EfSD Pillar: Participation

This is a poster from the 1968 spring rebellion
of students and workers. 

It reads "I participate, you participate, 

he participates, we participate, you participate,

they profit" - a personable appeal to all French
students and workers because it is a common 

grammar school exercise.

Arnsteign (1969) says that this
poster brilliantly capsulates the difference between
the empty ritual of participation and the real power
needed to affect the outcome of a process. 

This poster further reinforces the power of art

in seeking sustainability as it has empowered
students and workers to shows their position
as false stakeholders to their nation.
It portrays the frustration that students were

feeling as their participation proved powerless

as their input was ignored by their countries affairs.

A contribution to their movement was 

likely the power that this poster portrayed.
It shows that students and workers know they
make up the "legs" and future of the county,
and thus, depicts the absolute austerity of their
exclusion to national affairs.

Participation involves people in decision making, joint analysis, & planning, yet goes beyond mere consultation (ARIES 2009).


In short the purpose of participation: 

•  Puts decision-making and responsibility for          
   outcomes in the hands of the participants.

•  Creates a greater sense  of ownership and commitment 
    to action.

•  Builds capacity for self reliance and self-organisation.

•  Empowers individuals to  take action. (2009)


Types of Participation. 
Arnsteign (1969) portrays that there are different types of participation. Not all forms of participation hold true to participative responsibility and decision making, engagement, and capacity building.
Arnsteign (1969) portrays the levels of participation with the ladder diagram below.

Some entities do not partake in participation at all.
These are shown by steps:
   (1) Manipulation &
   (2) Therapy

Rather than enable people to participate,

entities with this mentality "reeducate" or "cure" their stakeholders (1968). For me this alludes to re-xenophobic education camps that are known for terrible treatment of their prisoners. Also, the Nazi's trying to cure the human race of non aryans and Jews. 

Some entities engage in what Arnstein (1968) calls "Tokenism". This is shown by steps: 
   (3) Informing &
   (4) Consultation
This is characterized by entities with more power, such as some shameless businesses or government organizations take advantage of the 'good' reputation and power that participation (AKA stakeholder engagement) will give to their agendas by taking part in the motions of stakeholder consultation, but not giving their voices any power. In these levels there is no follow-through after consultation.
   (5) Placation 
is considered higher form of tokenism because there are ground level advisors to the person who makes the decisions. However, there is no binding factor that assures that the sole power holders will even consider the reports from below.

Finally, what Arnstein (1968) "Citizen Power" actually reflects citizen efforts in important decision-making. This is represented by:
   (6) Partnership - Negotiates trade offs with traditional power holders.
   (7) Delegated Power &
   (8) Citizen Control - citizens which are not in power seats have the a majority of power in decision making.  This cannot be affective if the citizens are not properly educated or equipped to deal with certain decision.  For example, this is why practiced democracy does not use a one-person, one-vote system.  In order for this to work businesses and governments have to invest in their community for their community to invest in them, a proto-type of a sustainable society.  Doing this allows a symbiotic relationship between citizens and organizations with a healthy flux of ideas and proactive evolutional evolutionary change.

 Local Change in Aeroville.

A great example of participation, along with capacity building, and empowerment in local change is of a commune in India called Aeroville. This is a special commune because it advocates true sustainability and a mostly non-monetary system. 
Visitors or Inhabitants must pay a small fee per month in order to account for the food of included in their communal meals three times a day (that cannot yet be  maintained by their community garden), and for their 3 hour portion of electricity per day. All visitors are required to participate the community building houses out of sustainable materials, help the upkeep of their restoration and organization of a medicinal forest, the sustainable harvesting of medicinal herbs, such as spirulina, and help with the community garden.  Longer term visitors, or, ehr, inhabitats, are encouraged to contribute ideas and engage in projects to better the society and improve surrounding communities. From the examples that I have seen, projects usually take into account stakeholders in order to engage   in participation and instill a feeling of the project ownership for their local community change. Also stakeholder participation will further build the capacity of locals and empower them to maintain their communities and seek possibilities to better life quality around them. Moreover, rituals, such as meditation, yoga, and activities such as music jamming, plays, meaningful movie nights, and more stress participation and community while increasing individual and communal life quality.

