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Tagore is viewed through the medium of five books of essays which he wrote in English. Most of the essays are the texts of lectures Tagore delivered to audiences in England and America. They are important because they constitute what Tagore actually communicated to audiences and readers in the West during his tours outside India. The five books are taken chronologically in the chapters of this thesis, each one being a stage on Tagore’s journey. They are read in conjunction with information about his activities in India prior to each particular tour, his encounters during the trip, and any relevant correspondence, in order better to understand the ideas he expresses. A key finding from close study of the essays is the extent to which Tagore draws on his understanding of the evolution and special capabilities of the human species. This philosophical anthropology, or ‘deep anthropology’, is used to describe what mankind ought to be, as well as what we are. Tagore was critical of what he considered the dehumanising economic systems of the West, which were supported by educational methods that focussed narrowly on training people to participate in such systems. The ideal behind the design of Tagore’s own practical projects was a modernised and less restrictive form of traditional society, comprising networks of self sustaining villages or small communities, where children and young people are encouraged to develop their natural curiosity and creativity, and to express themselves freely with body and mind. Tagore’s approach to education and rural reconstruction, if implemented widely as he intended, could lead to a radical redesign of society, a turning of the world upside down. The aim of my dissertation is to help encourage a wider appreciation of Tagore’s pioneering work in this field.

This dissertation uses the lens of deep ecology to analyze music of 1980s America that reflects eco-centric ideologies flourishing in the late 20th century. Deep ecology, a term introduced in 1973 by Norwegian philosopher Arne Naess, argues for the intrinsic value of nature independent of the ways it may be useful, or not useful, to humans. Popularized in North America by philosopher George Sessions and sociologist Bill Devall in the 1980s, deep ecology became an influential intellectual movement that resisted the human-centric agendas of mainstream environmentalism. While late 20th-century conventional environmental movements were ultimately anthropocentric, in that they argued to preserve nature for human use, deep ecologists, and the artists studied in this project, believed humans to be equal members of a larger ecosystem. In this project, I consider three influential examples of music in light of deep ecology theories: composer Pauline Oliveros’s practice of Deep Listening, composer Philip Glass’s and director Godfrey Reggio’s 1983 film Koyaanisqatsi, and the music of New Age musician Paul Winter. Using the discourse of deep ecology to analyze these works reveals that the ways in which these musicians conceptualized ideas of sound, music, and nature are part of a larger nature-centered ecological movement that developed in 1980s America.

The organic community and settlement designs that grew from the minds of architects and theorists such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Paolo Soleri, and Alvar Aalto in the early- to mid-twentieth century are often considered unfeasible and utopian because of the societal shifts that would occur based on formal, functional and organizational changes made to a new or existing habitat. However, the principles and concepts in which Wright’s Agrarian Utopia, Broadacre City, Soleri’s Arcology, Logology, and Aalto’s post-War Rovaniemi Reconstruction Plan, are evolving and dynamic, giving humanity an outline for a better world led by architecture and planning. This research proposes that the dynamic principles and concepts for these three unbuilt settlement plans can help to bridge the human-made division between Society and Nature by engaging ideas of Deep Ecology and “Radical Indigenism.” This requires settlements that make ontological, epistemic and political shifts toward symbiosis rather than superiority and the “right for everything to live and blossom to its own capacities.” By engaging these plans and extrapolating these principles, I present the possibility that architecture, through form, function and organization, can help to entice a larger societal shift through the wider-reaching Ecological-Self and an expansion of human identity to create prolific Anthropocene communities that lead toward self- and communal-reliance and sustainability to respond adequately to the ongoing and devastating climate crisis.

Abstract: This thesis explores the post-environmentalist network of writers, artists, and thinkers known as The Dark Mountain Project. It does so by examining Dark Mountain as a literary and cultural phenomenon that has generated a burgeoning literary community and subculture of uncivilisation in response to ecocide in the Anthropocene. I implement a method of analysis drawn from the environmental humanities to examine the cultural dynamics of environmental crisis, with particular emphasis on the role of storytellers in shaping perceptions of the future. I utilize a comparative approach to measure the project’s emerging philosophy of uncivilisation against more established concepts in radical ecology, including Timothy Morton’s dark ecology and Deep Ecology. I introduce the concept of negative eco-aesthetics to describe the quality of darkness and negativity that characterizes Dark Mountain’s uncivilised writing, and demonstrate how such writing can reinvigorate our current inability to imagine possible futures beyond the current forecast of collapse.

