On Human Ecology…

“Human Ecology has taken me out of a place where results are more important than process.”

” A subsequent internal WWF report described the programme as “one of the most productive uses … I have seen” of WWF research funding, profoundly “relevant in today’s shifting sociopolitical milieu.”

Human ecology gives meaning to my work because it highlights the creative tension involved in integrating different ways of engaging with the world: analysis and action; science and spirituality; ecology and creativity; matter and meaning.  I seem to be able to combine Marxism, ecology, Christianity and feminism and still be a human ecologist

“It is a way of seeing the world in relation to us, and a way of being in the world that recognises that everything is in relationship.”

“It’s about wholeness – not leaving parts of me at the door – the integration of head, heart & hand.”

“I feel in tune with human ecology because I consider myself a ‘pattern head’ rather than a blockhead. Accordingly, I am interested in politics, culture, the environment, education, children and life.”

“Human Ecology gives you permission to start from where you stand and not be distant from your research.”

“It was an honour to be opened up to the world of Human Ecology and meet such a brilliant community of wise and mischievous people. It has since informed most of what I do – from understanding my own identity, to environmental justice community organising, to challenging the law for greater social change.”

“CHE has given me more language and clarity about the way the world is unfolding.”

“I think it is clear  that the CHE continues to run through me as a central thread in my own unfolding and development into a fuller sense of humanity and that I am infused in the knowing and ways I learned there which inevitably infiltrate my works and doings, though at times perceived by my sense of absence from those ways.”

It was an honour to be opened up to the world of Human Ecology and meet such a brilliant community of wise and mischievous people. It has since informed most of what I do – from understanding my own identity, to environmental justice community organising, to challenging the law for greater social change.”

“The CHE helps people to identify the interconnectedness of the world and the injustices that are present in the world, and supports them to find their own path of trying to address some of them.”

“The Centre for Human Ecology is not a family it is a group of varied inspirational people collaborating on work which is at cutting edge of the change needed in the world.”

“The time I spent with CHE and the people I got to know was transformational. It allowed me to focus on what made my heart sing, and where it was that i could be most effective i.e on the land.”

On the course…

“I completely had my brain overhauled – I was mind blown!”

“The Masters gave me what I now see is a fairly unique worldview, one of the few that is sufficiently systemic and inclusive so as to inform sustainability initiatives, corporate and civic, in meaningful, consciousness-changing ways.”

“The student community has been a very important part of CHE. The different ways and quality of learning that we tried to follow, which aren’t really available at mainstream universities where the focus is increasingly about pumping out results.”

“The learning community was such a special part of the CHE. It really was a community with a ‘heart’ quality and the students were amazing. There were qualities of openness, support and of valuing of each others processes.”

“The course has deepened my understanding of the dynamics of change in individuals, organisations and communities.”

“Since graduating from CHE I have found that without exception, everything I learned has proved immensely valuable. I am dedicated to spreading the insights of Human Ecology into the higher education sector and want to thank all the staff for what that they shared with me during the course.”

“I came to the course with a question: is poetry/creativity a valid form of activism (is it enough?) in the face of the ecological and social crisis we face? The answer I came to was a resounding yes, and so I graduated with a renewed commitment to writing and creative expression as a tool of political and spiritual resistance.

“The MSc affected my life in many ways! Personally, I met my partner and together we were inspired by the CHE course to put the theory we learned into practise and start the Earth Connections Sustainability Centre (on Eigg).   We try to put ecological principles into all that we do here – materials and energy we use, our relationships with ourselves and our community, linking local and global issues, the food we eat, the books we read, who we vote for… the list is endless!”