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If sustainability is a tree, what are its branches, and where are its roots? This paper explores the where of sustainability by asking how do we, as environmental educators, balance the need for both global interconnectedness and local rootedness? Institutions of environmental education can be seen as the trunks of sustainability — locations from which branches branch and roots take root. Some such institutions highlight a place-based educational framework, others offer a more detached, global perspective. The Institute for Social Ecology (ISE) in Plainfield, Vermont is a radical (to the roots) educational institute intent on disassembling hierarchy and promulgating a holistic, reconstructive vision for humanity. The school's unique educational pedagogy attempts a combination of (global) theory and (local) practice that promotes a dialectical, process-oriented approach to sustainable living. But, how successful is the institute in bringing about this holistic vision? How far to its branches extend, and where are its roots? This paper examines the radical, reconstructive vision of the Institute for Social Ecology in Plainfield, Vermont and explores the scale(s) at which their holistic approach to social organizing operates. Using empirical data taken from participant observations and in-depth interviews, I examine the Institute for Social Ecology's success at bringing forth a holistic vision and ask whether an institutional attachment to (the local) place is necessary. In this regard, I consider how certain people, places, and positions are excluded from the institute's holistic vision, and question how all-inclusive we must be in order to develop a truly sustainable world.

Stream: Environmental Sustainability

Paper: Thinking Globally, and Acting (Trans)locally at the Institute for Social Ecology