Multi-Dimensional Sustainability: An Exploration of Unification between Ecological & Social Consideration
Abstract
This paper addresses 1) the crucial importance of a multi-dimensional vision and approach to sustainability (Wheeler, 2000) and 2) the human responsibility to work toward that end through a transformation in consciousness and action, which ideally will assist in righting humanity’s relationships with itself, all other beings, and the biosphere. The concepts of sustainability and right relationship, as they relate to humanity’s cultural constructs, are explored. An acknowledgement of the acculturated denial that contributes to humanity’s unsustainable ways of being is followed by an examination of the corollaries between the dualities of monologic vs. dialogic communication and environmental vs. sociological foci in sustainability. Finally, the argument is made for a multi-dimensional understanding that may help facilitate transformation in our communicative consciousness and in cultures’ potential for positive change, rather than uncritical perpetuation of unsustainable paradigms.
Jordana DeZeeuw Spencer received her M.S. in Experiential Education from the University of New Hampshire and her B.A. from Yale University. She has taught in both public and private schools, nationally and internationally, ranging from Massachusetts to
California and South Africa to Greece. She is a doctoral candidate whose PhD focuses on the Social Justice aspects of Sustainability Education. 
