Syllabus: Economics of Sustainability 1.0

Summary: Provides on-line syllabus and schedule by Professor Wayne Hayes for review of Economics of Sustainability for ARC and Commission on Higher Education.

Ramapo College
College of Social Science and Human Services
Master of Arts Program in Sustainability Studies

MASS50201 | CRN ______ | SEC Classroom | M 6-9:15 P.M.
Professor Wayne Hayes, Ph.D 201-684-7751
whayes@ramapo.edu		 Office G-231
Hours: M: 1:00-2:30 P.M. &
SSEC: 5:00 to 6:00 P.M.

Course Description

How can the economy be harnessed to serve world sustainability? What makes this question so ironic is that the growth in the physical scale of the economy and its rapacious character under economic globalization has depleted resources, destroyed ecosystems, overwhelmed natural waste disposal sinks, waged war on subsistence cultures, and produced shocking maldistribution of wealth and income. How, then, can the economy be turned around to reinforce sustainable development rather than to destroy ecosystems, resource endowments, and indigenous cultures? This alchemy must be resolved to promote sustainability.

The now familiar definition of sustainable development from the Brundtland Commission Report, World Commission on Environment and Development, defines sustainable development as: "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." How adequate is this definition? Can the precept adequately define guidelines for policy prescription and ethical principles? Does it ensure justice? Will democracy be nurtured? What economic strategies can promote sustainability? Has the concept been distorted to serve narrow commercial interests?

The Economics of Sustainability takes up the challenge of working out an ethical and strategic analysis upon which to base civic action, public policy, and normative legitimacy. The global economy, a robust engine of change, must generate world sustainability rather than amplify entropy or indulge corporate interests. This challenge must include but transcend notions of a green economy and must extend its principles globally.

Goals

The purpose of Economics of Sustainability is to provide sustainers an overview of how economics might appropriately and ethically enhance world sustainability. Two goals guide our course for its students:

  1. You must discover and demonstrate ways to think practically and strategically about sustainability. Such thinking must be grounded in Economics of Sustainability.
  2. You must contribute a research project demonstrating how to promote the economics of sustainability.

Books and Resources

Please purchase these books for our course:

  1. Daly, Herman: Beyond Growth: The Economics of Sustainable Development (Boston: Beacon, 1996)
  2. Daly, Herman, and Kenneth N. Townsend: Valuing the Earth: Economics, Ecology, Ethics (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1994)
  3. McKibben, Bill: Deep Economy (New York: Times Books, 2007)
  4. Schroyer, Trent: Beyond Western Economics: Remembering Other Economic Cultures (Economics as Social Theory) (New York: Routledge, 2009)

Your professor will maintain an active web site and a wiki for presentation of lecture notes, distribution of course material, class interaction, and links to web-based content.

Grading Policy

Students are responsible for attending class, for all material covered or assigned, for completing assignments on time, and for participating in class exercises and discussions. Reading assignments should be done before the class for which they are assigned. Students are expected to present their own original thinking for writing assignments and oral presentations.

  1. At the end of the seventh week, an ten page interpretive essay on the challenge presented by the Economics of Sustainability will presented: 32 points.
  2. Oral report on a best practice method for implementing a sustainable economy: 16 points.
  3. Term paper that demonstrate an application of the principles of Economics of Sustainability. Many will provide case studies that illustrate best practices. Counts points 32
  4. Attendance and participation: 20 points.

Policy on Academic Integrity and Students With Disabilities

Academic Integrity: Students are expected to read and understand Ramapo College's academic integrity policy, which can be found in the Ramapo College Catalog. Members of the Ramapo College community are expected to be honest and forthright in their academic endeavors. Students who violate this policy will receive a failing grade and may be referred to the Office of the Provost for further disciplinary action.

Students with Disabilities: Students who need course adaptation or accommodations because of a documented disability or related special circumstance should work with the Office of Special Services to appropriately inform faculty of their needs.

Course Schedule

The flow of weekly activities of Economics of Sustainability begins with a broad conception of sustainability, examines alternative models, and discloses best practices. The students will present projects that conclude the course.

Weeks 1 & 2: The Ontology of the Economics of Sustainability

Introduction and business of the course is followed by an ontological foundation.

  1. Aristotle, Physics, Book II, chapters 1 & 3 on nature, change, and causation; Book III, chapters 1 -3 on motion, act, and potency
  2. Dalton, George, ed., Primitive, Archaic and Modern Economies: Essays of Karl Polanyi: Aristotle Discover the Economy, chapter 5, pp. 78-115. Oikos as ecology and as economy.
  3. Recommended: Heidegger, Martin, Metaphysics, excerpts on alethia, phusis, logos, and poesis: pp. 98-144
  4. Heidegger, Martin, The Question Concerning Technology
  5. Daly, Herman E., and Kenneth N. Townsend, Valuing the Earth: Economics, Ecology, Ethics:
    1. Herman Daly, Introduction to Essays toward a Steady-State Economy, pp. 11-49
    2. Recommended: C. S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man, chapter 12, pp. 229-243
    3. Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, The Entropy Law and the Economic Problem, chapter 3, pp. 75-88
    4. Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, Selections from "Energy and Economic Myths", chapter 4, pp. 89-112
  6. Recommended: Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, The Entropy Law and the Economic Process, excerpts re the grounding of economics in the physical world: Introduction, pp. 1-21; Chapter 10, part 3, Entropy and Development, pp. 292-306

Weeks 3 & 4: Beyond Sustainable Development

Whence the substance of sustainable development?

