Introduction to Ecological Economics
The pre-analytic vision of ecological economics.
Module Topic:
The history and evolution of ecological economics
Course Learning Outcome(s):
1.
Construct the pre-analytic vision of ecological economics
Module Outcome(s):
Evaluate the current societal challenges;
Envision the next paradigm shift of economics.
Activities:
1.
2.
Reading: Chapter 3 of DF
Discussion board (Preanalytic Vision: Current societal challenges): Consider one
of the serious problems that society faces today. Is there a relationship between
this problem and conventional market economics? Does ecological economics
offer useful insights into this problem? Would this problem have emerged if
society had adopted an ecological economics perspective 100 years ago? Why
didn’t we adopt ecological economics 100 years ago? Why have we still failed to
adopt it today?
3. Reading: Chapter 1 of Costanza et al.
http://www.eoearth.org/article/An_Introduction_to_Ecological_Economics~_Chap
ter_1
4. Video: Watch the Dana Meadows and Robert Costanza talks
(http://www.uvm.edu/giee/beyondenvironmentalism/Meadows.mov &
http://www.uvm.edu/giee/beyondenvironmentalism/costanza.htm )
5. Integrative project assignment: Workbook exercise 1.2 on desirable ends. Follow
instructions in workbook, chapter 1, 2nd exercise.
6. Wiki (this folder: Wiki Tool: Creating a shared vision of the future): Building on
your desirable ends exercise from module 1.1, together create one shared vision for
the future. Try to be as specific as possible. Try to convince the others of your
point of view. When you cannot achieve consensus over a portion of the vision,
move it to a separate section of the page (i.e. you should end up with a consensus
statement of a shared vision, followed by a separate list of vision statements about
which you disagree.)
7. Recommended: Discussion board (Pre-analytic vision: Ecological economics and a
sustainable and desirable future): Reflect on the difficulty of coming to a
consensus about what the future should be like. How many of the shared elements
do you think would be universally accepted? How would such an exercise on a
larger scale, between multiple countries, play out? Would a society guided by the
principles of ecological economics be more or less likely to achieve this vision
than one guided by neoclassical economics? Why?
8. Reading: Farley’s and Costanza’s “Envisioning shared goals for humanity: a
detailed, shared vision of a sustainable and desirable USA in 2100 “
(http://www.uvm.edu/giee/publications/Farley%20and%20Costanza%202002.pdf)
How similar is the vision presented in this article to the vision you came up with as
a group? If you have some interesting insights you’d like to share with the group,
post them to the discussion board (module 1: Ecological economics and a
sustainable and desirable future).
9. Discussion board/Project assignment (Pre-analytic vision: Choosing a problem
(post under appropriate thread)): Finish choosing a problem and your partners.
10. Project work: Project team and general project description. Instructions on p. 33-34
of workbook.
Self Check:
Make sure you can answer the questions on the right, and understand the
‘big ideas to remember’ from DF chapter 2.
Submit as Proof(s) of Learning:
Activities 2,5,6,7,9,10
For more information about this module and its contents, contact your
instructor.
At the end of this section you
should be able to answer the
following questions:




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What is uneconomic
growth?
What is a pre-analytic
vision?
What is the pre-analytic
vision of ecological
economics, and how does
it contrast with that of
neoclassical economics?
What is scale and what is
optimal scale?
What is distribution?
What is allocation?