Quick Summary on Auroville & Participation

All these things build an individual's capacity as they will discover new abilities they probably thought they'd never have. The experience of living and constantly participating in a collaborative way for community sustainability and quality of life also empowers people to change their ways and spread new philosophies once they leave.
Thus, Aroville is a force of spreading sustainable practices and quality of life that reinforce the importance of participation and creates a wave of capacity building and empowerment in its region, and maybe even in unexpected parts of the world as visitors continue traveling or return home.

Learn more about Auroville

The BMW Guggenheim Lab
(Yes, I posted this twice.)

Confronting Comfort is "the Lab's" theme for their  first
two-year cycle. They will explore notions of individual
and collective comfort and the urgent need
for environmental and social responsibility.

The BMW Guggenheim Lab is a mobile laboratory that aims to adress issues of contemporary urban life & inspire innovative ideas to improve it. This project is led by international, interdisciplinary teams of emerging talents in: urbanism, architecture, art, design, science, technology, education, and sustainability. This organization practices serious community engagement making stakeholders the main impetus for change through programs and global public discourse. The BMW Guggenheim Lab describes itself as "part urban think tank, part community center and public gathering space (The BMW Guggenheim Lab 2011)" The organization hosts free events in cities for networking and instigating ideas.  Their website is extremely interactive allowing visitors from online communities to submit their ideas and simulate experiments with their city.  Check it out --> here.

___Useful Resources___
Auroville  
The Sadhana Forest  

The BMW Guggenheim Lab
Design your future city and compare it to other's around the world

___Cite___

Arnstein, S.R. 1969, 'A Ladder of Citizen Participation', JAIP, Vol. 35, No. 4, pp. 216-224

Auroville 2011, 'Greetings from Auroville', acessed on September 5, 2011, <http://www.auroville.com/>

Tilbury, D. and Wortman, D. 2004, Engaging People in Sustainability, IUCN Commission on Education and Communication, Gland and Cambridge. 

Gestalt on Many Levels.

The Gestalt Effect is a term used in art & psychology to describe the capability of the brain to cognitively generate whole forms out of fragments from our senses. The Berlin School's theory of Gestaltism suggests that the brain has self-organizing tendencies seeking holism, parallels, and analog.

What do you see above? 

Your mind fills in illusory contours as if they were real, which allows you to see a whole image. The perceived image is not recognized by identifying individual parts, instead it is perceived simultaneously as a whole. Reification is the constructive or generative aspect of perception were by the experienced percept contains more explicit spacial information that the sensory stimulus on which it is based (Lehar 2004).

Could the Gestalt Effect be applied more profoundly than to just things we detect by our senses, I wonder? After all, we do have the ability to make some sense out of a world filled with abstract events and concepts everyday. Wouldn't this suggest that we get a lot of practice in subconsciously "deciphering" them to the best of our knowledge and that this skill is, actually, probably well developed? 

If this is true then we should be exercising our ability to make complex connections to create life-as-we-know-it depending on what we are exposed to daily.

But what are we exposed to daily? Oh yeah, *chuckle* its advertisements! 

The Unhidden Persuaders
(Lefroy 2011 )

How might being constantly exposed to advertisements since a young age affect individuals in the short and long term future? (hit the jump to learn more about the sinister beginnings of 'public relations' to challenge your current perceptions values and perceptions)

The Century of the Self

As opposed to being swamped by creative commercial ads promoting un-sustainable habits, humanity would greatly benefit from more stimulating information. If information promoting positive social change would tap into our ability to seek  holism, parallels, and analog in order to understand connections between sustainability principals and real life. 

I believe that society, as a whole, can reach higher levels of self-realization;

by the means of realizing two things:

one, that

 our individual self 

is part of  a larger collective being, 

and two, how they both affect each other.

This featured video clip is from ____, an organization that ___.  They use Gestalt theories in their imagery, media used, and with the message that they intend to send.  Great Job! 

According to a Gestalt theory we can cognitively generate whole forms out of fragments from our senses. This is why the little boy, the birds, and the skeleton, were evident in their partial depiction.  Furthermore, according to Gestalts theory the minds' self-organizing tendencies that seek holism, parallels, and analog likely help make sense out of the analogies in this video; the reactions of water and ink compared to the reactions of water and "dirty"...whatever that may be. 

