Articles and Ency Entries by Todd LeVasseur
Cosmos and History: The Journal of Natural and Social Philosophy, 2024
The Anthropocene puts humanity within the continuum of long-running Earth processes, but what doe... more The Anthropocene puts humanity within the continuum of long-running Earth processes, but what does it mean to be violent in deep time? This article aims to redefine violence for the Anthropocene. It does so by first examining the temporal dimensions of violence, where violence is claimed to be a historic and stratigraphic phenomenon, as much as it is present, immediate, and abrupt. Violence is relational, slow, and often accumulating, but there exists also violence that is stratigraphic, which bears the witness of and that will impact organisms and ecosystems other than us, the humans, in the distant future. Second, the article links violence to violation, and shows how violence is an evaluative term. In short, this means that violence should always be treated on a case-by-case basis. Third, the article posits that the notion of violence should be extended to the more-than-human world, as other beings, habitats, landscapes, and ecosystems can be, are, and have repeatedly been violated by human actions. Following these claims, the article proposes a non-anthropocentric definition of violence as encounters entailing the use of force that violates life-supporting processes. For reducing violence in ecosystems, the article calls for a withdrawal from the industrial-capitalist megamachine and placing more emphasis on the provisioning of fundamentals of life and other collective efforts advancing an ecological civilization.
Cosmos and History: The Journal of Natural and Social Philosophy, 2024
Currently there is significant disagreement among climate scientists about how much aggregate glo... more Currently there is significant disagreement among climate scientists about how much aggregate global temperature is likely to change by the end of the century, and what the direct impacts such changes will look like. There is also to date little sustained systematic discussion, including within academia, and within that, amongst environmental humanists, of the extent to which climate change poses a challenge for human civilization as a whole. Given the disagreement about temperature rise and its impacts, how should interested non-specialists approach these crucial issues that depend upon a baseline knowledge of climate science and predicted scenarios generated by international bodies such as the IPCC? Given the importance of credible threats to civilization from various global heating scenarios, how should we engage seriously with such an interdisciplinary issue? In this article we present and model a dialogue between two environmental humanists, where the dialogue is based on incommensurate views regarding perceived climate futures and their impacts on global civilization. One interlocutor is a philosopher with a background in environmental ethics, who tends to accept the projections of large assessments like that of the IPCC. The other is a religion and nature scholar who accepts that such large assessments are likely too conservative in their predictions about the impacts of climate change come 2100 CE. In doing so, we rehearse the substantive issues of debates around temperature rise and climate change's risk to civilization in language aimed at non-specialists. We also explore various meta-level questions about how non-specialists should best engage with these debates within the academy.
Open Cultural Studies, 2024
This article invites readers to rethink the presence and role of soil by creating a soliumpoietic... more This article invites readers to rethink the presence and role of soil by creating a soliumpoietics, without which terrestrial plant life itself struggles to occur. It utilizes both materialism/material agency and hyperobject lenses to analyze soil. In so doing it argues that these lenses may provide a more holistic understanding to better theorize soil as an agential and interobjective other, without which civilization would most likely rapidly collapse. It undertakes this exploration within the context of rapid climate change and global heating, which threatens the survival of many soils (and thus plants), too. These alarming scenarios have severe implications for the academy, broadly, which the article argues scholars must attend to within their teaching and researching, including new research regimes on plant-based caloric lifeways, especially where such lifeways are regenerative to soil, plants, and thus, the human.
Climate Risk Management, 2023
Universities have an unrivaled potential to educate students on climate change issues and to acti... more Universities have an unrivaled potential to educate students on climate change issues and to actively engage them in climate affairs, both as citizens and influencers of future professions. Despite this potential and the many advantages of university student engagement in climate change, less emphasis has been given to understanding their attitude and perceptions towards climate change, in a way that may guide changes in the curriculum and teaching practices. Based on the need to address the existing literature gap, this article assesses university studentś attitudes and perceptions toward climate change at the international level. This study comprises a survey of a sample of universities across the world and uses statistical analysis to identify the most important trends across geographical locations of the universities. The study revealed that university students are aware of climate change and associated risks. The university students believe that climate change education is a means to shape their attitude and equip them with relevant skills and knowledge so as to influent others. The awareness of university students is inextricably linked to their field of study and participation in various climate change events. Furthermore, the student’s knowledge of climate change risks varies across gender, age, and academic education. The study provides recommended universities to include climate change issues in their curricular and extracurricular programs so as to prepare future professionals to cope with the far reaching challenges of a climate change.
