Engaged Ecology

Our degree programmes are designed to suit the complexities of modern life, allowing you to live where you live and work where you work, whilst studying the subject you are passionate about as a member of our wide-reaching learning community.

For this course, all the below qualifications are offered on a six-month residency model.

Some qualifications are offered part-time – these are indicated below. More about flexible learning at Dartington >

Engaged Ecology asks three fundamental questions: What is place? Who are we? And, what, then, can we do?

“The Engaged Ecology course fills a gap in education as it provides the hands-on experience and resources that are usually left to the student’s own initiative … the academic subjects are the most relevant and useful in the time we live” – Laura Pasetti, Alumna  

WHAT IS PLACE?

If the climate crisis is too enormous a problem for any of us to grasp, we all nonetheless have a relationship to place, the immediate world about us. Through various ecological practices of deep observation and immersive engagement, through making and theoretical reflection, we will question what we mean by place and discover the historical, economic, cultural and ecological entanglements that together create a sense of place. We will discover for ourselves the meaning of terms like ‘ecology’, ‘nature’, ‘anthropocene’, ‘Gaia’, ‘participation’, ‘craft’, and ‘self’.

By developing competence in various practices of making we will explore cultures of production. The exact practices will vary according to availability, but might include weaving linen fabric that’s been grown from seed and prepared at every stage by hand; or felling a tree to hand carve a cup, a spoon, or a bowl; or writing, designing, typesetting and printing a magazine. How do these practices enrich our understanding of, or highlight our dislocation from, place?

Rather than approaching these questions from an epistemological framework of ecophilosophy, Engaged Ecology builds a scaffold through the radical assertion that higher education must first and foremost be a physical engagement with our shared socioecological/material world. It is through first-hand experience of place that we build an immersively tactile ontology that will serve as the foundation for the conceptual framework we develop through the arc of the programme.

WHO ARE WE?

Using various practices, so-called ‘technologies of the self’, we will examine what we mean by ‘the self’. Can there ever be an ecological self, or are we ordained by biology, or culture, to be atomistic individuals? What happens if we entertain indigenous or posthuman ideas in which the boundaries of the self are regarded as porous? What role does spirituality play in shaping or shaking up the self? Why is it that as social beings, who come together in community, we exclude even as we include, on the basis of sexuality, gender, race, class, ability, or species even? How can we (can we even?) reconcile living in community with a decentralization of human identity? Can we fully permeate the boundary between ego and eco? By living, learning and working together in community, here at Schumacher, we will ask what we mean by community and consider how it could be done differently in the world.

WHAT CAN WE DO?

Finally, we challenge students to address how they can best act in the world. We examine theories of change, movement building, and non-violent direct action and ask if there are different ways of being ‘activists’ that do not replicate the very thing we are trying to change. Must change always involve opposition? Is there such a thing as post-activism? The dissertation gives students the opportunity to dive deeply into these questions and to begin to envisage a career path after graduation.

Throughout this radical programme we give students the space to learn experientially, to reflect on what they’ve done, to consider abstract theory, and to experiment with new possibilities. Students will be able to draw on and immerse themselves in the rich history of growers, makers, craftivists, radical thinkers, social entrepreneurs, pedagogues, adherents of alternative spiritualities, not to mention the land itself, that together comprise the Dartington experiment.

Engaged Ecology is the cutting edge of Environmental Humanities, an interdisciplinary arena that brings together leading progressive thought within science and the humanities to address the great problems of our age.

Schumacher College, along with college founder Satish Kumar, were recently awarded the RSA 2023 Bicentenary Medal in recognition of their “outstanding, regenerative and impactful contribution…… that is enabling people, places and planet to flourish in harmony.“

KEY FACTS

• Explore leading-edge thinking about the nature of being human in a more-than-human world
• Grapple with ecological problems through hands-on learning and deep reflection
• Develop the tools to become a leader in ecological, economic, and social decision-making conversations
• Fortify existing practice with a robust theoretical framework
• Be able to apply a deep and critical understanding of place in a broad range of contexts.

watch: overview of the engaged ecology programme

Qualification(s) required for entry to the MA

BA/BSc (Honours) Degree
A good first degree of UK 2.1 equivalent or higher in any subject, but preferably in the Humanities, Social or Natural Sciences. Where the degree is not obviously related to the programme candidates may be required to submit examples of their academic writing. In exceptional circumstances we will consider applications from candidates without a first degree, provided they can demonstrate an equivalent level of experience.

Other non-standard awards or experience
A willingness to play a part in the interrogating and co-creating of Engaged Ecology as an evolving discipline. Candidates will be considered with prior credited learning and prior experiences subject to interview.*

Interview requirements
All applicants are required to attend an interview, either at the College or online. During the interview we will look for: evidence of intellectual clarity during interview; a clearly formulated purpose for taking the course; focused interests and a clear understanding of the ethos and philosophy of the College; readiness and ability to live and work in a communal setting.

*For further information please contact our admissions team at admissions@dartington.org.

Graduates leave to work in:

•  NGOs: especially those tackling climate emergency
• Nonprofits: building relationships between people and place
• Permaculture: agroforestry, land management and community
• Business: making systems more resilient and regenerative
• Education: teaching in multi-disciplinary disciplines

alumni stories