A Paradoxical Position: Response to the commentaries

摘要

In this article, I identified some disciplinary and economizing challenges that have the potential to narrow the interdisciplinary scope of academic environmental education. My Livingston-inspired title "The Fallacy of Environmental Studies?" was posed as a question to highlight the fact that I am more interested in examining potential challenges to the interdisciplinarity of these evolving programs than suggesting some final assessment of the field. I fully agree with Sherren's (p. 56) point that "there is little to be gained by formal- ising environmental studies," whether it be a York FES model or something else. As she explains, this would amount to a disciplining tendency that will blind us to new ideas which are needed to address complex ecological issues. Rather than divining a universal model, offering a national taxonomy or undertaking a series of program reviews, my research has a more modest goal.