Sustainability, 2022
Sustainability reports are regarded as important tools in offering information about the environm... more Sustainability reports are regarded as important tools in offering information about the environmental, social, economic, and institutional performance of an institution, and in demonstrating a commitment to matters related to sustainable development. But even though sustainability reporting has been used by a variety of higher education institutions to date, it is not as widely practiced as it should be. To further investigate this topic, a twofold approach was used: a study focusing on sustainability reporting approaches deployed in a sample of 30 universities across a set of countries; and a survey with a sample of 72 universities from different global regions to assess the extent to which they are deploying sustainability reporting as part of their activities. The scientific value of the paper resides in the fact that it offers a comprehensive overview of the subject matter of sustainability reporting, and how higher education institutions handle it. It also outlines the efforts in developing these documents which may catalyse further progress in this key area.
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative... more This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY
Journal of Cleaner Production, 2022
Research connections between spirituality and sustainability and a general agreement about the us... more Research connections between spirituality and sustainability and a general agreement about the usefulness of including spiritual aspects in sustainability teaching and research practices. However, there are some elements which hinder progress in this area, such as a common understanding of spirituality definition and an apparent lack of training to handle matters related to spirituality as part of teaching and research. The study presents actions to promote a better integration of sustainability and spirituality, which include a greater emphasis on matters related to sustainability, human well-being, and ethics, a part of initiatives on spirituality, and involvement of key stakeholders.
Handbook of Sustainability Science in the Future, 2022
Most sustainability analyses of the future privilege the urban in future scenarios of climate cha... more Most sustainability analyses of the future privilege the urban in future scenarios of climate change at the expense of providing scenarios about the future of the rural, in part because rural regions provide the urban with most of its resources. It is also expected that urban regions will potentially account for up to 70% of the global population by 2050 so most future scenarios of sustainability focus on such regions. Given this over privileging of the urban in sustainability studies, this chapter instead presents a condensed overview of three possible future scenarios of rural areas beginning in 2050 and beyond. Each scenario correlates with a different level of possible human-caused global warming and the correlated implications of possible sustainability in rural areas depending on how hot the earth will become by the end of the century. A variety of social, environmental, and economic metrics are briefly analyzed, with their implications for sustainable futures in rural areas analyzed and discussed.
Environmental Sciences Europe, 2022
Background: This paper presents a review of the literature and trends related to social values an... more Background: This paper presents a review of the literature and trends related to social values and sustainable development and describes a set of case studies from a variety of community-based projects which illustrate the advantages that social values bring about as part of efforts to promote sustainability. Three approaches were used to develop this study: a bibliometric analysis of the topic "social values and sustainable development", an analysis of case studies that concretely present 1 community projects addressing social values and sustainability, and the development of a framework linking up bibliometric clusters and the cases studies. Results: While the bibliometric analysis revealed clusters where social values are strongly connected with sustainable development, the case studies indicated the lack of a common terminology and understanding of the relation between social values, sustainable development, and community-based projects. Conclusions: The study concludes by suggesting a set of measures that could be deployed to better take social values into account when planning policies or making decisions related to community projects.
International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Ecology, 2020
Private universities also play a key role in the sustainability debate. But despite their importa... more Private universities also play a key role in the sustainability debate. But despite their importance, there a shortage of research on how sustainability is being implemented at private universities. Based on the need to address this gap, this paper investigates the nature and diversity of sustainability-based practices undertaken at private universities. It outlines the ways private universities see and perceive sustainability, and examines by means of a survey involving 10 universities from across all geographical regions which educate over 150.000 students, how these universities incorporate sustainability-related practices, as part of their operations. The results suggest that, unlike their public counterparts, about half of the respondents stated that they do not have projects undertaken to promote sustainability in local communities or in their respective regions. Also, some private universities perceive themselves as leaders in sustainability in higher education, while some are still developing a more robust sustainability profile. The conclusions of the paper are that the special features related to sustainable development teaching and research at private universities need to be better identified, in order to involve them more on sustainability efforts. Also, whereas many of them are highly engaged on improving energy efficiency, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, promote sustainable water usage and promote sustainable landscaping, there is a need for them to also engage in other areas. Finally, private universities should engage on further efforts to increase their sustainability activities, which are beneficial to them in financial terms, as well as in respect of their image and their operations.
