Readings

WEEK # TOPICS READINGS
Part I - Framing Sustainability: Global Problems and Local Actions
1 Introduction and Overview

Review of Assignment
 
2 Some Prominent Ways of Framing Sustainability Buy at Amazon World Commission on Environment and Development. Our Common Future. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1987, pp. ix-v, 1-23, 43-65. ISBN: 019282080X.

Redclift, Michael. "The Multiple Dimensions of Sustainable Development." Geography 76 (1991): 36-42.

Buy at Amazon Meadows, Dennis, Donella Meadows, and Jorgen Randers. Beyond the Limits: Confronting Global Collapse, Envisioning a Sustainable Future. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing Company, 1993, preface, chapters 1 and 6. ISBN: 0930031628.

Buy at Amazon Holdren, John P., Gretchen C. Daily, and Paul R. Ehrlich. "The Meaning of Sustainability: Bio-Geophysical Aspects." Excerpted from Defining and Measuring Sustainability. Edited by Mohan Munasinghe and Walter Shearer. Washington, DC: World Bank, 1995. ISBN: 0821331345.

Buy at Amazon Solow, R. "Sustainability: An Economist's Perspective." In Economics of the Environment. Edited by R. Dorfman and N. Dorfman. 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1993, pp. 179-187. ISBN: 0393963101.

Howarth, Richard. "Intergenerational Justice and the Chain of Obligation." Environmental Values 1 (1992): 133-40.

Buy at Amazon Sen, Amartya. Development as Freedom. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1999, Introduction and chapter 1. ISBN: 0385720270.
3 Framing Sustainability Locally: An International Comparison Buy at Amazon Sitarz, D., ed. Agenda 21: The Earth Summit Strategy to Save Our Planet. Boulder, CO: Earthpress, 1994, pp. 1-23, 131-134, and 263-316. ISBN: 093575511X.

Review the links listed in the related resources section.
4 Framing Sustainability as Local Action: Cambridge and MIT

Guest: Rosalie Anders, Cambridge Department of Community Planning Steven Lanou, MIT Environmental Programs Office
Cambridge Climate Change Protection Plan

Armstrong, Robert, and Ernest Moniz. "Report of the Energy Research Council." Cambridge, MA: MIT Energy Research Council, May 3, 2006. (PDF - 2.4 MB)
5 Understanding and Managing Change in Organizational Settings Buy at Amazon Wenger, Etienne. Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1998, pp. 1-42, 43-51, and 225-241. ISBN: 0521430178.

Wenger, E. C., and W. M. Snyder. "Communities of Practice: the Organizational Frontier." Harvard Business Review 78, no. 1 (2000): 139-147.

Laws, David, and Lily Pollans. "SunLine Transit: Managing Change for Sustainable Development." Cambridge, MA: MIT Environmental Technology and Public Policy Program Working Paper, May 20, 2004.
6 Sustainability and Innovation Buy at Amazon Lester, Richard, and Michael Piore. Innovation the Missing Dimension. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004, chapters 2 and 3. ISBN: 0674015819.

Buy at Amazon Weber, Matthias, Remco Hoogma, Ben Lane, and Johan Schot. Experimenting with Sustainable Transport Innovations: A Workbook for Strategic Niche Management. Seville, Spain: Enschede Press, 1999. ISBN: 0415271169.
Part II - Local Sustainability Initiatives: Networks, Designs, and Communities of Practice
7 Promoting Sustainability in State and Local Government

Guests

Kim Lundgren - ICELI
Ian Finlayson - Massachusetts State Sustainability Office
Review materials on ICELI and the Massachusetts State Sustainability Program. (See the links in the related resources section.)
8 Sustainable Action at a University

Guests

Laxmi Rao - Project Manager, MIT Facilities Office
Jaclyn Emig - Longwood Green Campus Initiative Program Coordinator

 

Rao, Laxmi. "Problem to Solution(s): Change Agency Competencies." In-class presentation, used with permission. (PDF)

9 Preliminary Presentations and In-class Critique

Guest Critic - John de Monchaux
 
10 Building a Story about Change Buy at Amazon Mishler, Elliot. Storylines: Craftartists' Narratives of Identity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004, pp. xiii-xv, 1-20, and 165-169. ISBN: 067401586X.
11 Working Session  
12 Final Presentations