  1. Brundtland Commission Report, World Commission on Environment and Development, selections. Read the important Overview, noting the way that sustainable development was framed and the language used to define sustainable development. Read the Brundtland section on sustainable development carefully.
  2. Wayne Hayes, overview of Brundtland and the origins of Sustainable Development
  3. Daly, Herman E. Beyond Growth: The Economics of Sustainable Development: Introduction: The Shape of Current Thought on Sustainable Development, pp. 1-26 and Part I, Economic Theory and Sustainable Development, pp. 27-72
  4. Schroyer, Trent, and Tom Golodik, Creating World Sustainability
    1. Trent Schroyer, From Sustainable Development to Developing Sustainability, pp. 7-24
    2. Peter Montague: Sustainable Development in Six Parts, pp. 59-86; also available on-line: Part I, II, III, IV, V, VI
    3. Wolfgang Sachs, Fairness in a Fragile World: A Memo on Sustainability pp. 31-58
  5. Green business contains potential as a part of an emerging Eco-Economy.

Weeks 4 & 5: The Context of Sustainability: Embedding the Economy

  1. Polanyi, The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time, chapter 14, Market and Man, and chapter 15, Market and Nature
  2. Schroyer, Beyond Western Economics, Part I: formal economics and substantive economics
  3. Daly, Herman E., and Kenneth N. Townsend, Valuing the Earth: Economics, Ecology, Ethics:
    1. Herman Daly, On Economics as a Life Science, chapter 13, pp. 249-266
    2. Schumacher, E. F., Buddhist Economics, chapter 9, pp. 173-182
    3. M. King Hubbert, Exponential Growth as a Transient Phenomenon in Human History, chapter 5, pp. 113-126
    4. Recommended: C. S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man, chapter 12, pp. 229-243
  4. Professor Hayes lecture and discussion on Economics of Sustainability, expands on Wayne Hayes, Economic Strategies for Sustainability, in Schroyer and Golodik, pp. 189-212
  5. Threefolding provides a framework within which to contextualize the Economics of Sustainability through the appropriate integration of civil society, government, and commerce. Threefolding provides a framework to think about and implement the Triple Bottom Line. This topic needs more attention, but helps frame the discussion of civil society organizations.

Weeks 6 & 7: The Critique of Globalization and Economic Growth

At the end of the seventh week, an ten page interpretive essay on the challenge presented by the Economics of Sustainability will presented.

  1. Daly, Herman: Globalization and Its Discontents
  2. The critique of growth: Bill McKibben, Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future and view Prof. Hayes's review of McKibben.
  3. Schroyer and Golodik, Creating World Sustainability: Wayne Hayes, Economic Strategies for Sustainability, pp. 189-212 and Economic Aspects of Sustainability.

Weeks 8 & 9: Alternatives Toward the Economics of Sustainability

  1. Schroyer, Beyond Western Economics, Part II: chapters on Gandhi, Illich, and Polanyi
  2. Daly, Herman E., and Kenneth N. Townsend, Valuing the Earth: Economics, Ecology, Ethics:
    1. Kenneth E. Boulding, The Economics of the Coming Spaceship Earth, chapter 16, pp. 297-310
    2. Herman Daly, The Steady State Economy: Toward a Political Economy of Biophysical Equilibrium and Moral Growth, chapter 19, pp. 325-364
    3. Herman Daly, Postscript: Some Common Misunderstandings and Further Issues Concerning a Steady-State Economy, chapter 20, pp.365-382
    4. Recommended: Kenneth N. Townsend, Steady State Economics and the Command Economy, chapter 15, pp. 275-296
  3. Hayes, Strategic Sustainability. Note especially The Moves: Toward Strategic Sustainability.

Weeks 10: Models of the Practice of Economics of Sustainability

  1. Polanyi reconstruction: Wayne Hayes, Polanyi as Social Ecology and Toward a Polanyi Reconstruction
  2. We will also examine what Karl Polanyi calls the Double Movement: Within society, broad, spontaneous, mostly local efforts to rescue environment and society from the disabling initiatives of globalization (the first movement) emerges from grass-roots origins to enable a just and sustainable world -- or at least raise the potential.
  3. Daly, Herman E. Beyond Growth: The Economics of Sustainable Development: Operational Policy and Sustainable Development, pp. 73-96, and Part I, National Accounts and Sustainable Development, pp. 97-118
  4. Hayes, understanding the Eco-Economy.

Weeks 11, 12 & 13: Building the Green Economy

Best practices inventory will be built and presented, largely as case studies that embody the principles explored in the prior section of the course. Students will assist in the presentation of best practices. Invited guests will help us choose appropriate readings.

  1. Best practices inventory will be built and presented, largely as case studies that embody the principles explored in the prior section of the course.
  2. Empirical indicators of sustainability: metrics that assess progress in the implementation of sustainability
  3. Green Energy: state of the art in energy conservation and investments in renewable energy with a focus on the NY/NJ metropolis
  4. Smart Growth: land use practices that support sustainability, with emphasis on New Jersey
  5. Area economic development: Brownfields, Special Improvement Districts (SIDs), and other tools of the trade.

Weeks 14 & 15: Student Reports

Students will present reports that demonstrate applications of the principles of Economics of Sustainability. Many will provide case studies that illustrate best practices.

Wayne Hayes, Ph.D. | Initialized: 11/12/2009 | Last Update: 11/14/2009