Taught By:
Jennifer Lee Johnson
Associate Professor of Community Sustainability
Michigan State University
john8529@msu.edu
Read profile here.
Course Description:
Welcome to the vibrant field of community engagement for sustainability! This course examines the complex relationship between community engagement and sustainability towards the goal of building sustainable communities. Students in this course will develop a suite of conceptual and practical tools useful for engaging with diverse communities as sustainability-oriented professionals and concerned private citizens. Defining community and exploring multiple modes and methods of engaging with communities are thus key components of this course. The course begins with a rich overview of intersecting social, economic, and ecological systems that frame sustainability challenges across multiple communities. We then focus on a series of case studies featuring successful community engagement towards sustainable transformations and welcome several practitioners of community engagement into our classroom. We conclude by examining the role of education, action, trust, inclusion, nourishment, and governance in designing and implementing community engagement approaches and by presenting and celebrating our collaborative work together in this course. As an upper-level undergraduate discussion-based seminar that also fulfills a tier 2 writing requirement, this course requires regular and thoughtful writing and engaged student participation each and every time we meet. We will also engage with our most immediate of communities – our colleagues in this course – through thoughtful groupwork throughout the semester.
