Assignment 1 (individual assignment)

Topic: A personal and reflective essay on the prospects for a sustainable society and
how, if at all, it might be achieved.

This is an individual assignment which is intended to develop your thinking and

understanding of the debate surrounding sustainable development. The intention of
theis assessment is to allow you as individuals to become personally better informed of
the debate and arguments for a sustainable society, whether and how it might be
achieved and what role tourism is playing and can play in any such changes.

The starting point will be the chapter Can Modern-day Prophets Redirect Society? taken
from a book Environmentalists: Vanguard for a New Society, (1984) by Lester Milbrath
(to be provided to members of the class). The chapter concerns social change,
environmental threats, and whether science and technology does or does not offer the
means for a secure future for humanity and others.

It sets up two competing arguments for social change based on different and
incompatible worldviews or “paradigms”. The chapter provides the background for the
assessment, and indeed the overall course, and seeks to get you to consider where you
stand on these issues, and why. Milbrath raises a number of questions in this chapter on
the prospects for a sustainable society, and how it may be best achieved.

o Where do you stand on these issues? Why?

o Do you believe nature should be preserved or should it form the basis for
producing material goods?
o Do you believe there are limits to human and economic growth?
o Are energy and other resources constraints on human development?
o Should we accept environmental risks to promote growth?
o Are humans seriously damaging the environment?
o What role should the market, government, corporations, scientists, NGOs,
tourism businesses, and the public play in these issues?
o Who and how should we decide how we live our lives?

This assignment requires you to:

(1) Milbarth review and reflection: The identification of the issues raised in Milbrath’s
chapter, and where you personally stand on these and why.

ORDER DESCRIPTION:
I will send the file of article via e-mail for you.
(2) Lecture programme critique and reflection. The MHR280 course includes a series of
lectures, each associated with published empirical research. One of these aspects of the
course will be written up and incorporated into your reflective essay. This part of your
reflective essay will need to outline the research context (the issue/s in question),
critique the study and its findings. Then outline how this case study informs your
thinking on the issues you have identified in (1).

ORDER DESCRIPTION:

As you can see there are three articles below and I would like you to related as much
as possible with the social change or environmental threats in question number 2.

Higham, J.E.S., Cohen, S.A., Peeters, P. & Gössling, S. (2013). Psychological and
behavioural approaches to understanding and governing sustainable mobility. Journal of
Sustainable Tourism. 21(7): 949-967.

Reis, A. & Higham, J.E.S. (2009). Recreation Conflict and Sport Hunting: Moving beyond
goal interference towards social sustainability. Journal of Sport & Tourism 14(2/3):83-
108

Higham, J.E.S. & Lusseau, D. (2008). Slaughtering the goose that lays the golden egg: Are
whale-watchingand whaling mutually exclusive? Current Issues in Tourism 11(1): 75-83.
doi: 10.2167/cit335.

(3) Conclude your essay. Remember, this is a personal and reflective piece of writing
which should clearly outline your views on the issues that are addressed in this essay
(approximately 200 words).

PLEASE NOTE that when it comes to references in the text, it is very important to put
the page number in order to support your argument etc.

Thank you for your work in advance