Source List: To Be Updated as I get more

Legend:
gray text unknown
blue text - broad level of theory/analysis
green text - mid-level of theory/analysis (edible schoolyard theory-specific)
red text - specific/close level of theory/analysis (NOLA edible schoolyard theory-specific)

Books

• (? book?) The Edible Schoolyard. Capra, Fritjof; Comnes, Leslie; Cook, Esther; Hawkins, David; Jackson, Wes; McCullough, Yvette; Waters, Alice. Center for Ecoliteracy, 2522 San Pablo Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94702, 1999


• The agrarian roots of pragmatism. 1st ed.Thompson, Paul B. and Hilde, Thomas C.Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 2000; section: "Armen Marsoobian -- The edible schoolyard: agrarian ideals and our industrial milieu"

Journal Articles

• School-based research and initiatives: fruit and vegetable environment, policy, and pricing workshop. M Settings - Preventive Medicine, 2004 - Elsevier


• Hungry for change: chef Alice Waters is convinced that the path to awakening students' minds to their environment is through their stomachs, so she's helped them build a schoolyard--and make it edible. (education). Jennifer Bogo. Audubon 104.2 (March-April 2002): p30(4). (1848 words)


• Environmental Justice Education: Empowering Students to Become Environmental CitizensJ Peloso - Penn GSE Perspectives on Urban Education, 2007


• Shpard, P.M., Northridge, M.E., Prakash, S. & Stover, G. (2002). Preface: Advancing environmental justice through community-based participatory research. Environmental Heath Perspectives, 100 (20), 139-140


• Agrawal, A. "Enchantment and Disenchantment: The Role of Community in Natural Resource Conservation." World Development 27.4 (1999):629-.

Other

• [website]: http://www.edibleschoolyard.org/


• [website]: http://www.esynola.org/


• [website]: http://www.ecoliteracy.org/


• Bullard, R.D. (2002). Second National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit: Executive summary. Retrieved October 20, 2007 from http://www.ejrc.cau.edu/summit2/summit%20exec%20sum%202002.pdf


• The Center of Ecoliteracy. (2003). Education for sustainibility: Findings from the evaluation study of the Edible Schoolyard. Retrived October 20, 2007 from http://www.ecoliteracy.org/publications/pdf/ESYFindings-DrMurphy.pdf


• [citation??] Findings from the evaluation study of the edible schoolyardJM Murphy - 2003 - Berkeley, CA: Center for Ecoliteracy


• [CITATION] Greening Inner-city Schools: The Edible Schoolyard and Student AchievementBR Eichorn - 2005 - Whitman College


• [newsletter?] Land Use, Healthy Eating and Health Disparities Case StudiesCC JCNI, W Fargo - cahpf.org. Community Garden: Martin Luther King, Jr., Middle School Edible Schoolyard


• [article?] Urban community food systems and the role of permaculture. Accessed 10/24/07 http://www.regional.org.au/au/soc/2002/3/gamble.htm

Universitas

Only related to that fact that I'm in a large university for the first time in a long while, I'm overcome lately at how clear the synergistic effects of pooling human ingenuity can be. I think I'm lucky to be at the LBJ school in particular (I've been in equally demanding, but much more competitive academic settings in the past, and I would never have been inspired to write a post like this about them). The cooperative learning environment is what I believe will make the most significant social contribution. Possibly the more competitive law and business schools will bring greater achievement of a certain kind to the individual students, but I wonder at how much new ground is covered when "networking" there has different connotations from what I describe below.

This feels obvious, and will be obvious to anyone already at the university. But just think! Individuals who have amassed a great deal of knowledge, in some cases a lifetime's worth, every day stand for 3 hours and try to pour this knowledge into as many ears as can sign up for courses. But not only that, a TA or even student, for instance, can make their own connections between wildly disparate classes they are taking, and the idea can spontaneously emerge, not necessarily because the student is intellectually superior, but because they are exposed to a rare combination of ideas. I think pinpointing that the student does not necessarily have to be a genius to have a significant idea or contribution really shows the way in which they are a node in a system, that their community is as much responsible for the burgeoning idea as the individual herself (or himself).

