CVA 2457 - Imagining Sustainability

Institution:

Babson College

Subject:

Description:

3.00 credits CVA2457 Imagining Sustainability: Nature, Humanity, Business and the End of Sorrow (Intermediate Liberal Arts) The primary focus of this course is on the exploration of the concept of sustainability as a juncture of both environmental and social concerns. Historically, the fields of environmental justice and social justice have been at odds, the former charged with championing the environment at the expense of humanity and economic growth, and the latter accused of myopic definitions of what constitutes both "social" and "justice," since it ignores the very real and intensifying environmental pressures both on disenfranchised communities and their members (human and nonhuman) and, by extension, on the human economy itself. With the rapid expansion of globalization, and the attenuating environmental and social crises that accompany it, the contested terrain between these two ideologies begs for reexamination, in the interests of all. Future business and public policy leaders, therefore, will be at the vanguard in determining how best to effect the union of these two heretofore incommensurable approaches to structuring and/or understanding our world. To that end, this course will examine a variety of sources in the consideration both of what constitutes sustainability and what prohibits it--from business case study to philosophical analysis to literary memoir--in an attempt to begin a reconciliatory dialogue between those approaches. Within this context, students will be invited to examine what we mean when we talk about "justice," "ethics," and "profit," and to envision how the concepts of individual and communal responsibility might be revisited and redefined in the effort to create a world which offers sustainable economic opportunity for all, ensured within a commitment to environmental stewardship.

Credits:

3.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.babson.edu

Phone Number:

(781) 235-1200

Regional Accreditation:

New England Association of Schools and Colleges

Calendar System:

Semester

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