On Fri, 19 Aug 1994, Michele Gale-Sinex, CIAS/ATFFI wrote:
> Howdy, all--
>
> This is a request for your quick personal reflections. I'm
> planning a panel discussion at the 1994 Rural Life Conference
> for the Churches Center for Land and People in Wisconsin (an
> ecumenical organization that champions sustainability and the
> connection between spirituality and rural life and work). The
> panel topic is: how we can work within--and around--
> educational, governmental, and other large institutions to
> create a vision (and praxis) of a sustainable relationship
> between people and the land.
>
> 2. Why work within institutions rather than other places?
Institutions can support basic research on biological/physical
questions without which we can't yet really decide what components
will make sustainable systems. Regardless of the goals (if any?)
of the institution, people within it can development knowledge and
understandings of biological systems that are vitally needed.
Outsiders can also lobby the institutions to support research
that seems needed, e.g. SARE.
Of course working other places is also important.
>
> 3. Can individuals embedded in institutions work around them to
> be effective agents of change?
Of course anybody anywhere can be an effective agent of change!
I expect that some institutions will survive and change in response
to the changes taking place in society so rapidly, others will be
to rigid and will crack like the USSR. Institutions that work for
the unity of all humans, rather than working for the advantage of
one subgroup over others seem to me to be most in tune with the
modern world. They are probably the most advantageous ones to work
within.
The last 150 years has been a period of unprecedentedly rapid change.
This will continue into the forseeable future as society changes
unimagineably or destroys itself.
>
Tom Hodges Cropping Systems Modeler ___ ___
USDA-ARS / \_/ \
Rt. 2, Box 2953-A Telephone: 509-786-9207 | |
Prosser, WA 99350 Fax: 509-786-4635 \______/^\/
USA potato tuber
============= thodges@beta.tricity.wsu.edu ========================
...photosynthesis makes the world go around... Mr. Potato Head