Worldviews: Environment, Culture, Religion, 2021
This article presents 29 theses, in the lineage of Bruce Lincoln’s theses on method, to help thos... more This article presents 29 theses, in the lineage of Bruce Lincoln’s theses on method, to help those teaching religion and nature navigate what it is to do such teaching in the context of the Anthropocene and global warming. With these in place it provides a dialogue between the educational theories of Paulo Freire and Jonathan “JZ” Smith. This dialogue helps to reflect upon the role of activism in the religion and nature classroom, given the 29 theses. A critique of higher education’s inability to quickly adapt to new planetary biogeochemical baselines is the container within which the dialogue and theses are articulated.
Environment, Development and Sustainability, 2021
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a global crisis, one which also influences the ways sustainabili... more The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a global crisis, one which also influences the ways sustainability is being taught at universities. This paper undertakes an analysis of the extent to which COVID-19 as a whole and the lockdown it triggered in particular, which has led to the suspension of presence-based teaching in universities worldwide and influenced teaching on matters related to sustainable development. By means of a worldwide survey involving higher education institutions across all continents, the study has identified a number of patterns, trends and problems. The results from the study show that the epidemic has significantly affected teaching practices. The lockdowns have led to a surge in the use of on-line communication tools as a partial replacement to normal lessons. In addition, many faculty teaching sustainability in higher education have strong competencies in digital literacy. The sampled higher education educations have-as a whole-adequate infrastructure to continue to teach during the lockdowns. Finally, the majority of the sample revealed that they miss the interactions via direct face-to-face student engagement, which is deemed as necessary for the effective teaching of sustainability content. The implications of this paper are twofold. Firstly, it describes how sustainability teaching on sustainable development has been affected by the lockdown. Secondly, it describes some of the solutions deployed to overcome the problem. Finally, the paper outlines the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic may serve the purpose of showing how university teaching on sustainability may be improved in the future, taking more advantage of modern information technologies.
Nova Religio, 2020
ABSTRACT: This article argues that the religious thought and rituals of
Reverend Billy Talen are ... more ABSTRACT: This article argues that the religious thought and rituals of
Reverend Billy Talen are a form of dark green animist religion and
function as a response to perceived human destruction of the biosphere. An overview of environment-centered religions mobilized by
concerns over planetary metrics is presented, followed by a case-study
analysis of Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping. It is argued
that the religion espoused by Reverend Billy is an example of how
contemporary concerns for environmental and social health are influencing contemporary religious thought and production. The religious
activism of Reverend Billy and his church, aimed at liberating life from
“consumerism” and fundamentalism, presents an “ideal type” example
of the development of Earth-centered protest religions that may be
found at the margin of capitalist society. As evidenced by Reverend
Billy, aspects of this religious development will be predicated upon
anti-globalization discourses and concerns for ecosystem health and
sustainability.
Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, 2020
Through a novel survey instrument, we examined traits and characteristics that various scholars a... more Through a novel survey instrument, we examined traits and characteristics that various scholars and observers have averred promote or hinder proenvironmental behaviors. We found that those who hold anthropocentric and monotheistic religious views, and express low levels of environmental, religious, and cosmic humility, are less likely to engage in proenvironmental behaviors than those who maintain views, or express affinity with affective traits, values, and spiritual understandings, that are ecocentric, Organicist/Gaian, pantheistic, animistic, and that in general reflect humility about the human place in the world.
Sustainability, 2019
This article presents a case study of innovation in sustainability education in higher education.... more This article presents a case study of innovation in sustainability education in higher education. It does so by explaining the to-date progress of a multi-year reaccreditation process begun in 2016 for the College of Charleston (CofC), a public liberal arts and sciences university in Charleston, South Carolina of approximately 10,000 undergraduates and 1300 graduate students. The question addressed is how can a higher education institute strategically embed sustainability literacy that is focused on social/environmental engagement, in a way that contributes to measurable student learning gains? We argue that the leverage point of institutional reaccreditation provides a strategic entryway into embedding such sustainability across curricular and co-curricular settings in innovative capacities. We do so by discussing how sustainability education was implemented into a co-curricular civic engagement program, alternative break, to build students' sustainability literacy at the College of Charleston. The article concludes by reflecting on lessons learned at CofC on how to use institutional reaccreditation as a driver of sustainability education through civic engagement in an era of socio-ecological collapse.
