Common Theme Project

Common Theme Teaching 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.

Learning Materials


Learning Objectives
  • Students will identify the principles and priorities articulated in Bill McKibben’s “Reversal of Fortune” (and the works of other selected authors) about images and values of growth, comparing those images and values with the images and values of students in the course.
  • Students will critically assess the images of growth found in media and in their own experience.
  • Students will determine how to set and judge new priorities for the relationship of society to ideas and images of growth and human values.
  • Students will analyze the relationship between priorities they set and the priorities articulated by McKibben, other authors, and students in the course.

First Class

Preparation

Assign students to read before class: McKibben’s “Reversal of Fortune” (or the Introduction and Chapter 1 of Deep Economy) and “The Problem with Economic Growth” as well as either “Moore’s law and the law of more” or "Capitalism and Moral Sentiments." Encourage students to seek out other sites with data or commentary on the relationship between growth and values and to assess the reliability and potential biases of these sources.

Structure

1. Opening 20 minutes: Growth, Image, Values, and Meaning

Definition and discussion: Open the class with a definition of economic growth as “an increase in the activity, or amounts of goods and services in an economy, often measured as rising Gross National Product” noting the positive value often associated with concepts of economic growth. Ask students for other definitions of growth, especially in relation to their values and to the images of growth found in the media and carried over from culture in general (instilled, e.g., by religious or political organizations, or by family and peers). Students might point to the way advertising offers strictly positive images of growth (in terms of the personal value of consumption of more and ‘better’ goods). Suggest that it is possible to increase the value of goods and services without consuming more natural resources or generating greater waste. Ask students to keep in mind a distinction between increased human value (of relationships and satisfying activities as well as of genuine goods and services) and increased consumption or production.

2. Middle 35 minutes: Is Greater Growth Equivalent to Increased Human Value?

Class Discussion or Small Group Discussions: Pose the question of the relationship between value and growth (using McKibben’s idea of the distinction between “More” and “Better”). Use sections one, three, and seven in McKibben’s “Reversal of Fortune” and Douthwaite’s “The Problem of Economic Growth” to note the connections between growth, image, and value. Ask students: in what ways do cultural images of growth confer value on the idea? What is the relationship between increased growth and increased satisfaction? What individuals or what segments of the population appear to be served most by positive images of growth? In what ways might positive images of growth obscure other important values? What priorities ought to guide our thinking about economic increase?

Discussion Questions on McKibben and Douthwaite:

Is growth always good? When yes? When no? (Examples could include growth as development of one’s abilities on the one hand vs. growth of a tumor on the other.) What principles and priorities do McKibben and Douthwaite articulate? How might we apply those priorities in proposing positive changes in our economy and society? What specific changes in images and values in relation to growth or purpose do they propose?

Additional Discussion Questions:

Where do you agree and where do you disagree with these priorities?
Where do you agree and disagree with one another as a class?
Do you see these disagreements as political, ideological or something else?

3. Closing 20 minutes: Getting Started Assessing the Impact of Images of Growth

Instructor proposes suggestions for relating growth to values (see esp. Sachs on “Capitalism and Moral Sentiments”) and raises a question for ongoing reflection: How do we in daily life see “More” and “Better” (or Growth and Value) tied to one another, and how might we continue to question this link in public arenas (e.g., letters to editors or political officials) and in our personal lives (e.g., use of one’s resources, career choices, use of personal time and energy)? Students are asked for suggestions about ways we might change our orientation toward growth, nationally and internationally as well as in business and personally.

Second Class

Preparation

Assign students to read before class: Jeffrey Sachs, "Capitalism and Moral Sentiments" and Thomas L. Friedman, “Moore’s law and the law of more.” Students conduct their own web and newspaper research on growth, images, and values finding three sources (including at least one newspaper or magazine article).
Students write 2-3 page paper offering suggestions about how to assess and control growth and what we might do to bring growth in line with values. Students should mention in their papers specific images that might either be discarded or prove useful in this process. Students should be encouraged both to provide evidence to support their findings and to defend their judgment concerning what can or should be done. This paper should be typed and double-spaced and ready to hand in at the start of the next class. It should give parenthetical citations and list all sources used in a “Works Cited” list.

Structure

1. Opening 20 minutes: Small Group Discussion

Break class into groups of four and have them informally debate the following idea: The U.S. should formally seek new images (in regard to social and individual aims and purposes) that might shift society’s priorities away from an emphasis on growth at all costs and toward other values (suggest that students come up with a prioritized list of other values along with suggestions concerning how those values might be made more prominent in society, in both cases a list of images currently in use and alternative images would help make the application of the shift more concrete). Ask students to note areas of agreement and disagreement as well as lists of priorities and suggestions.

2. Middle 45 minutes: Reporting Back and Seeking Common (and Uncommon) Ground

Ask students to report first on priorities and suggestions, making lists on the board (have every group name a writer at this point and get as many writers to the board at once as possible). When lists have been recorded, ask students to (1) point out areas of agreement or disagreement between lists and (2) point out connections between internal agreements and disagreements within small groups and what was discovered in point 1.

Debriefing Questions:

What were the most helpful points and the points with which you personally most disagree? What key evidence might be provided to persuade you (or others) that the listed priorities or suggestions are correct or helpful for society as a whole? What relationship do you see between the points raised in small group and larger class discussion and the ideas discussed by McKibben, Douthwaite, Sachs, and Friedman?

Moving to Consensus Questions:

What suggestions garnered the greatest level of agreement/disagreement?
What might be done to implement those suggestions and to make other suggestions more feasible or agreeable?
Is any consensus emerging about growth, image, and values?
How closely does it match the priorities offered by the authors read for both class days?

3. Final 10 minutes: Assessing Possible Public Impact

Ask students if they were satisfied with the lists of priorities and suggestions and whether they think these priorities and suggestions can be implemented.

Conclude by asking if students have any ideas for how to lobby for or otherwise help put into practice the suggestions they have produced.

Green Map Follow Common Theme on Facebook