For Dewey, these habits included awareness of our interdependence; nobody is an expert on everything.
On the positive side, however, awareness of our interdependence with nature has been sharpened by air pollution in major cities, dust storms, soil erosion, desertification and land subsidence due to extraction of groundwater.
Ironically, such a statement, when isolated from its cultural context, seems to give the nod to views of indigenous peoples as "first ecologists" and purveyors of an environmental wisdom absent in the technologically developed, industrialized "first world".4 Ecology, as awareness of the interdependence of life in ecosystems, and scientific conservation were not developed by indigenous peoples.
The title for Diamond's final chapter, "The World as a Polder", is premised on his optimistic instinct that even as the threat of ecological meltdown seems to get greater by the year, so too does our awareness of our interdependence and the need for unprecedented solidarity if we are to secure any kind of sustainable future.
Like buildings and cities, the architect believes human life requires a balance of elements, as well as an awareness of its interdependence with other forces.
It requires contextual preparation, incremental efforts, adaptive capacity, on-going resource investments, attention to human needs, and an awareness of the interdependence of intervention elements and stakeholder groups.
Mr. Lessig was interviewed last month before he was appointed special master in the antitrust case against the Microsoft Corporation, an appointment that attests to a heightened Government awareness of the growing interdependence of the codes that drive computers and societies.
Quite apart from the recognition – discussed in my earlier piece – of the advantages studying in another country can bring, it heralds a more international outlook on the part of today's students and an awareness of our growing interdependence, not just economically but in fields including disease prevention and the supply of food and water.
This new awareness of the intense interdependence within healthy economies undercuts the "rugged individualist/self-made man" story that undergirds conservative economics.
The general awareness of diverse forms of interdependence throughout different literatures yields several critical considerations.