Deep Green Resistance (or DGR) is a US-based radical environmental group that calls for 'decisive... more Deep Green Resistance (or DGR) is a US-based radical environmental group that calls for 'decisive ecological warfare' (DEW) that is motivated by naturalistic forms of nature spirituality and biocentric moral sentiments. Exceptionally militant, its advocates champion both aboveground and underground resistance to industrial capitalism, viewing sabotage and violence as a necessary tactic, grounding its views in both apocalyptic and millennial themes. To understand this movement, one must apprehend the ways its ecological, political, and spiritual understandings blend in ways that justify its advocacy of extreme means of ecological resistance.
The Transition Movement is based on the premise that the dual threats of Peak Oil and anthropogen... more The Transition Movement is based on the premise that the dual threats of Peak Oil and anthropogenic climate change require humans to rethink and redesign how they live, with the focus becoming the creation of resilient, sustainable communities. The first Transition Town was created in Totnes, UK, in 2005, and there are now Transition Towns worldwide. Using qualitative research methods, we explore the understudied affective, normative, and religio-ethical motivations of those engaged in the Transition Movement located in Totnes. Our research suggests that the Movement is guided by norms and ethics that are ecocentric, where nature is revered because it is made sacred in some way, and members can be classfied as being part of a larger, emergent terrapolitan citizenry. We also brifley explore how the values and ethics of those in the Transition Movement trigger lifestyle changes which are more ecologically responsible than those offered by contemporary industrial societies.
This paper approaches thinking animals via the animal humanities, focusing on the conflicting mea... more This paper approaches thinking animals via the animal humanities, focusing on the conflicting meanings ascribed to domesticated cattle: are they destroyers of the environment, or saviors of the planet? By investigating narrative tropes, especially those grounded within the at times competing and overlapping worldviews of religious environmentalism, biodynamic agriculture, and sustainable agriculture, this paper explores the iterative interaction between how cows are conceived, and thus managed, in relation to human-nature interactions. Management questions may include: Who can kill a cow, when, why, and for what purpose? How should cows be raised and treated? Do cows have their own form of intelligence, and even spiritual intelligence? Are cows a leading cause of climate destabilization and deforestation, or can they help avert runaway climate change? Should cows be the entry point into animal abolitionism? Investigating the competing answers to these and other such questions is important, for if humans are to have any form of functional habitat that enables the flourishing of human and non-human lifeforms in the coming decades, then how humans conceive of, manage, and interact with other lifeforms, especially in the context of religion and agriculture, matters. Emerging metrics suggests that the narrative, ethical, religious, and biological understandings of non-human evolutionary kin in the dawning Anthropocene will be fluid and contested. Therefore, scholars must be prepared to interpret and analyze emergent meanings that will be ascribed to other lifeforms on a climate changed planet. Investigating cows—their labor, their environmental impacts, their role in shaping human societies and providing calories, the art of interacting with them on agricultural fields— presents a chance to rethink the human in a world of limits. Resumen Este trabajo analiza los animales pensantes a través de las humanidades animales, centrándose en los significados conflictivos atribuidos al ganado domesticado: ¿son destructores del medio ambiente, o salvadores del planeta? Al investigar los tropos narrativos, especialmente aquellos basados en las visiones del mundo, a veces rivales y superpuestas, del ecologismo religioso, la agricultura biodinámica y la agricultura sostenible, se explora la interacción iterativa entre cómo las vacas son concebidas y gestionadas en relación con las interacciones entren el ser humano y la naturaleza. Las preguntas de gestión pueden incluir: ¿Quién puede matar a una vaca, cuándo, por qué, y con qué propósito? ¿Cómo deben ser criadas y tratadas las vacas? ¿Tienen las vacas su propia forma de inteligencia, e incluso de inteligencia espiritual? ¿Son las vacas la principal causa de la desestabilización del clima y la deforestación, o pueden ayudar a evitar el cambio climático? ¿Deberían ser las vacas ser el punto de entrada en el abolicionismo animal? La investigación de las respuestas conflictivas a estas y otras preguntas es importante, ya que si los seres humanos han de tener algún tipo de hábitat funcional que permita el florecimiento de las 1 The author wishes to express deep gratitude to the reviewers who offered insightful and helpful feedback on an original submission. Their comments led to a much stronger paper. Fault for remaining deficiencies of course resides with the author.
