Cooperative
Living, Community Building,
and Sustainability
Course
Description (2005-2006)
TBA
Course
Description (2004-2005)
This
FOCUS-seminar is for students who are concerned
about the
global ecological and social crisis that, according
to many, has the
potential to threaten the survival of humanity. The
seminar investigates
ways to create a sustainable future on our planet.
Specifically, we will
explore different aspects of alternative and
experimental ways of living
and working together. Some topics we will cover
are: utopian and intentional
communities, ecological aspects of language use
(how the way we talk
influences the way we live), cultural
self-awareness, the Kibbutz movement,
Gandhi´s practice of satyagraha (firmly
grasping the way things ought
to be), ideology and utopia, and the history of the
cooperative movement.
This
course will be team taught with members of the
WashU Cooperative,
and will feature field trips to local cooperatives,
and guest lectures by
local community activists.Theory and practice of
cooperative living,
community building, and sustainability will be
taught.
Thi
s is a two semester course, to be followed by study
abroad (TBA).
We will take a Spring Break field trip to a
cooperative (TBA).
Course
Description (Spring 2005)
In
this course, we we will explore the meaning of the
terms cooperative
living, community building, and
sustainability. The central questions
are:
what does it mean to live and work cooperatively,
and is it important that
people do so? What is the difference between
cooperation and submission?
Who decides, and on what bases? Do we have to
agree, and do we have
to share the same worldview, religious belief,
economic interest, social class,
political ideology, or language, to cooperate? When
should we cooperate,
and when should we resist? When we have to resist,
how can we do so
without fear or hate, and without violence? What
are communities and how
do they form; in particular, how do they change and
transform? Do they form
immediately or gradually? Are communities best led
by command or by example?
Are communities best conceived as mechanisms,
organisms, or would some
other model be more useful? How can communities
founded on diverse principles
cooperate with each other? On what bases do we
judge the success or failure
of a community, or an individual community member?
Can and should there be
a global cooperative community? What does
sustainability mean, and is it a r
ealistic goal, or a romantic, utopian dream? What
is wrong with utopian dreaming,
if good things can come from it?
Don’t we have to believe in
something, in
order to act? This class is not only
about cooperation and utopian social
action,
but it also is an example of
cooperation and utopian social action. In other
words, we are going to do what we learn, and we
will learn by doing, and
dreaming. At the same time, we will keep a critical
perspective, appropriate
for a secular, multicultural university.
"You
may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only
one,
Perhaps someday you'll join us, and the world will
live as one.""
---John Lennon, "Imagine"
Satyagraha
and Ahimsa (Gandhi's Way)
Satyagraha
= "firmly grasping the way things ought to
be
[non-violent
non-cooperation]‚"
Ahimsa
= "not having the desire to harm
[non-injury]"
"Non-violence
is a weapon of the strong. With the weak it might
easily be
hypocrisy.
"My
creed of non-violence is an extremely active force.
It has no room for
cowardice or even weakness. There is hope for a
violent man ot be someday
non-violent, but there is none for a
coward."
"Non-violence
in its dynamic condition means conscious suffering.
It does
not mean meek submission to the will of the
evil-doer, but it means putting
the whole of one’s soul against
the will of the tyrant. Working under this
law of our being, it is possible for a single
individual to defy the whole might
of an unjust empire to save his honour, his
religion, his soul and lay the
foundation for that empire’s fall
or its regeneration."
"A
satyagrahi bids good-bye to fear. He is, therefore,
never afraid of trusting
his opponent. Even if the opponent plays him false
twenty times, the satyagrahi
is ready to trust him the twenty-first time, for an
implicit trust in human nature
is the very essence of his creed."
---Mohandas
K. Gandhi, quoted in Stephen Hay, ed., Sources
of Indian Tradition,
Vol. II, pgs. 253, 255, 268
Question
for Discussion:
AGREE
OR DISACREE:
Gandhi was right, we should trust our opponent even
if he or she has played
us false twenty-one times. But twenty-one is the
limit....
Previously
Offered:
Autumn
2004, Spring 2005
Next
Offered:
Autumn
2005, Spring 2006
To
Register
Washington
University Online Course Catalog
WebSTAC
(online course registration)
Course
News (Autumn 2004)
Go
to Class
Announcements
Go to Two
Week Schedule
Go to Semester
Schedule
Go to Full
Year Schedule
Go to Special
Sessions
Go to Electronic
Reserve
Go to Class
Readings
Go to Supplementary
Materials
Go to Class
Webring
(Student Websites)
Go to Power
Point Presentation on Ursula K.
