This is a slide show that I use in different education courses at Central Connecticut State University

1. ECOJUSTICE THEORY
& PEDAGOGY
Kurt Love, Ph.D.
Central Connecticut State University

4. Ecojustice Pedagogy
Main Focus: Resisting a colonizing culture of
consumerism by engaging in practices connected to the
cultural commons
Major Contributors: Chet Bowers, Rebecca
Martusewicz, Kelly Young

5. Ecojustice Teaching Practice
Students will be more able to:
Identify sustainable social and
ecological relationships
Connect with intergenerational
knowledges

6. Ecojustice Teaching Practice
Students will be more able to:
Decrease the influence of the
media and consumerism:
Mental, emotional, and spiritual
liberation !om brand names
enslavement
Be more culturally inclusive and
have a greater awareness of
interconnectedness, nurturance,
and reciprocity

7. Roots of
Ecojustice Pedagogy
Ecofeminism - a feminist theory that describes the
relationship between nature and women; includes an
analysis of the added burden that women face,
especially in third-world nations, when environment is
compromised.
Indigenous Education - rooted in Native American
cultures and philosophies; includes a focus on humans
as part of nature living with reciprocity.

8. Summary Points of Ecojustice Theory
1. Eliminating eco-racism
2. Revitalizing the commons to create a balance between market
and non-market aspects of community life
3. Ending the industrialized nations’ exploitation and cultural
colonization of third-world nations
4. Ensure that the hubris and ideology of Western industrial
culture does not diminish future generations’ ways of living and
quality of life
5. Support an “Earth Democracy”--the right of nature to flourish
rather than be contingent upon the demands of humans
From ecojusticeeducation.org

9. ECO-RACISM

10. Eco-racism
Eco-racism - the relationship between poor
environmental conditions and peoples of color and
lower socioeconomic classes disproportionately living
in those conditions.
Peoples of third-world nations
Environmental conditions of poor neighborhoods in
cities

11. REVITALIZING THE
CULTURAL COMMONS

12. Revitalizing the
Cultural Commons
Cultural Commons
Naturals systems (water, air, soil, forests, oceans, etc.)
Cultural patterns and traditions (intergenerational knowledge
ranging from growing and preparing food, medicinal practices,
arts, music, crafts, ceremonies, etc.)
Shared with little or no cost by all members of the community
nature of the commons varies in terms of different cultures and
bioregions
The basis of mutual support systems and local democracy

13. Ladakh and the Loss of the
Cultural Commons
Ancient Futures
Ladakh Part 1
Ladakh serves as an example
of what happens when
communities lose their
cultural commons

14. Revitalizing the
Cultural Commons
Increases dialogue Diffuses social power
imbalances
Invests in relationships
Strengthens
Increases ecologically democratic
sustainable practices participation
Revitalizes the arts Strengthens local
Lessens the volatility of control
economic systems

15. Cultural Commons &
Strong Democracy
Cultural commons create a “strong democracy” and resist a
“weak democracy”
Strong democracy is when people are actively involved in
creating their community through dialogue, thought, and
action.
Weak democracy is when people remain inactive, distracted
(largely by practices of consumerism, pleasure and anti-
intellectualism), and disengaged in the process of creating
their community.

16. The Cultural Commons
as Your Classroom
Artists Native Americans
Elders Politicians
Journalists Experts in various areas
Historians Community workers &
organizers
Mechanics
Radio show hosts
Writers
Athletes
Poets

17. The Cultural Commons
as Your Classroom
Food shares Museums
Community gardens Libraries
Transportation shares Art shows
Traditional knowledge Craft shows
shares
Lectures
Technology shares
Farms
Clothing swaps

18. Revitalizing the
Cultural Commons
What are specific examples
of the cultural commons in
our community?

19. UCONN Mentor Connection 2007
1. John Callendrelli (CT Chapter of Sierra Club)
2.Kathleen Holgersen (UCONN Women’s Center)
3.Lauren Bentancourt (Miss Connecticut 2007)
4.Dale Carson (Native American Elder - Abenaki)
5.Ned Lamont (Democratic Candidate for CT Senate 2006)
6.Matthew Hart (Mansfield Town Manager)
7.Chet Bowers (Ecojustice Professor, University of Oregon)
8.Laurie Perez (Journalist, Fox 61 News)
9.Bobby Sherwood & Colin McEnroe (Producer & Talk Show Host WTIC
1080AM Radio)

20. EXPLOITING PEOPLES

21. A Brief History of Peoples (Part 1)
Earth-Based Cultures Industrial Culture
First Nations Genocide
Indigenous
Africans
Colonization
Enslavement
Assimilation
Aborigines
Tens of Thousands of Focus on colonization, Western
Years of Earth- globalization, technology, and
Centered Approach profit above relationship with
Earth

