published by:

Institute for
Social Ecology

popular education for a free society

A History of the ISE  |   Vol. 3, No. 1

Education & Community Action
A History of the Institute for Social Ecology’s Programs

By Michael Caplan¹

merging from the proletarian socialist movements of the Old Left, infusing a distinctly libertarian ecological outlook in the rise of the New Left, social theorist and activist Murray Bookchin started to lay the foundations of a remarkable revolutionary body of work which he soon called social ecology. His pioneering book, Our Synthetic Environment, which predated Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring by five months, offered a comprehensive overview of ecological degradation and elaborated upon the need for a revolutionary decentralization of society in order to address these grave issues. By the early seventies, Bookchin’s writings were fairly well known in the US and abroad. He had published several influential books and articles including “Ecology and Revolutionary Thought,” (1964) “Towards a Liberatory Technology,” (1965) “Forms of Freedom,” (1968) the essay “Post-Scarcity Anarchism,” (1969) and “Listen, Marxist!,” (1969) all of which were then compiled into the New Left classic Post-Scarcity Anarchism (1971). Bookchin’s written work and activist engagements brought him many opportunities to address large audiences over North America and Europe.

It was when Daniel Chodorkoff, who at the time was a graduate student and teaching intern at the Vermont based progressive school, Goddard College, approached Bookchin in 1972 about filling a course at the College on technology that the history of the Institute for Social Ecology began. This newfound relationship between Bookchin and Chodorkoff had them soon planning what would be the founding conference of the ISE.

This pioneering conference set out to examine solutions to ecological problems by integrating alternative technologies with a strong social critique of anti-ecological trends and visions for a new society based on social ecology. Noted participants included John Todd, aquatic biologist and founder of the New Alchemy Institute; Karl Hess, social theorist, author and activist; Wilson Clark, energy adviser to the governor of California; Day Charoudi, a pioneer in solar architecture; Eugene Eccli, engineer and pioneer in the alternative energy network; Sam Love, noted environmental activist; and Milton Kolter, urbanologist. This highly successful conference served to assess the viability of setting up the envisioned Institute for Social Ecology. As with the conference, the ISE would act as an important laboratory for teaching and learning about the ideals that Bookchin advanced in his work.

With its nascent program in the summer of 1974, more than 100 students attended the first twelve-week program of the ISE on Goddard’s campus. The success of this program was in part due to a donated full-page ad by John Shuttleworth in the then highly influential alternative technology magazine The Mother Earth News. This foundational program combined theoretical classroom work with practical, hands-on experience, and focused on interrelated areas to provide educational and research opportunities. It was this first summer program that paved the way for more than 29 years of educational programs designed to further the mission of the ISE while providing an educational experience for people interested in radical social change.

Social Ecology n 1: a coherent radical critique of current social, political, and anti-ecological trends. 2: a reconstructive, ecological, communitarian, and ethical approach to society.

Published by the Institute for Social Ecology