LeGuin
(please use Internet Explorer for best results)
Go to Study
Guide and Discussion Questions on Ursula LeGuin's
The
Dispossessed
Go to Class
Links
Class
Announcements
Please
arrive on time for class on Monday, 10/25.04:
Dan Koff will lead a walking tour through Forest
Park.
If you must come late, please contact Dan to
arrange a meeting place in the park.
On
Wednesday, November 10, the WashU Coop and ATMA
Hindu Students Association
will present a "Religion
in Medicine
Symposium,"
an interdiscplinary and interfaith forum
on Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM),
Integrative Medicine,
Religious Therapeutics, Yoga, Ayurveda, and
Tantra.
Two
Week Schedule
Monday,
October 25: Walking Tour of Forest Park; Dan Koff,
leader.
Wednesday, October 27: Communications and Community
(general theme); Joachim Faust, leader
Monday,
November 1: Language and Biology (general theme);
Joachim Faust and Alexandra Templer, leaders
Wednesday, November 3: Utopian Communities; Jerome
Bauer, leader
Semester
Schedule
TBA
Full
Year Schedule
TB
A
Special
Sessions
TBA
Electronic
Reserve
TBA
Class
Readings
TBA
Supplementary
Materials
Power
Point Presentation on Ursula K.
LeGuin
(please use Internet Explorer for best
results)
Study
Guide and Discussion Questions on Ursula LeGuin's
The Dispossessed
Class
Webring
2004-2005
Coop Focus Class Student
Website
(Courtesy of Debra Stern)
Other
Student Websites: TBA
Class
Links
TBA
Also
of Potential Interest
Go
to Utopia
and Cooperative Living Page
Go to Medical
Humanities Page
Go to Minorities
and Civil Rights Page
Go to Comparative
Law Page
Go to Business,
Economics, and Religion
Page
Go to Sociology
of Religion Page
Go to Comparative
Religion Page
Go to Comparative
Mythology Page
Go to Comparative
Civilization Page
Go to Folklore
and Folklife Page
Notes
and Links
[This
page is under development]
North
American Students of Cooperation
(NASCO)
Rochdale
Cooperative Principles
Campus
Cooperative Development Corporation
(CCDC)
CCDC
Organizer's Handbook
Dancing
Rabbit Ecovillage: Sustainable Intentional
Community
Living
Dancing
Rabbit Summer Internships
Society
for Utopian Studies
Gateway
Greening
Feminist
Fantasy, Science Fiction and Utopia
International
Workers of the World: The Anarchosyndicalist Trade
Union, Workers' Confederation
and Section of the Anarchist
International
Bibliography
General
Bibliography
This
bibliography is under construction)
Ideology
and Utopia
Mannheim,
Karl
HM24
M27 1959 Olin Level A
Stacks
The
University of
Utopia
Hutchins,
Robert
Maynard
LA209.2
H87 Olin Level B Stacks
Classical
Utopias
(This
bibliography is under construction)
Utopian
Thought in the Western
World
Manuel, Frank and Fritzie
HX806
M33 Olin Level A Stacks; Soc General
Stacks
Science
Fiction Utopias and Dystopias
(This
bibliography is under construction)
The
Dispossessed: An Ambiguous
Utopia
LeGuin,
Ursula
Kroeber
PS3562
E48 D57 1991 Olin Level 2
Stacks
[An anarcho-syndicalist
utopia/dystopia]
The
Left Hand of
Darkness
LeGuin,
Ursula
Kroeber
PS3562
E48 L4 1994 Olin Level 2 PopLit
SciFi
[An androgynous humanoid
civilization]
The
Telling
LeGuin,
Ursula
Kroeber
PS3562.E48
T35 2000 Olin Level 2 PopLit
SciFi
[A fundamentalist dystopia]
Feminist
Fantasy, Science Fiction and Utopia
Radical
Movements and Utopian Communities
(This
bibliography is under construction)
The
Communist Societies of the United States
Nordhoff, Charles
HX653
N8 1966 Olin Level A Stacks
Communist
and Cooperative
Colonies
Gide, Charles
325.3
G361 WestC Dewey
Heavens
on Earth: Utopian Communities in America,
1680-1880
Holloway, Mark
HX653
.H66 1966 Olin Level A Stacks
Solidarity
Forever: An Oral History of the
IWW
Bird, Stewart; Georgakas, Dan; Shaffer, Deborah
HD8055
I4 B57 1985 Olin Reserve 2 Hour
Kibbutz
Movement
(This
bibliography is under construction)
This
bibliography courtesy of Professor Nancy
Berg;
see
her course, "Modern Israeli Politics"
Kibbutz
Makom: Report from an Israeli
Kibbutz
Lieblich, Amia
ISBN
039450724X (MOBIUS)
Crisis
and Transformation : The Kibbutz at Century's
End
Ben-Rafael, Eliezer
HX742.2
A3 B467 1997 Olin Level A Stacks
Crisis
in the Israeli kibbutz : Meeting the Challenge of
Changing Times
Leviatan, Uriel ; Oliver, Hugh; and Quarter, Jack;
eds.