Scholars often speak of Olivier Messiaen’s (1908-1992) use of birdsong as inspiration in his compositions. The avian vocalizations he dictated and catalogued while traveling throughout France and the world make appearances throughout his oeuvre. Other well documented influences upon his music include landscape and religion. In order to better comprehend the ecological, religious, and political underpinnings of Olivier Messiaen’s musical output, one must deduce how he drew upon nature and religion as inspiration. I propose that such an understanding can be reached through an in-depth examination of Messiaen's Des canyons aux étoiles . . . (1971-1974). Through analysis of Messiaen’s composition and cultural context, this study sheds light on the fundamental relationship between Des canyons, natural soundscape, and American environmentalism. It thus provides a culturally relevant, interpretive framework for understanding issues of soundscape, landscape, and place within his work. Messiaen’s use of animal and geological inspiration demonstrates not only his interest in adapting the music of nature for artistic purposes, but also his advocacy for a sustainable relationship between humanity and the non-human world. In so doing, Messiaen utilized his subjective experiences in wild locations as a symbol for this peaceful human-nature relationship. Des canyons aux étoiles . . . contains a coded environmentalist political message informed by Messiaen’s own experiences of nature and a spiritual imperative to glorify God’s creation.

The purpose of this thesis was to illustrate how cultural and natural histories inform place-based community planning. Utilizing both cultural and natural histories, the planner may begin to see patterns of habitancy as they correlate to ecological fluctuations. I focused my research on Kiowa, New Mexico the community my family homesteaded in the grasslands of Northeastern New Mexico and took an auto-ethnographic approach to conducting my research. The story of Kiowa is both unique and universal. The intricacies of the land and people are, indeed, woven into a specific place and times. It is the intersection of Place and of migration of people moving through Place that is the launching point of a dynamic, co-evolving relationship. Utilizing the story of Kiowa, we, as planners, can reference the lessons learned as seeds for future stewardship and planning endeavors. In essence, this story may be seen as a fractal of a more expansive pattern and applications to the field of community and regional planning.

I focus on a critique of the concept of progress that dominates human interaction and relationships with the non-human world. The aspects of progress I deal with are largely based on Kant’s theory of progress, the ideology of globalization, and a hierarchy between man, the environment and women. These aspects of progress are critiqued by ecofeminism, deep ecology, and eco-movements which argue for a rethinking of human relationships with the environment and women especially in agrarian communities in India. The critique delineates alternate modes of interaction with the environment that challenge hierarchies and promote recognition of humans as within the environment rather than outside it. Eco-movements help deconstruct the gap between theory and action. I argue that change is required at several levels, but most importantly change needs to come from the bottom of the social setup and move upwards which is exemplified through the example of the genetically modified Bt Brinjal seed debate and the seed saving movement, Navdanya.

This thesis explores two facets of the ancient Daoist world view and Heideggerian phenomenology. It then explores the relationship of these facets to Deep Ecology. The facets in question are: (a) a way of looking at the world without thematic lenses and (b) the ethical and normative content that comes from that perspective. Deep Ecology assumes a re-examination of the relationship between humans and the non-human world while situating itself within a normative framework. This thesis argues the facets of Daoism and Heideggerian phenomenology are constitutive of a proper foundation for Deep Ecology, i.e. they provide the basis for the re-examination and detail a normative framework.

This thesis encompasses a survey of contemporary environmental literature (1970s to the present) as it relates to the tenets of Taoist literature, specifically the Chuang Tzu and the Tao te Ching. The thesis also presents and evaluates pertinent criticisms concerning the practice of relating modern environmental problems to ancient Chinese philosophy. The thesis contains a preface that describes the historic roots of Taoism as well as an explanation of the Chinese terminology in the paper. The environmental literature is divided into three major groups and discussed in the three chapters of the paper. The three groups include mainstream environmentalists, deep ecology, and ecofeminism.

This dissertation argues that a sustainable ethic should become a fundamental principle for landscape architecture. Evidence of environmental degradation as a result of unsustainable land design and management is mounting. As a profession that promotes itself as the best people to design for the landscape, we must err on the side of caution in any decisions that could harm this landscape. Good sustainable design will fulfil both the landscape architects roles as steward of the earth and environmental artist. Sustainability is not itself a design style, it is an underlying ethic, therefore there is no conflict with any design style. Discussion of design issues raised by adopting a sustainable ethic are discussed. Case studies and examples of sustainable design on urban publicly owned land are presented. Methods found by designers and managers to be useful are described. Designing for a sustainable landscape is shown to be a viable and practical proposition.