Santa Barbara Thurs Feb 13 7:30-9:00pm Ayni Gallery Book Tour
Karen Litfin, Ph.D. Professor of Political Science and Environmental Studies University of Washington.
Author of Ecovillages: Lessons for Sustainable Community
In a world of dwindling natural resources and mounting environmental crisis, who is devising ways of living that will work for the long haul? And how can we, as individuals, make a difference?
To answer these fundamental questions, Professor Karen Litfin embarked upon a journey to many of the world’s ecovillages – intentional communities at the cutting-edge of sustainable living. From rural to urban, high tech to low tech, spiritual to secular, she discovered an under-the-radar global movement making positive and radical changes from the ground up.
Not only is another world possible, it is already being born in small pockets the world over. These micro-societies, however, are small and time is short. Fortunately – as Litfin persuasively argues – their successes can be applied to existing social structures, from the local to the global scale, providing sustainable ways of living for generations to come.
Karen Litfin, Ph.D. is a professor of political science and environmental studies at the University of Washington. She grew up in Pittsburgh and Baltimore, received a B.A. and M.A. from University of Maryland, and then a Ph.D. from UCLA. Karen is a mother, an introspective activist, an avid bicyclist and hiker, and a second-rate gardener. In her research and teaching, Karen takes a “person/planet politics” approach, which entails integrating the intellectual, emotional, practical and contemplative dimensions of sustainability.
Karen’s first two books were Ozone Discourses: Science and Politics in Global Environmental Cooperation (Columbia University Press, 1994) and The Greening of Sovereignty in World Politics (MIT Press, 1998).
Cosponsors: Santa Barbara Permaculture Network, Santa Barbara Time Bank and Sama