anthropocentric ? Emancipatory
• Centring in man regarding man as the central
  fact of the universe, to which all surrounding
  facts have reference

9
Social criticism approach

• Humanistic ? Anthropocentric ? Emancipatory
• Setting free, liberating

10
Social criticism approach

• Humanistic ? Anthropocentric ? Emancipatory
• Often views the world and teaches about it from
  the viewpoint of the human victims of
  discrimination and injustice
• Social justice and equity concerns predominate

11
Natural Sciences approach

• rely on empiricism and science
• rarely equate intuition (or narrative) and
  knowledge
• accept the premise of evolutionary or incremental
  (rather than revolutionary) improvements in
  society
• pragmatic - believe that environmental studies
  should teach students to be effective problem
  solvers and to master skills and research
  techniques

12
Social Criticism vs. Natural Sciences approaches

• Disputes between these two groups are often
  (though not always) formulated in terms of
  anthropocentric versus ecocentric goals and values

13
Anthropocentrism

• may consider human welfare and economic
  advancement to have higher ethical standing than
  the welfare and existence of other species and
  ecosystems
• may be embraced across the political spectrum
• traditionally includes sociologists,
  anthropologists who emphasize sustainable
  development and poverty alleviation, and many
  ecofeminists

14
Ecocentrism

• reject the claims of absolute human privilege and
  rightful domination over nature
• accuse the humanists of "speciesism," ecological
  naivete, and callousness toward living nature.
• not attached to any particular social science
  theory of history or society, but generally value
  intrinsic worth theorists (e.g. Arne Naess,
  Holmes Rolston, George Sessions)

15
Ecocentrism

• advocates biodiversity, wilderness, and native
  plant and animal communities (ecosystems),
  including the services these provide society
• believes that the ultimate causes of
  environmental problems are either ancient human
  institutions (such as agriculture) or the
  genetic, evolved roots of human nature

16
Ecocentrism

• assumes a universal, deep-seated impulse toward
  self-interest in all species, including human
  beings, and that greed or selfishness is genetic
  and that self-interest is resistant to cultural
  fixes or education
• Because ecocentrists believe greed to be a
  fundamental part of human nature, they are less
  sanguine about the potential long-term benefits
  of revolutions (which all too often replace one
  elite with another).