As a 'greeny' I sometimes can't help but get frustrated because not many have an understanding of how important it is that we take care of the earths' precious sources of life if we have any value at all for our species' existence & our unique ability to experience awareness of existence's wonders.  Art is an excellent tool for spreading emotions, news, and influencing ultimately influencing culture because it exists as an engaging experience. 

___Cite___

Lehar, S. 2004, ‘Gestalt Isomorphism and the Primacy of Subjective Conscious Experience: A Gestalt Bubble Model’, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Vol. 26, No. 4, Pg 375-444

Definitions, Concepts, & Key Pillars of EfSD

Definitions 
Sustainability can easily be defined by splitting up the word:
sussed /sʌst/ - astute and well informed                           (Thanks Hala!!)
       &        
able  /ˈeɪb(ə)l/ - having the power, skill, means, or opportunity to do something.
Therefore, well informed power for now and later. Its hard to believe that there is any debate at all over such an undeniably positive trait to have. Just look at it!

Photo by: Ivai Acevedo
A photographer who focuses on surreal scenes or "real dreams"

 Tilbury and Cooke (2005)  say the key goals of sustainability are "to live within our environmental limits, to achieve social justice and to foster economic and social progress." The UN was the major catalyst in making sustainability part of the global discourse. Quality of life for present as well as future generations was finally promoted into the global public eye by the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED). 

Sustainability is open to different interpretations and takes on different meanings not only between cultures but also between different interest groups within societies. Sustainability embraces equality for all, and for this reason a key aim of sustainability is to enable multi-stakeholder groups to define  heir vision of sustainability and to work towards it.

The term Sustainable Development is often used to portray the process of becoming sustainable since it will not happen over night. Many people and entities that have committed to sustainability and have gone through with adopting its principals. Now organizations that exist in order to advocate for it. Different cultures, and interest groups in society have their own contextual interpretations of sustainability. 
In creating personal viariants of the definition some are truly looking to commit to creating a better future and sustaining themselves for the long run. Others may be green washing (Huh?) to keep up with current trends and maintain brand and company reputation. 


        Activity
   The following are examples of different conceptualizations of Sustainability.
            As you read reflect on these questions: 
            Is it important to include diverse definition sources?
            How does each unique stance affect its' definition?
            What other perspectives are important?
            Can you spot the Green Washer?!
            What language indicates possible green washing?


IE 1 : Sustainability & 
"Our Common Future" 
From the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) this document was published in 1987 and targeted multilateralism and interdependence of nations in the process of  sustainable development. Their's is the most commonly cited definition of Sustainable Development (SD). (more here)
"Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."


IE 2: Sustainability & 
The Boston Consulting Group 

One of the most prestigious management consulting firms in the world. (more here)

            “Sustainability is an issue that is relevant and important to all companies across all industries, although certain industries and organizations may be more directly affected than others. The question of how to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs has important environmental, economic, and social dimensions.

            The world's population has more than doubled since 1960; given that fact, combined with economic growth in emerging economies, demand for many natural resources is rising faster than supply. The speed and scale of change in today’s world are unprecedented, resulting in a fast-changing market environment.

            This landscape presents not only challenges but also opportunities. The leading companies today can recognize tangible savings through energy efficiency, waste reduction, and more efficient supply-chain management. A focus on sustainability can also be leveraged to create intangible values such as brand recognition, employee motivation, and attraction of top talent.

            The question is no longer "Why is sustainability important?" but rather "How do we approach sustainability most effectively to gain advantage, leverage our capabilities, and reduce future risks?" BCG has created a global Sustainability Initiative to support our clients in developing robust, long-term strategies and help them leverage competitive advantages from their sustainability efforts." 

IE 3: Sustainability &
Interface
A company led by Ray Anderson, a pioneer  in green business from the early 1990's, Interface is the worldwide leader in design, production and sales of environmentally-responsible modular carpet.  (more here)
"Interface will become the first name in commercial and institutional interiors worldwide through its commitment to people, process, product, place and profits. We will strive to create an organization wherein all people are accorded unconditional respect and dignity; one that allows each person to continuously learn and develop. We will focus on product (which includes service) through constant emphasis on process quality and engineering, which we will combine with careful attention to our customers’ needs so as always to deliver superior value to our customers, thereby maximizing all stakeholders’ satisfaction. We will honor the places where we do business by endeavoring to become the first name in industrial ecology, a corporation that cherishes nature and restores the environment. Interface will lead by example and validate by results, including profits, leaving the world a better place than when we began, and we will be restorative through the power of our influence in the world."


