EE Field Tech: Civic Ecol Pract & Comm Resilience

Catalog description

What facilitates happiness and well-being at multiple scales-personal, communal and ecological? How might we invite people to engage in practices that increase the resilience of social-ecological systems? What contributes to resilience in the face of climate change, food insecurity, energy descent, and associated environmental, social, and economic challenges? This course explores such questions through the lens of civic ecology, which examines the interactions among people, environmental stewardship practices, education and learning, and resilience. Examples of civic ecology practices include ecological restoration, urban greening, community gardens, citizen science, and community forestry. Participants in this course will experience civic ecology practices first-hand and consider whether and how attributes of civic ecology practices like diversity, self-organization, adaptive learning, ecosystem services, and social capital might contribute to greater personal, communal, and ecological resilience. This course will also explore personal well-being and actions we can take to lead meaningful, sustainable lives amid vast environmental and social transitions happening in the world today. In addition to class meetings on campus, some field sessions will be spent visiting relevant sites and completing service learning projects.