Responses

The final assignment for the UBC summer course invited students to submit responses to their engagement with the 4 denials, which provided the structure for the (un)learning bundles.

The four denials are:

1.the denial of systemic violence and complicity in harm: the fact that our comforts, securities and enjoyments are subsidized by expropriation and exploitation here and somewhere else

2.the denial of the limits of the planet: the fact that the planet cannot sustain exponential growth and consumption

3.the denial of entanglement: our insistence in seeing ourselves as separate from each other and the land, rather than “entangled” within a living wider metabolism that is bio-intelligent

4.the denial of the magnitude and complexity of global challenges: the fact that most interventions are based on simplistic solutions (that make us feel and look good), paternalistic engagements, ethnocentric ideals of justice, change and sustainability

The responses could be creative, academic or “socially engaged”. Here are some of the students’ submitted responses (shared with their written consent):