[Sdpg] NEW BOOK, Planet U: Sustaining the World, Reinventing the University Michael M'Gonigle and Justine Starke

[Santa Barbara Permaculture Network]

http://www.airamerica.com/ecotalk/node/255

Planet U: Sustaining the World, Reinventing the University
by Philippe Boucher on October 6, 2006 - 12:24am.

  Michael M'Gonigle, coauthor of Planet U: Sustaining the World, 
Reinventing the University talks about what huge contribution they could 
make toward sustainability.
LISTEN (12 min)

Planet U: Sustaining the World, Reinventing the University by Michael 
M'Gonigle and Justine Starke. New Society Publishers, 2006.

Planet U: Sustaining the World, Reinventing the University explores the 
unique nature of the university as a vehicle for becoming an integrated 
model of place-based sustainability. Each university is different, but each 
has attributes that no other institution has, collectively equipping these 
places with an unparalleled potential for ecological innovation and ability 
to drive regional sustainability. The historical role of the university as 
a site and catalyst of social critique and change is evolving, and Planet U 
addresses the university as the object of change as well as the agent of 
change.

Touching on everything from the development of complete campus communities 
to food security programs to innovative transportation systems, M'Gonigle 
and Starke weave together a series of best practices and examples from 
around the world. Alongside this comprehensive survey of the sustainable 
campuses movement is a narrative focus of the authors' struggle at the 
University of Victoria to catalyse complete community at their university. 
Planet U puts forth a place-based strategy to integrate everything from the 
development of green buildings to local reinvestment strategies to 
governance structures into an integrated approach for university 
sustainability.

  Distinctively, Planet U includes both a discussion of technical 
possibilities and one that addresses the underlying power issues necessary 
for "ecological governance." Universities must engage in democratic reform 
of their governance structures to enable the high degree of ecological 
innovation that they are capable of. Planet U provides the movement with 
the inspiration to begin addressing this too-often overlooked aspect of 
sustainability.

Planet U is of interest to a wide audience -- environmentalists and student 
activists, academics and administrators, business people and politicians, 
and to anyone concerned with how we can think our way out of the 
ever-escalating crises of global sustainability, and how we can act right 
now. To sustain the world, we must reinvent the university, one place at a 
time.

Michael M'Gonigle holds the Eco Research Chair in Environmental Law and 
Policy at the University of Victoria and is the founder of the POLIS 
Project on Ecological Governance.

Justine Starke has recently completed a Master in Arts in Planning at the 
University of British Columbia's School of Community and Regional Planning.

For more about Planet U: Sustaining the World, Reinventing the University 
and the Planet U movement check out: www.planetaryuniversity.org
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