Paul Haber
Sustainability Theme: (Politics of Mexico, PSCI 325)
The theme for the 2009 Mexico Study Abroad Program is sustainability. There is no one right
way to define this term. However, for the purposes of an assignment for this class I will offer the
following definition for sustainable practices: Sustainable practices are cultural, economic,
political, and social behaviors that preserve and promote healthy life in the present and for seven
generations hence.
There are two assignments for this class. Consider the questions that follow the instruction to
identify and observe to be suggestions to get you started. Feel free to change them.
1) Identify and observe a sustainable practice in or around Pátzcuaro. What makes is a
sustainable practice? How do you measure its importance? How did it come to be? What
sustains the practice? Has the practice overcome obstacles in the past? Do you perceive threats
to the sustainability of this sustainable practice today or in the future?
2) Identify and observe a non-sustainable practice in or around Pátzcuaro. What makes it an
unsustainable practice? How do you measure its importance? How did it come to be? Why is
this unsustainable practice occurring? Can you identify efforts by people to end the practice in
the past? What happened? Can you imagine ways that people might be able to end or reform
this practice in the future?
Sustainability Theme: (Development Administration, PSCI 430)
The theme for the 2009 Mexico Study Abroad Program is sustainability. There are two
assignments for this class that relate directly to this theme:
1. Define sustainability. Why have you chosen to define the term in the way you have? You
might want to spend some time researching how others have defined the term. You might want
to talk about this with other people, including Mexicans. What are the implications (and
perhaps, advantages and disadvantages) of defining the term in various ways? You are not only
allowed but encouraged (but not required) to change your definition over the course of our time
in Mexico.
2. Evaluate each reading and fieldtrip in light of your definition of sustainability.