Books Available from Eco-Justice Press
Perspectives on the Ideas of Gregory Bateson, By C. A. Bowers
It is widely acknowledged that Gregory Bateson’s ideas have been influential in a number of fields. Unfortunately, the importance of his ideas for understanding why public schools and universities continue to perpetuate ecologically unsustainable ways of thinking has not been adequately recognized. Given the deepening ecological and economic crises, this book is particularly timely... |
University Reform in an By C. A. Bowers
This book is especially timely for reasons related to the current efforts on the part of several national organizations to promote sustainability reforms in courses in all academic disciplines. The American Association for Sustainability in Higher education is in the forefront of this reform effort. Replacing an inefficient campus infrastructures was easy when compared to the challenges of engaging faculty in discussions of how the content of their courses continue to reinforce the deep cultural assumptions that gave conceptual direction to the individualistic/consumer-dependent lifestyle that is now widely recognized as unsustainable... |
By C. A. Bowers
There are international and national educational organizations now promoting the introduction of sustainability thinking into teacher education programs and curriculum studies. As there will be increased pressure for undertaking sustainability-oriented reforms, this book introduces three of the most critical areas that affect teacher decision-making in the classroom and community: (1) Introducing the pedagogical strategies for addressing the linguistic colonization of the present by the past that should be at the core of the teacher’s professional knowledge—including how the metaphorical nature of language carries forward the silences and misconceptions that did not take account of environmental limits, and how to reframe the meaning of words in ways that are ecologically and culturally informed; (2) How the teacher’s role as a cultural mediator helps students to understand the differences between the traditions of self-sufficiency and mutual support systems within the local cultural commons and the economic and technological forces that create new dependencies; (3) How the increased reliance upon computer-mediated learning and communication reinforces abstract thinking that undermines both the intergenerational renewal of the cultural commons and the development of ecological intelligence that takes account of local contexts, tacit understandings, and the patterns of interdependent relationships that cannot be digitized... |
By C. A. Bowers
This latest book by Chet Bowers, The Way Forward: Educational Reforms that Focus on the Cultural Commons and the Linguistic Roots of the Ecological/Cultural Crises, provides a more in-depth examination of several themes he has introduced before, as well as an introduction to issues that other environmental and educational writers have ignored. The former includes understanding cultures, including daily cultural practices, as ecologies—and how these micro-ecologies affect the life-sustaining viability of natural ecologies. Also explored in greater depth are how the community-centered cultural commons represent the early stages of a post-industrial future, as well as how public schools, universities, and environmental writers continue to perpetuate the linguistic colonization of the present by the past and the linguistic colonization of other cultures. Special attention is given to how to reframe the meaning of words (metaphors) in ways that are culturally and ecologically informed... |
