Teaching Tools
The Common Theme website supplies various tools for teaching McKibben's Deep Economy.
Check out the TalkSpot blog, which features select pages from Deep Economy every week. McKibben's website offers articles and interviews. An especially good article for teaching is his Mother Jones article from March/April 2007.
Under Be Informed, there are newspaper articles from The New York Times and USA Today, a reading guide and discussion questions on Deep Economy, and related books and films. The short, provocative film, The Story of Stuff, is a great way to spark classroom conversation.
Teaching Modules
Feel free to use these two-class teaching modules in your classes, or borrow from them in creating your own.
The Value of Work and of Leisure: Competing or Complementary Ends?
Developed by: Jason T. Eberl, Philosophy, IUPUI
Intended Audience: Courses in philosophy, religious studies, sociology
View module
Growth: Images and Values For and Against
Developed by: J. Gregory Keller, Philosophy, IUPUI
Intended Audience: Courses in humanities and arts
Overall aim: Students investigate how images of growth are built into our lives, along with the values and identities that support or counter our current patterns of growth as means for producing more productive priorities.
View module
Cultures of Waste and Wealth: Toward Global Sustainability
Developed by: Deborah Biss Keller, Indiana University School of Education/University College, IUPUI
Intended Audience: Courses in anthropology, social work, international studies, and education
View module
Public Watchdog IUPUI: Evaluating the 2009 Stimulus Plan
Developed by: David Craig, Religious Studies, IUPUI
Intended Audience: Courses in public policy, economics, political science, business
View module
Win some green by helping IUPUI go green!
The deadline for the fall Common Green Contest is quickly approaching.
Have you read your pages this week?
Pp. 162 - 172: "Direct Democracy"
Latest Blog Entry
Since happiness has increased with income in the past, we assumed it would do so in the future. However, it is a fallacy. McKibben’s aim in Deep Economy is relatively modest. It is to change minds, to present a new mental model of the possible. He suggests more progress toward local economies. His analysis of localization for food, radio, and energy, can be applied to almost any commodity. If we start thinking a little differently we can do the same for our democracy.
Bill McKibben, "Pursuing Prosperity and Local Sustainability"
Monday, Nov. 9,
CE – Campus Center Room: 450
