Product Description

In this ground-breaking book, leading sustainability educators are joined by permaculturists, literary critics, ecologists, artists, journalists, engineers, mathematicians and philosophers in a deep reflection on the skills people need to survive and thrive in the challenging conditions of the 21st century. Responding to the threats of climate change, peak oil, resource depletion, economic uncertainty and energy insecurity demands the utmost in creativity, ingenuity and new ways of thinking in order to reinvent both self and society. The book covers a wide range of skills and attributes from technology appraisal to ecological intelligence, and includes active learning exercises to help develop those skills. Far from being a rigid or definitive statement of the one right way , the handbook is exploratory, aiming to open up new, previously unthought-of paths, possibilities and choices. It is intended primarily for educators across the spectrum from higher education to informal education, but is also suitable for learners and anyone interested in the literally vital issue of the skills necessary for building a more sustainable future. Contributors include Satish Kumar, John Naish, Stephen Sterling, Greg Garrard, Anne Phillips, Kim Polistina, John Blewitt, Stephan Harding and Zoe Robinson.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #21190 in Books
• Published on: 2009-08-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Review
Sustainability Literacy is emerging as a key agenda for us all. This comprehensive handbook provides vivid and dynamic experiences of engaging with this often problematic area. Practitioners, professionals and researchers have much to gain from reading this text. It skillfully illustrates how the rhetoric can be turned into meaningful practice. --Prof Daniella Tilbury,  University of Gloucestershire, UK.

From the Back Cover
In this groundbreaking book, leading sustainability educators are joined by permaculturists, literary critics, ecologists, artists, journalists, engineers, mathematicians and philosophers in a deep reflection on the skills people need to survive and thrive in the challenging conditions of the 21st century. Responding to the threats of climate change, peak oil, resource depletion, economic uncertainty and energy insecurity demands the utmost in creativity, ingenuity and new ways of thinking in order to reinvent both self and society.
The Handbook of Sustainability Literacy covers a wide range of skills and attributes, from technology appraisal to ecological intelligence, and includes active learning exercises to help develop those skills. Far from being a rigid or definitive statement of the `one right way', the book is exploratory, aiming to open up new, previously unimagined paths, possibilities and choices. It is intended primarily for educators - across the spectrum from higher education to informal education - but is also suitable for learners and anyone interested in the literally `vital' issue of the skills necessary for building a more sustainable future.
Contributors include Satish Kumar, John Naish, Stephen Sterling, Greg Garrard, Anne Phillips, Kim Polistina, John Blewitt, Stephan Harding and Zoe Robinson.

About the Author
Arran Stibbe has an academic background in both humanities and human ecology, and combines the two in his teaching and research into Education for Sustainability. He lectures in the Humanities Department at the University of Gloucestershire, is a National Teaching Fellow, and a fellow of the Centre for Active Learning. He has published widely in the area of ecolinguistics and is convenor of the Sustainability in Higher Education Developers group (SHED Share), a network of 200 sustainability educators from across the UK.

Customer Reviews

An indispensable book for teachers and students of sustainability.
This is an excellent handbook for teachers and students from a wide range of disciplines and for anyone interested in exploring ideas for creating a more sustainable future.

The book contains a clear and engaging introduction, which provides an invaluable overview of the key debates surrounding the topic of sustainability. Through active learning exercises such as in the chapters entitled Advertising Awareness and Grounded Economic Awareness, the reader is encouraged to recognise and critically read the social cultural and economic systems that contribute to unsustainable societies.

The book argues that the deepest level of sustainable literacy is the psychological level, and several chapters encourage the reader to identify what it is that provides them with a sense of well-being. The book therefore helps to breathe new life into efforts to respond to climate change and peak oil and contribute to a better future.

With a wide range of authors from different professional backgrounds and an interesting range of arguments, this is an indispensable book for anyone interested in sustainability.

Looking for inspiration to change?
I picked up this book looking for inspiration and education and it provided both. Whether you are an interested general reader or a student looking for information sources I can highly recommend this book. As an edited collection it offers well known and less-well known experts and writers in the field. Highly original and inspirational. A pleasure to read

Literacy for a greener future
This books sets out to provide readers with 'skills for a changing world', skills that are indeed needed for changing and challenging the world we currently live in. When I first looked through the book (first in cyberspace, then on paper), I was struck by how short the chapters were, something quite uncommon in the academic books that normally land on my desk. Then, when I started to read the chapters, I began to change my preconceptions about 'chapters'. These chapters are short, to the point, and pack a punch, so to speak, singly and as a collective. Overall there are 32 chapters, dealing with topics that range from 'Ecocriticism' to 'A Learning Society'. Not every reader might be interested in all of them, but every reader will find something to get their teeth into. The chapters are pointers that indicate paths to follow in teaching and learning about sustainability from a host of perspectives. Most of all they raise awareness about what can and should be done to make living sustainable, about what we can do and what we can resist doing, personally and as a society. As such the book will be very useful for individual readers but also as a teaching aid across subjects, from communication studies through to systems theory.