When used in discussions of contemporary food issues, the term agrarianism most commonly refers t... more When used in discussions of contemporary food issues, the term agrarianism most commonly refers to a cumulative mix of philosophy and ethics, political platform and critique, the social critique of industrialization, the environmental critique of industrial farming, and a prescribed normative way of life. It takes as its central premise that humans are inherently tillers of soil and that they need to produce and thus consume products of photosynthesis and their derivatives, including especially livestock, in order to survive. Given this human role and the 10,000-year history of humans as agriculturalists, agrarians believe that the healthiest way to produce food for land, soil, and culture, and the healthiest way to structure society, is as self-sufficient, internally reliant farming communities that are built around the art of agriculture. For contemporary agrarians, this art should ideally employ sustainable farming practices, and there is an implicit recognition that scale-of farm acreage, of human settlement patterns, and of consumptive lifeways-matters ecologically, politically, aesthetically, and culturally. Thus, ideal agrarian communities are smaller in scale, largely independent, and based on face-to-face interaction and sharing, and they cultivate the virtues of thrift, fidelity to place, ingenuity, independence, holism, and frugality. In its most recent manifestation, agrarianism criticizes industrial agriculture, industrial culture, and the politics of consumption and perceived corporate takeover of food supplies and politics that such industrial lifeways generate.
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Articles and Ency Entries by Todd LeVasseur
Reverend Billy Talen are a form of dark green animist religion and
function as a response to perceived human destruction of the biosphere. An overview of environment-centered religions mobilized by
concerns over planetary metrics is presented, followed by a case-study
analysis of Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping. It is argued
that the religion espoused by Reverend Billy is an example of how
contemporary concerns for environmental and social health are influencing contemporary religious thought and production. The religious
activism of Reverend Billy and his church, aimed at liberating life from
“consumerism” and fundamentalism, presents an “ideal type” example
of the development of Earth-centered protest religions that may be
found at the margin of capitalist society. As evidenced by Reverend
Billy, aspects of this religious development will be predicated upon
anti-globalization discourses and concerns for ecosystem health and
sustainability.
Reverend Billy Talen are a form of dark green animist religion and
function as a response to perceived human destruction of the biosphere. An overview of environment-centered religions mobilized by
concerns over planetary metrics is presented, followed by a case-study
analysis of Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping. It is argued
that the religion espoused by Reverend Billy is an example of how
contemporary concerns for environmental and social health are influencing contemporary religious thought and production. The religious
activism of Reverend Billy and his church, aimed at liberating life from
“consumerism” and fundamentalism, presents an “ideal type” example
of the development of Earth-centered protest religions that may be
found at the margin of capitalist society. As evidenced by Reverend
Billy, aspects of this religious development will be predicated upon
anti-globalization discourses and concerns for ecosystem health and
sustainability.
In this wide-ranging collection, eminent scholars, theologians, activists, and lay farmers illuminate how religious beliefs influence and are influenced by the values and practices of sustainable agriculture. Together, they analyze a multitude of agricultural practices for their contributions to healthy, ethical living and environmental justice. Throughout, the contributors address current critical issues, including global trade agreements, indigenous rights to land and seed, and the effects of postcolonialism on farming and industry. Covering indigenous, Buddhist, Hindu, Christian, Muslim, and Jewish perspectives, this groundbreaking volume makes a significant contribution to the study of ethics and agriculture.
Examines religious communities as advocates of environmental stewardship and sustainable agriculture practices.
Writing at the interface of religion and nature theory, US religious history, and environmental ethics, Todd LeVasseur presents the case for the emergence of a nascent “religious agrarianism” within certain subsets of Judaism and Christianity in the United States. Adherents of this movement, who share an environmental concern about the modern industrial food economy and a religiously grounded commitment to the values of locality, health, and justice, are creating new models for sustainable agrarian lifeways and practices. LeVasseur explores this greening of US religion through an extensive engagement with the scholarly literature on lived religion, network theory, and grounded theory, as well as through ethnographic case studies of two intentional communities at the vanguard of this movement: Koinonia Farm, an ecumenical Christian lay monastic community, and Hazon, a progressive Jewish environmental group.