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“We’ve seen a growth in programs that are more focused, either on a particular geographic area or on a discipline,” says Paul Rowland, executive director of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. The organization’s Web site, aashe.org, lists nine universities offering doctoral or master’s degrees in urban sustainability studies, and many more programs include the urban environment as a central part of their studies.
In some ways, the shift reflects a coming-of-age of sustainability as a field, away from the back-to-nature ethos of earlier efforts and toward a realization that there are grittier problems — and solutions. “The environmental movement has expanded to understand that people are at the center of these issues,” Mr. Pattison says. “It’s not just save the trees for the trees’ sake.”
But beyond that, sustainability programs are also beginning to better reflect the demographics of their students.
“Too much of environmental planning and policy focuses on wilderness and rural areas,” says Julian Agyeman, professor and chairman of the department of urban and environmental policy and planning at Tufts University in Medford, Mass. “Yet most students’ lives are lived in the urban environment.”
But as with most such programs, the emphasis will be interdisciplinary. “The philosophy is that the problems these people are going to face are really complex,” Mr. Jiji says. “They don’t fit into nice little categories. We want people with different backgrounds to work together.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/03/education/03urbansustain.html?ref=science
In some ways, the shift reflects a coming-of-age of sustainability as a field, away from the back-to-nature ethos of earlier efforts and toward a realization that there are grittier problems — and solutions. “The environmental movement has expanded to understand that people are at the center of these issues,” Mr. Pattison says. “It’s not just save the trees for the trees’ sake.”
But beyond that, sustainability programs are also beginning to better reflect the demographics of their students.
“Too much of environmental planning and policy focuses on wilderness and rural areas,” says Julian Agyeman, professor and chairman of the department of urban and environmental policy and planning at Tufts University in Medford, Mass. “Yet most students’ lives are lived in the urban environment.”
But as with most such programs, the emphasis will be interdisciplinary. “The philosophy is that the problems these people are going to face are really complex,” Mr. Jiji says. “They don’t fit into nice little categories. We want people with different backgrounds to work together.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/03/education/03urbansustain.html?ref=science
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