IE 4: Sustainability &
Walmart 
You know Walmart. They own your supermarkets, everywhere. (more here)

"At Walmart, we know that being an efficient and profitable business and being a good steward of the environment are goals that can work together. Our broad environmental goals at Walmart are simple and straightforward:

• To be supplied 100 percent by renewable energy;
• To create zero waste;
• To sell products that sustain people and the environment.

Our efforts have been recognized through numerous awards, which would not be possible without the support of our customers, associates and communities around the world."

Education for Sustainable Development

The Future of the Earth is in Our Hands.
We must take care of it in order to be a part of it.

The importance of Education for Sustainable Development reaches many dire issues that humanity and our supporting biosphere face today. Food security, poverty, sustainable tourism, urban quality, women, fair trade, green consumerism, ecological public health and waste management as well as those of climatic change, deforestation, land degradation, desertification, depletion of natural resources  and loss of biodiversity are concerns at the forefront of  both environmental and development education.

Like Sustainability, Education for Sustainability has multiple definitions from varying sources with varying interests.
      Below are a few. 

Reading them had me wonder what the ideas were behind each one. I thought it would be fun to draw images are associated to each 'definer' to give an idea of where they might be coming from with their definitions.


Do I sense an Activity popping up? Yes, I do! 

         Activity
For each set, draw images which you associate to the writer of the definition. 
Give an idea of their surroundings to show where their idea of an environment might be coming from?


After this activity participants should be asked to share their ideas with one another in groups, then summarize insights aloud with everyone. 

The Key Pillars of Education for Sustainable Development
The Key Pillars of Education for Sustainable Development (EfSD) outline the overarching tools that aim towards enabling individuals to become sustainable citizens conscious of a global society.


   Envisioning.                               Values clarification.      
                       
           Critical thinking and reflection.           
  
                                                                        Participation.


      Partnerships.
                                            Systemic thinking.


Each pillar will be explained and given examples for in later posts. It can be a lot of fun to spot things in everyday life that encourage use of either of these pillars. Though each one will have its individual post they will all be inevitably alluded to throughout this journal.




___Cite___

ARIES 2009,  Education for Sustainability - the role of education in engaging and  equipping people for change, ARIES, Macquarie University, Australian Government - Department of the Environment, Water,  Heritage, and the Arts, Australia
Tilbury, D. and Ross, K. 2006, Living Change: Documenting good practice in Education for Sustainability in NSW. Macquarie University, Sydney, and Nature Conservation Council, NSW.

Tilbury, D., Keogh, A., Leighton, A. and Kent, J. 2005, ' A National Review of Environmental Education and its Contribution to Sustainability in Australia: Further and Higher Education', Canberra: Australian Government Department of the Environment and Heritage and Australian Research Institute in Education for Sustainability (ARIES).

Hopkins, C & McKeown, R. 2000, 'Chapter 2, Education for sustainable development: an international perspective' in Tilbury, D., Fien, J., Education and Sustainability: Responding to the global challenge, IUCN Commission on Education and Communication, Pg 13-24

Walmart Corporate 2010, ‘Sustainability’, Walmart Corporate, accessed on 4^th of September, <http://walmartstores.com/sustainability/>

Interface 2008, ‘Interface Values – Our Guiding Principals, Our Vision’, 4^th of September, <http://www.interfaceglobal.com/Sustainability/Interface-Story.aspx>

Oxford Dictionary 2011, Oxford University, accessed on 4^th of September,  <http://oxforddictionaries.com/>

The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) 2011, BCG, accessed on 4^th of September, 2011, <http://www.bcg.com/expertise_impact/capabilities/sustainability/default.aspx>

WCED 1987, ‘Our Common Future: Brundtland Report’, UN Documents Gathering a body of global agreements, April 3, 2011 <http://www.un-documents.net/wced-ocf.htm>