The WBUR Radio Boston program recently aired a story that illustrates the importance of the interdisciplinary thinking that is needed to foster resilient communities. It describes community opposition to an electric substation that has been proposed along the Chelsea Creek in East Boston. It is a perfect example of the difficulty of balancing social, economic, and environmental sustainability.
This ongoing dispute could serve as a case study for courses in environmental geography, geographic information systems, communication studies, community organizing, or the anthropology of power and race. It could also serve as a rich subject for thesis research by students in the Sustainable Communities program who could draw on studies in two or more of these fields.
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| Mystic-Eagle-Chelsea Reliability Project Map: Eversource |
As the journalists and guests in this radio discussion of the project indicate, the project illustrates the complexity of competing priorities and deeper questions of the processes by which decisions are made.
Graduates of our proposed graduate program in sustainable, resilient communities would be well prepared to engage in professionals or citizens in such decision-making, which promises only to become more complex over time.