I know we talked about this in the first two classes, and I think in some ways the focus on pragmatism and land-grant universities, as well as my natural distaste for elitist ideas, made this concept not as obvious to me. But, as Professor Rhodes said, "how do we be elite without being elitist?" We clearly have to recognize that a university is a great resource, but by no means the only one. We also need to make sure that these brilliant, spontaneously-generated ideas make it outside of the university setting, where they can actually be of use.

Incidentally, from Wikipedia:
The word university is derived from the Latin universitas magistrorum et scholarium, roughly meaning "community of teachers and scholars".

Capra: Hidden Connections [book]

Concept/Connection 1

Recognize that there is an important link between matter and process. This is a departure from the Cartesians (starting with "I think therefore I am") who see the brain and the mind as separate areas of study. Capra argues that they truly are aspects of one and the same system.

Similarly, The Santiago Theory of Cognition connects this process of cognition with the essense of life itself. With this and other series of metaphor, I think Capra is drawing the conlucsion that just as humans (a collection of cells working together) are a life form, a social network or community (a collection of humans working together) is also a life form in its own right.

In this same argument for what constitutes life, he seems to stress that pure cognition is not really what defines it, any more than DNA or RNA (which he argues out of the picture earlier on). Therefore, as I see his arguments laid out, a social network itself would be more of a life form than a truly conscious AI, or computer program that could exactly mimic every neuron capability in a human's brain.

Concept/Connection 2:

Process

/ \

Form ---- Matter

These are the three aspects that define anything. The fourth, overarching aspect which connects to all of them is Meaning (I can't draw the pyramid of the four aspects here, however), though meaning wasn't considered a legitimate aspect of the study of social sciences until the positivists of the time eased up on the "measuring" (echoes of the Capra article of weeks ago with the unhelpful stress on the measuring of things, which generally focuses on the 'matter' or sometimes 'form' because they are easiest to quantify and describe).

Interesting quote and example about the work of Giddens, who was one of the first to transition to more integrative theories of studying social phenomena:

The interaction between social structures and human agency is cyclical, according to Giddens. Social structures are both the precondition and the unintended outcome of people's agency. People draw upon them in order to engage in their daily social practices, and in so doing they cannot help but reproduce the very same structures.

For example, when we speak we necessarily draw upon the rules of our language, and as we use language we continually reproduce and transform the very same semantic structures. Thus social structures both enable us to interact and are also reproduced by our interactions. Giddens calls this the "duality of structure," and he acknowledges the similarily to the circular nature of autopoietic* networks in biology.

p78-79

*(simply, things that can create, or in this case continually re-create, themselves; this is what Capra feels is the defining characteristic of life)

Other

A section on power notes that having authorities (those that have the knowledge to make a decision and act) are sometimes necessary in a group which may encounter conflicts of interest. It is not by nature an evil, but if power passes to someone who is not an authority, it ceases to be helpful and becomes potentially exploitative.

While I found the other chapters interesting, I mostly skimmed them because I think the most clear ideas he has here relating to community and social theory are above. If I had more time, I would write up on the chapter "The Networks of Global Capitalism," as I am finding myself drawn again and again to this idea of "global community" (and finding in what ways that is not an oxymoron). However, for the scope of this class, and what I am trying to focus my research topic on, I will hold off :)

First Microbes, Now Plants!

Clever plants chat over the network

This is just a brief brainwave because I don't feel it's particularly on-topic. But a lot of articles recently have really made me question our assumptions about the distinctions we as humans make between life-forms. But between microbes and plants (above link) forming these networks, to the recently dead parrot with the intelligence of a child (how intelligent are other animals that simply can't express themselves in human sounds?), I really am rethinking a lot of things. And this is coming from someone who for 15 years has been a vegetarian for moral reasons. I think a lot of this has also been informed by Capra's book, but more on that in its own post.

