sandy smith-nonini

Sustainable (adj.) See sustain (v.) . . . Sustain: 1. to keep in existence; maintain; prolong . . . 2. to supply with necessities or nourishment, or provide for . . . 3. to support from below; to keep from falling or sinking . . .4. to boost the spirits, vitality; to encourage.

My most recent research/activist interest is sustainable futures. I’ve been following the eco-village movement and peak oil debates, and in 2007 I founded a green youth organization called yikes! — Youth Involved in Keeping Earth Sustainable — We are developing an Environmental Learning Lab for high school and adult students focused on education about sustainable lifestyles and closed-loop business models. We are developing educational modules involving workshops and ongoing research/service projects.

In 2006-07 I was a Co-PI (w/ Gerald Cecil, UNC-Physics) on a $5000 Sustainable Enterprise Grant at UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School to research affordable solar hot water. We have participated in several installations and are evaluating different systems. We just installed a solar hot water system on our own house and are monitoring its efficiency. We have produced a slide show on our findings, and have held many local showings.

“YIKES!” - has been developing as a project of The Forest Foundation & Carolina Biodiesel, and is based out of a warehouse space we call “The EcoLounge” on their campus at 1404 Angier Ave. In summer 2008 I worked with a college crew on a documentary film on sustainable biofuels in N.C. YIKES! which is now at the editing stage. Several new projects are underway in Fall 2008, and we have 3 student interns. Yikes! began in Spring 2007 when I worked with students at the NC School of Science & Mathematics and CED/Watts-Busters (our neighborhood energy committee) to do a solar roofs survey of the Watts-Hillandale neighborhood. Since then we have received a $1000 grant from Project Learning Tree for a project with NC School of Science & Math students on canola as an oilseed crop for NC, and we joined NC Climate Action Network on a spring 2008 project on climate change and state policy.

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Re: Anthropological Theory – I am working on a concept I call moral ecology — which draws on emerging biosocial understandings of bodies and human/ecological cultural interaction. Along these lines I’m reading at the intersection of several fields including medical anthropology, political ecology, complexity theory, and economics. Central questions that interest me are the circumstances under which humans act in concert, and what lessons we can learn from social experiments in progress, from studies of the past, and from cross-disciplinary knowledge-bases to accelerate “conscientizacion” about sustainability (understood broadly). I’m also interested in the political ecology of energy systems and social change in human societies.

Central to being socially engaged about sustainability is new thinking about economic relationships — we need to build coalitions to resist corporate hegemony — which, in the neoliberal era, has come to undermine the public sphere and prospects for democratic governance. At the same time, we need to redirect capital toward research and the creation of markets for renewable energy and industries, and reductions in our collective Carbon footprint — which means green entrepreneurship, and campaigns for new forms of corporate social responsibility. In order to promote these goals we need alternative forms of development that are sustainable in multiple senses — socially, ecologically and economically. (In the past academics and NGOs supporting social movements have often neglected to analyze the role of energy in development, while environmentalist NGOs have often failed to build constituencies that cross lines of race and class. And progressive anthropologists have often written off any efforts to collaborate with, or interact with business. Having a viable future on the planet will depend on us overcoming these prejudices. Our kids are depending on us. See links to Natural Capitalism -e-book. and peak oil/renewable energy sites on Blogroll, far left.