22. A Brief History of Peoples (Part 2)
“Third World” or “Developing” Industrial Culture
Africa Ignored
Impoverished
East Asia
Globalization
Enslavement
Dumping Grounds
Central &
South America
Disease, poverty, war- Exploit peoples for the purposes
stricken, desperate of making profits, unless they
conditions have nothing to offer

23. Industrialized Nations Exploiting
Third-World Nations
Economic exploitation via
cheap labor:
Current business practices
from transnational
corporations in
industrialized nations
Sweat shop labor

24. U.S. Exploitation of Hawai`i
Cultural colonization via
globalization or “global
Westernization”
Hawaii
Molokai

25. HUBRIS & IDEOLOGY

26. Hubris and Ideology
Root metaphors:
Words that carry forward cultural value systems; these are often mystified
Examples:
Individualism
Progress
Technology
Savage
The Corporation

27. Is “Progress”
Ecologically Sustainable?
Progress Sustainability
Technology Cooperation
Individuality/Isolation Reciprocity
Capitalism Nurturance
Competition Interconnectedness with
each other and with
Movement away from nature
nature
“Progress” as typically defined in the first world
nations is the opposite of “sustainability”

28. Evolution and
Social Darwinism
Biological evolutionary theory argues for the “survival
of the fittest”
Darwin argued that poor people should not be having
children because they will create more poor people.
The social elites (during the Victorian period) greatly
favored this argument.

29. Applied Social Darwinism
How has Social Darwinism been applied to
or connected with:
Native Americans?
African Americans (during slavery,
segregation, currently)
Australian Aborigines?
Eugenics?
Nazi scientists?
Capitalistic practices? Free-market
practices?

30. EARTH DEMOCRACY

31. Earth Democracy
Earth has a right to thrive and not
be contingent on the needs of
humans
Humans are not separate from
nature and live in balance with
nature
Humans not taking resources from
nature or creating concentrations
of pollution that destroy the
environment Vandana Shiva, 1952-
Externalities from The Corporation

32. Living Sustainably in Cuba
Cuba Video

33. “Shapeshifter”
Brian Jungen

34. Plastic Ocean
Millions of tons of
plastic collectively
at least the size of
Texas floating in
the Pacific Ocean

35. Plastic Ocean
Millions of tons of About 6 times more
plastic collectively plastic than plankton - a
at least the size of major food source for
Texas floating in animals
the Pacific Ocean
CNN Report

36. ECOLOGICAL
IDENTITIES

37. Your Ecological Identity
Who are you?
What is your history?
To what extent are you
defined more by
technology or by
nature?

38. Footpath = Your View of Reality?
Home Building
Nature?
Sidewalk Sidewalk
Driveway Parking Lot
Vehicle

39. Our View of Ecology
Creates Our Culture
Our ecology is anthropocentric
Our daily living ecology is seen as being separate from
nature.
Our technology is our ecology!
Because our culture is separate from nature, our
culture is separate from ancient wisdoms which are
sustainable practices of living with each other and
living with the Earth and all its inhabitants.

40. Technology = Ecology
What happens to people
when technology
replaces ecology as the
main viewpoint of
“reality”?
Do we see buildings as
“progress” and areas of
nature as “empty lots?”

41. Technology & the
Ecological Self
How have our identities been shaped and reshaped by the
larger cultural mindset of “progress” and technology?
Is ours a Western Industrial Culture?
Consumer Culture?
What has become of our culture? knowledge? economics?
value systems? health? relationships? views of dependence
and interdependence? views of interconnectedness?
systems of power? equity?equality? religion? sex?
spirituality?

42. Western Industrial Education
Technocistic - methods, tests, static view of knowledge
Technology uncritically viewed as inherently “good”
Devaluing nature, valuing human “progress”
Monoculture - Western Globalization
Capitalism, competition, profit
Devaluing interconnectedness
Short-term views over long-term relationships

43. ECOJUSTICE
PEDAGOGY

44. Ecojustice Pedagogy
Community-Based Learning
Questioning “root metaphors” in language
Questioning human domination over nature practices
Exposing “technology as our ecology” in curriculum
Analyzing history through an anti-anthropocentric lens

45. Ecojustice
Teaching Methods
Exploring the intersections of
cultural value system and ecology
1. Teacher-as-mediator
2. Exploring anthropocentric
thinking and language
3. Using the cultural commons
as place-based learning
experiences
4. Deconstructing our
technological/ecological selves

46. Ecojustice
Methods and Examples
Community Garden
Green Construction
(Earthships Part 1 & Part 2)
Sustainable Practices within a School
(Composting, gardening, raising chickens, recycling,
solar water heating, solar power, hydrogen fuel
cell, greenhouse, etc.)
Example: Common Ground High School in New
Haven

47. Ecojustice
Methods and Examples
Sustainable Energy Projects
(How can sustainable energy be used in the
community?)
Community Mapping
(What is in our immediate neighborhood? What
sustainable practices are already in our
neighborhood? What possibilities are there for
more?)
Sustainable Feast
(Using food only in season and within 100 miles)