Susan Strange; Global Change and Theoretical Challenges ch9 "Toward a Theory of Transnational Empire";

US hegemony has not declined, as some think it has looking at the chaos of the world around it. Arguement is that it's the misuse of the structural power (undiminished) of the US hegemony that has caused the problems.

Structural Power: (as opposed to relational power, getting another country to do what you want) the ability of a country to determine the way in which certain basic social needs are provided.

Four societal needs for modern world economy: security knowledge production credit.

Production: the kind of purely polictical command (socialist) is shrinking; Entirely market-signalled (some basic food markets) is shrinking; geared towards national markets (governments can adjust with policies); transnational corporations (TNGs). Any TNGs have a significant interest in not pissing off Washington b/c of the huge market share of the territorial US

Argues that US structural power not import/export numbers reliant, but if it can be estimated at all, it is the total alue of goods and service produced by large companies responsive to policy decisions taken by the US govt.

Knowledge: power to determine what knowledge shall be sought. Eg, the continued dominance of US in most of hte high-tech industries. US banks in transborder data flows.

Security: The only structure where US shares power (ie with the USSR at the time). rest of the world relies on either US or USSR as balance, backup.

Argues we need to redefine empires, both in their simple meaning, and in whether we view them as "bad." The American nonterritorial empire preferable to a Soviet or Japanese one. Easier to integreate into American society (as 'semicitizens' can tell you).


This article is rather old, but I wonder if she is addressing the direction of the US's power. Now it would be especially interesting to take that into account with Russia and China re-emerging.

This lady sure is high on America! Would she be surprised to find out other countries have nationalistic slogans, none of which are "We're #2"?

Washington Post; "In Syrica, Iraq's Fate Silences Rights Activists"; Knickmeyer; Oct 2006

Syria, the last Baath-rule country, now isolated since the assassination of the Lebanese PM, now is even less likely to risk discussion of democritizing their country. Firstly because crackdowns are harder (talk of democracy is siding with US=traitorous), but also because at least things are better in Syria than they are in Iraq.

Washington Post; "Embittered Insiders Turn Against Bush"; Baker; Nov 2006

Even some fellow-war-architects turn against Bush on the management of the war. Republicans angry at the midterm defeat--feel if Rumsfeld had been fired earlier, the election would have gone differently. Perle: "If I had know n that hte US was going to essentially establish an occupation, then I'd say, 'Let's not do it,' and instead find another way to target Hussein." Though some say these neocons are just trying to avoid culpability for the war.

Adelman "The whole philoscopy of using American strength for good in hte world, for a foreign policy that is really value-based instead of balanced-power-based, I don't think is disproven by Iraq. But its certainly discredited."

NYT; "Iraq may be prime place for training of militants, CIA Report concludes"; Jehl; 2005

"A new classified assessment by the CIA says Iraq may prove to be an even more effective training ground for Eslamic extremists than Afghanistan was in Al Aaeda's early days, because it is serving as real-world laboratory for urban combat." So those who survived are particularly experienced in urban combat.

Washington Post; "US Figures Show Sharp Rise in Terrorism-State Dept will not put Data in Report"; Glasser; Apr 2005

Because of the sharp increase in reported terror activity, the numbers were not included in a report to congress on the success of the war. Rice et al argued the definition changed, to be more inclusive, so comparing data year to year not accurate. Numbers made public otherwise, just not in report.

San Francisco Chronicle; "In these times, do as ancient Romans did--and survive; negotiate with foes, slash committments"; Arquilla; 2005

Our sense of dominance since becoming the sole military superpower has been more of one of siege--constant small battles. But our military is less flexible than it was for it's post-Pearl Harbor transformation.

Look to Rome at a similar time: "At the political level, Rome sought not to alienate but to attract" (soft power).

"If we muffled our rhetoric about spreading democracy, the world would breathe a huge sigh of relief."