APS 227 Invest. Env. Move. Appalaichia

Summer Course Only

One of the most difficult challenges facing us today is the juggernaut of human-driven environmental degradation. It is a multifaceted crisis, comprised of a genuinely staggering catalog of damages, from rapid climate change and mass extinction to ocean acidification and the ravages of mountaintop removal mining. In response, people all around the world are working together to try to create more sustainable ways of living. A unique form of environmental activism is the back-to-the-land movement, where families distance themselves from the mainstream economy by building their own homes, growing much of their own food, and using alternative technologies like passive solar design, photovoltaics, and composting toilets. In this class, we will use ethnographic research methods ' such as interviews and participant observation ' to investigate the back-to-the-land movement in the countryside around Berea. What are back-to-the-landers doing? Why are they doing it? If they are trying to live more sustainably, is it working? Because the back-to-the-land movement has been mostly overlooked by scholars and ignored by the mass media, we will use our research findings from this course as the basis for an article to be sent out for publication. Note: twice during the semester we will do overnight field trips from Friday until midday on Saturday; on these field trips we will be camping.

Credits

1 Course Credit