Reason and Reenchantment in Cultural Change: Sustainability in Higher Education

At this critical historical juncture of environmental degradation, awareness of needed cultural change, and an emerging sustainability movement, attention to “reenchantment”—the phenomena of sensory, emotional, and nonrational ways of connecting with the earth’s living systems—strengthens our profes...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Current anthropology 2008-12, Vol.49 (6), p.1077-1098
Main Author: Barlett, Peggy F.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anthropological research
Attitudes
Cultural change
Ecological sustainability
Emotions
Environmental ethics
Environmental protection
Higher education
Institutional change
Nature
Rationality
Renewable energy
School campuses
Sustainability
Sustainability politics
Sustainable agriculture
Sustainable economic development
Sustainable economies
U.S.A
Universities
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Summary:At this critical historical juncture of environmental degradation, awareness of needed cultural change, and an emerging sustainability movement, attention to “reenchantment”—the phenomena of sensory, emotional, and nonrational ways of connecting with the earth’s living systems—strengthens our professional understanding as educators as well as our ability to contribute to institutional change. Research among participants in the Piedmont Project—a faculty development program for sustainability across the curriculum at Emory University—and among sustainability leaders in higher education across North America shows that wonder, delight, awe, and meaning are linked to both personal and political spheres of action. The experience of reenchantment can be understood in seven dimensions and provides restorative moments, fosters creativity for change, and supports a revised worldview. A stereoscopic paradigm that combines reason and reenchantment will serve an anthropology that seeks to think, in Roy Rappaport's words, “not merelyaboutthe world but onbehalfof the world.”
ISSN:0011-3204
1537-5382
DOI:10.1086/592435