NR 753 (01) - Critical Issues in Sustainability: Sustainability as an Abundance Paradigm

After 30 years in common parlance, the success of "Sustainability" still seems far from its goal. In part, this is because sustainability is typically applied as another way to manage scarcity, a paradigm informing economic and social policy for well over a century. Underlying this dominant view of sustainability, an increasing number of approaches to sustainability projects, some of longstanding are entering the mainstream as pieces of an identifiable, and distinctly novel, paradigm based on the assumption of abundance, rather than scarcity. These include ideas of the Natural Step and Natural Capital, as well as Cradle to Cradle and Biomicry. The goals of this seminar are (1) to survey and discuss this growing literature and its application to the solution of sustainability problems; and (2) research and analysis towards transforming scarcity-based to abundance-based solutions. To be considered as a capstone option for majors in Environmental and Conservation Sustainability, students must also register for NR 754 in the Spring semester.