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published by:
popular education for a free society
A History of the ISE | Vol. 3, No. 1
A History of the
Institute for Social Ecology
Popular Education for a Free Society
he
Institute for Social Ecology was founded in 1974 by social philosopher Murray
Bookchin and cultural
anthropologist Daniel Chodorkoff. The ISE was created for the purpose of
research, education,
and outreach in the field of social ecology, an interdisciplinary perspective
that examines peoples’ relationship to the natural world, and the
prospects for a decentralized, directly democratic, ecological society.
For almost
thirty years the ISE has pursued its mission, and as a result has been
involved in
a myriad of educational programs, community organizing projects, publications,
and popular education campaigns, encompassing most of the significant issues
and movements that have been a part of the radical ecology movement.
Over three thousand students from every continent have attended ISE programs, and key activists in many of the most significant social movements of our time have been influenced by ideas they were exposed to at the ISE. For a tiny, underfunded grassroots organization in rural Vermont, the Institute has had an outsized impact. Its faculty are known internationally for their scholarship and their activism on behalf of social and ecological justice.
The two articles that follow offer an outline that, while by no means exhaustive, cover some of the highlights of the past 29 years at the ISE. The timeline of the ISE’s history gives a sense of the range and scope of the projects we have undertaken, and Brian Tokar’s article examines social ecology’s impact on social movements from the 60’s to the present. As the world enters yet another period of crisis the ideas of social ecology are more relevant than ever.
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