HX742.2
A3 C75 1998 Olin Level A Stacks
The
Communal Experience of the
Kibbutz
Blasi, Joseph
HX742.2
A3 B54 1986 Olin Level A Stacks
The
Communal Future : The Kibbutz and the Utopian
Dilemma
Blasi, Joseph
HX765
P3 B53 1980 Soc Upper Level Stacks
Family
And Community In The
Kibbutz
Talmon, Yonina
HQ689
I8 G37 1972 Olin Level A
Stacks
Kibbutz
Goshen: An Israeli
Commune
Bowes, Alison
HX742.2
A3 B69 1989 Olin Level A Stacks
Gender
And Culture : Kibbutz Women
Revisited
Spiro, Melford E. Spiro
HX742.2
A3 S64 Olin Level A Stacks
Women
in the Kibbutz
Tiger, Lionel, and Shepher, Joseph
HQ1781
P2 T54 Olin Level A Stacks
Sustainability
Issues in India and America
(This
bibliography is under construction)
Course
Web Page (TBA)
Threaded
Keywords
(Folllow
these keywords to other courses taught by me (or
Prof. Timalsina),
numerically ranked by relevance. The end of each
thread is indicated by
an arrow; this will lead you back to the
"MIscellaneous
Teaching Interests"
page, or to another faculty member's website, or to
a topical website.
Students are encouraged to write papers or give
presentations on these topics).
Go
to A-D
Go to E-H
Go to I-L
Go to M-P
Go to Q-T
Go to U-Z
[Anarchism
1]
[Anarcho-Syndicalism
1]
[Buber,
Martin 1]
[Business
Ethics 6]
[Chronon,
William 1]
[Classical
Marxism 1]
[Commensality
5]
[Communism
1]
[Community
Building 1]
[Community
and Society (Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft)
3]
[Composting
1]
[Cooperative
Living 1]
[Cooperative
Movements 1]
[Durkheim,
Emile 2]
[Eco-Feminism
3]
[Ecological
Aspects of Language Use
1]
[Education
Reform 2]
[Environmentalism
1]
[False
Consciousness 2]
[Frankfurt
School 1]
[Gandhi,
Mohandas K. ("Mahatma")
6]
[Globalization
/ Localization / Glocalization
6]
[Goals
of Life 4]
[History
of Ideas 11]
[History
of Social Science
2]
[Humanistic
Anthropology 2]
[Humanistic
Psychology 2]
[Humanistic
Soclology 2]
[Hutchins,
Robert Maynard 2]
[Ideological
Distortion 3]
[Ideology
and Utopia 2]
[Imperialism
and Scholarship 3]
[Inclusivism
and Tolerance 4]
[Intellectual
History of Social Science
4]
[Intellectual
Property Rights Issues
3]
[Intentional
Communities 1]
[Kibbutz
1]
[Law
and Religion 5]
[Le
Guin, Ursula Kroeber
3]
[Mannheim,
Karl 3]
[Marcuse,
Herbert 2]
[Marx,
Karl 2]
[Methodology
of the Humanities
4]
[Methodology
of the Social Sciences
5]
[Models
"Of" and Models "For"
2]
[Morris,
William 3]
[Multiculturalism
and Religion 10]
[Myths,
Models, and Paradigms
6]
[Neo-Marxism
3]
[Oral
History 6]
[Organic
Gardening 1]
[Organic
Solidarity and Mechanical Solidarity
4]
[Peace,
Love, and Understanding (What's So Funny About...?)
1]
[Peasant
and Proletarian Religiosity
3]
[Philosophy
of Education 2]
[Political
Philosophy 2]
[Populism
and Religion 3]
[Postcolonialism
7]
[Public
Culture 7]
[Race
and Racism (in America)
5]
[Religious
Therapeutics 7]
[Revolution
and Religion 2]
[Satyagraha
3]
[Semiotics
/ Semiology 3]
[Shils,
Edward 2]
[Social
Uses of Social Science
3]
[Socialism
2]
[Sociology
of Knowledge 3]
[Sociology
of Religion 3]
[Subaltern
Studies 4]
[Sustainability
1]
[Syndicalism
1]
[Thoreau,
Henry David 1]
[Transnational
Cultural Studies 5]
[University
of Utopia 2]
[Utopian
Communities 3]
[Utopian
Social Action 4]
[Utopian
Traditions
6>>]
[Weber,
Max 2]
[Work
Ethics 8]
[World
Bourgeoisie 4]
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