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Beyond sustainability
Title
Beyond sustainability: justice and complex systems thinking for just sustainable viability.
Creator
Best, Andrea Leigh., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of Philosophy
Abstract/Description
The dominant definitions of sustainability are too various and neglect essential elements necessary for effective sustainability discourse. This project considers what current understandings of sustainable development mean to those who subscribe to them and how those understandings affect public policy for sustainable development. I begin by presenting a timeline on the evolution of the term 'sustainability'. Then, I offer narrative policy analysis as a methodological tool for investigating...
Show moreThe dominant definitions of sustainability are too various and neglect essential elements necessary for effective sustainability discourse. This project considers what current understandings of sustainable development mean to those who subscribe to them and how those understandings affect public policy for sustainable development. I begin by presenting a timeline on the evolution of the term 'sustainability'. Then, I offer narrative policy analysis as a methodological tool for investigating communities of meaning with contending views on sustainability. This provides a foundation for the analysis of case studies using Harrisonian Sustainability Narratives-efficiency, equity, and ethics-as lenses through which three corresponding U.S. case studies are explored, each representing different levels of analysis-corporate, state, and individual. First, the Business Roundtable, a lobbying organization comprised of the CEOs of top U.S. companies exemplifying the efficiency narrative, claims that the problem of sustainable development can be addressed through free markets, which continually increase eco-efficiency and encourage technological advancement. Next, the Environmental Protection Agency, a state organization mandated to protect water and air and to manage toxic and solid wastes and representing the equity narrative, sees the problem of sustainable development as ensuring the just distribution of natural limits so as to reduce the impact of those limits on individuals within communities. Lastly, the ethical anthropology of Anna Peterson, philosopher of religion, points to the power of ethical narratives in creating wide-scale changes to our ideas about humanness and human nature as they relate to our relationship with our environment for sustainability., What I found in common with both the efficiency and equity narratives, representing both the political and corporate perspective and having significant influence on policy formation, is that they are pro market-based solutions of ecoefficiency and technological advancement. What they blatantly lack is guidance on what we ought to do, ought to value. I conclude that a humanist ethic is missing from both these narratives. Neither narrative sees matters of justice as co-equal partners with sustainability for sustainable development. Policy resulting from these narratives may offer efficiency and process but fails to include a robust humanist ethics necessary for a true sustainability. The way we think about our relationship to the environment shapes our behavior towards it. Just Sustainable Viability combines a complex systems approach that views human societies as complex adaptive systems and aims at optimizing social adaptive capacity with notions of distributive and procedural justice. With the inception of this new vision for sustainability, a new narrative must follow that firmly places humanity within the context of complex social and environmental systems.
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Date Issued
2010
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/2684310
Subject Headings
System analysis, Policy sciences, Sustainable development, Social structure, Urban ecology (Sociology)
Format
Document (PDF)
Regenerative leadership : an integral theory for transforming people and organizations for sustainability in business, education, and community
Title
Regenerative leadership : an integral theory for transforming people and organizations for sustainability in business, education, and community.
Creator
Hardman, Guillermo [John], College of Education, Department of Educational Leadership and Research Methodology
Abstract/Description
This study examined and compared the developmental experiences of leaders who have successfully developed their capacities to engage in and maintain a vision and practice for sustainability over time in themselves and others in business, education and community. Through the application of grounded theory as a systematic comparative method for the analysis of qualitative data, the study generated a substantive theory of leadership called regenerative leadership. This leadership approach is...
Show moreThis study examined and compared the developmental experiences of leaders who have successfully developed their capacities to engage in and maintain a vision and practice for sustainability over time in themselves and others in business, education and community. Through the application of grounded theory as a systematic comparative method for the analysis of qualitative data, the study generated a substantive theory of leadership called regenerative leadership. This leadership approach is especially relevant at a time when humankind is faced with accelerating change and increasing evidence that numerous natural and social systems at the global level have reached or are rapidly approaching points of overshoot and collapse. Among the major findings, the study revealed that the more evolved sustainability leaders are becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the construct of sustainability, and indicate the need for a profound cultural shift towards regenerative human systems. In this framework, regenerative organizations are driven by a sense higher purpose, and leadership is exercised heterarchically. Leaders and followers engage in generative conversations to create desirable futures which are then backcasted to eliminate unanticipated consequences. Throughout, participants emphasized the critical importance of engaging in personal and collective consciousness development or "inner work" in order to make regenerative practices possible.
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Date Issued
2009
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/187212
Subject Headings
Reengineering (Management), Sustainable development, School management and organization, Organizational effectiveness, Social ecology
Format
Document (PDF)
commodification and militarization of American public space
Title
The commodification and militarization of American public space: from a genealogy of the public to a politics of place.
