Global Seminar: Sustainability & Social Entrepreneurship (Bali, Indonesia)
Join us for an info session on Tuesday, October 29th at 4:30 PM in C4C S350 to learn more!
Credits: 3 upper-division in ENVS, SOCY, and more!
This program runs in the month of July.
- Stroll through winding paths in the lush jungle and through terraced rice paddies on an herbal walk to learn about Bali’s native plants and how they’re used for traditional medicine, food and body care products.
- Visit to Tirta Empul holy spring temple, considered a sacred site to purify the soul and mind by the Balinese people.
- Morning visit to Mai Organic Farm, a community-led movement to preserve traditional and organic agricultural village life in Bali.
- Experience a presentation on the Biorock Coral Restoration Project, an amazing initiative using technology to speed the growth of coral reefs. We will also snorkel over the reefs!
- Visit with social entrepreneurs at the Makadaya Foundation, a community of changemakers in developing sustainable solutions to real social and environmental challenges in Indonesia.
This course introduces students to the histories, concepts, and crises of sustainability in the specific cultural context of the island of Bali in Indonesia. Through interdisciplinary readings and in-person visits, students will learn how a range of government, business, and civil society actors devise innovative ways to address social, economic, and environmental challenges. These "social innovations" are designed to improve human and ecosystem viability in ways that are effective, efficient, long-term, and just—the value of which accrue primarily to communities and the Earth rather than private individuals. They also serve as models that can be adapted to other cultural and socioeconomic contexts. The application of these approaches is driving the emergence of new and creative "solutionary" paradigms: policies, programs, products, services, business models, and social movements that address persistent problems and help us understand what sustainability means and looks like, not just in theory but in practice.