Living ‘the good life’: Sustainable, responsible and ethical lifestyles in theory and practice

Blockseminar; Bachelorveranstaltung

2

Englisch

Freitag, 14.07.17 10-17.30 Uhr c.t.

Samstag, 15.07.17 10-17.30 Uhr c.t.

Sonntag, 16.07.17 10-17.30 Uhr c.t.

Weltethos-Institut; Hintere Grabenstraße 26

Bachelor students

Vortrag 3 ECTS, Hausarbeit 6 ECTS

10. April 2017

15

Backhaus, J., Sylvia Breukers, S., Oksana, M., Paukovic, M., Mourik, R. (2013). Sustainable lifestyles: Today’s facts & tomorrow’s trends. Wuppertal Institute: Wuppertal. (Freely available online)

Laasch, O., & Conaway, R. N. (2016). Responsible business: The textbook for management learning, competence and innovation. Greenleaf: Sheffield. (particularly relevant is Chapter 17, ‘Individual Change’ available in the library of the Global Ethic Institute)

Schröder, T. (2013). Sustainability in practice: A study of how reflexive agents negotiate multiple domains of consumption, enact change, and articulate visions of the ‘good life’. Thesis University of Manchester. (Chapter 7, ‘Theories of the good life and happiness’, freely available online when searching it through Google Scholar)

Nowadays, living the good life is often understood as living a life of wealth and riches, of consumption and hedonism. While not necessarily excluding these aspects, we will explore another type of ‘good life’ an interpretation based on Aristotle’s notion of the term. The good life here is understood as one that is oriented towards a person’s values related to environmental sustainability, social responsibility and ethics. Such lifestyles may include, but are not limited to Lifestyles of Voluntary Simplicity (LOVOS); Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability (LOHAS); vegetarian, vegan and other nutrition-focussed lifestyles; cause-related consumption such as using organic and fair trade products; zero-waste, or zero single-use plastic lifestyles; lifestyles oriented towards activism, voluntarism, good citizenship, or service to others; sustainable mobility; jobs with a social, normative purpose; and lifestyles oriented towards religious or spiritual values (e.g. Buddhism, animistic/naturalistic lifestyles, Daoism,…).

In communication with the instructor, each learner will pick one particular lifestyle (of the list above or others) after signing up for the course. Each learner will then prepare a presentation about this lifestyle based on theoretical and practical sources. For preparation, a one-page summary of each presentation will be shared with the whole group approximately one month before the seminar date. In the seminar each lifestyle will then be discussed in depth with the entire group. The end-point of the presentation should be a 14-days plan for living the sustainable lifestyle, based on the sources reviewed.