Creator
Case, Timothy., Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College
Abstract/Description
The history of public space in America is consistent with a pattern of privatization, rationalization, and individual escapism. From the frontier to the regulatory bureaucracy and into suburbanization and New Urbanism, we have and are witnessing the steady decline of vibrant, critical, and democratic public spheres and their replacement with a corporate and media controlled space that reflects the commodification and militarization of American culture at the hands of these corporate elites....
Show moreThe history of public space in America is consistent with a pattern of privatization, rationalization, and individual escapism. From the frontier to the regulatory bureaucracy and into suburbanization and New Urbanism, we have and are witnessing the steady decline of vibrant, critical, and democratic public spheres and their replacement with a corporate and media controlled space that reflects the commodification and militarization of American culture at the hands of these corporate elites. After tracing a genealogy of the public and public space, this thesis will focus on two examples of New Urbanist design that illustrate the corporate nature of community politics: the Disney Corporation's Celebration, Florida and DreamWorks' Playa Vista, California. Discussing the ideological basis for both communities, this thesis will suggest possible lessons to be learned for the creation of a public based on an ethic of common ground made possible by organized resistance to corporate manipulation of place.
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Date Issued
2006
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/11591
Subject Headings
Cities and towns, Regional planning, Sustainable development, Land use, Urban, History
Format
Document (PDF)
Statistical correlation between economic activity and DMSP-OLS night light images in Florida
Title
Statistical correlation between economic activity and DMSP-OLS night light images in Florida.
Creator
Forbes, Dolores J., Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, Department of Geosciences
Abstract/Description
The Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Optical Line Scan (OLS) instruments collect data from an altitude of approximately 830km above the surface of the Earth. The night light data from these instruments has been shown to correlate by lit area with national level Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and to correlate with GDP at the State level by total radiance value. Very strong correlation is found between the night light data at a new, larger scale, the Metropolitan Statistical Area ...
Show moreThe Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Optical Line Scan (OLS) instruments collect data from an altitude of approximately 830km above the surface of the Earth. The night light data from these instruments has been shown to correlate by lit area with national level Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and to correlate with GDP at the State level by total radiance value. Very strong correlation is found between the night light data at a new, larger scale, the Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) within the state of Florida. Additional statistical analysis was performed to determine which industries within each MSA explain the greatest amount of variance in the night light data. Industrial variables exhibited strong multi-collinearity. It is therefore impossible to determine which industries explain the greatest variance in the night light image data.
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Date Issued
2011
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3175019
Subject Headings
Earth, Rendering (Computer graphics), Urban ecology (Sociology), Sustainable development
Format
Document (PDF)
Attitudes and perspectives about backyard food gardening
Title
Attitudes and perspectives about backyard food gardening: a case study in South Florida.
Creator
Zahina-Ramos, John G., Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, Department of Geosciences
Abstract/Description
As cities grew throughout the past century, the availability of locally grown food declined, mostly because urban expansion occurred at the expense of adjacent agricultural land. As a result, city dwellers turned to commercial food market systems that import food from distant production areas. Private greenspace, which is one of the largest land cover types in cities, offers the potential for substantial agricultural production. Because urban food production on private land, such as backyards...
Show moreAs cities grew throughout the past century, the availability of locally grown food declined, mostly because urban expansion occurred at the expense of adjacent agricultural land. As a result, city dwellers turned to commercial food market systems that import food from distant production areas. Private greenspace, which is one of the largest land cover types in cities, offers the potential for substantial agricultural production. Because urban food production on private land, such as backyards, requires the willing participation of landowners, resident's feelings about and experience with food growing are important to understand. The demographic groups that were most likely to food garden were those in long-term relationships, higher income brackets, those with college education and residents over 50 years old. Incentives and programs focused on producing more from existing gardens may be most appropriate for people in these demographic groups, while other groups will most require basic food growing information. Study participants highly valued intangible benefits of food gardening (e.g., relaxation, feelings of happiness and satisfaction), often more than the provision of food. Most barriers and problems with backyard food growing, such as a lack of space and the need for gardening information, were similar for those who food garden and those who do not. Results from this study indicate that traditional agricultural incentives and perspectives must be rethought if they are to be applied in urban settings. By creating incentives and initiatives that reflect the needs and challenges faced by urban growers, urban agriculture will become an integrated part of the community, improving food quantity and quality while enriching residents' lives.
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Date Issued
2013
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/3361258
Subject Headings
Backyard gardens, Food chains (Ecology), Garden ecology, Green movement, Sustainable development
Format
Document (PDF)