Research on Sustainable Development Seminar
"Russian Understandings of Sustainable Development: Biospheres, Noospheres and Theories of Biotic Regulation"
Speaker: Jonathan Oldfield, School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, UK
Hosted by Prof. William Clark, Science, Environment and Development Group, Center for International Development
Monday, 17 October 2005
11:00 AM - 12:15 PM
Perkins Room, 4th Floor,
Rubenstein
Building, KSG
Contemporary Russian understandings of sustainable development are influenced greatly by international debate and argument associated with the Rio and Johannesburg conferences and initiatives such as Agenda 21. At the same time, both official policy documentation and social science literature allude to deeper, long-standing traditions of Russian thought concerning society-nature interaction in order to bestow policy rhetoric with greater authority and meaning. The speaker will discuss his paper exploring the substance of this tradition through an exploration of the work of key figures such as V.V. Dokuchaev (1846-1903), L. S. Berg (1876-1950) and V.N. Sukachev (1880-1967). In particular, it focuses on the ideas of V.I. Vernadsky (1863-1945) and his conceptualisation of the biosphere-noosphere evolutionary model.
Jonathan D. Oldfield is a Lecturer in the human geography of post-communist states, School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences and Associate Member of the Centre for Russian and East European Studies, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.
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©2006 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College.
Last revised
08/07/2006