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Dennis Clark Pirages (born July 30, 1942; Died October 1, 2020) is an American
political scientist Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...
,
environmentalist An environmentalist is a person who is concerned with and/or advocates for the protection of the environment. An environmentalist can be considered a supporter of the goals of the environmental movement, "a political and ethical movement that se ...
and former Harrison Professor of International Environmental Politics at the
University of Maryland, College Park The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of ...
, known for his work on the
environment Environment most often refers to: __NOTOC__ * Natural environment, all living and non-living things occurring naturally * Biophysical environment, the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism or ...
and
sustainability Specific definitions of sustainability are difficult to agree on and have varied in the literature and over time. The concept of sustainability can be used to guide decisions at the global, national, and individual levels (e.g. sustainable livi ...
questions.Joel Jay Kassiola. ''Death of Industrial Civilization, The: The Limits to Economic Growth and the Repoliticization of Advanced Industrial Society.'' 1990. p. 231


Biography

Born in
Davenport, Iowa Davenport is a city in and the county seat of Scott County, Iowa, United States. Located along the Mississippi River on the eastern border of the state, it is the largest of the Quad Cities, a metropolitan area with a population of 384,324 and ...
, Pirages obtained his BA from the
State University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized into 12 coll ...
in 1964, and his PhD from
Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is conside ...
in 1969.World Future Society, World Future Society Staff (2000), ''Futures Research Directory: A Guide to Individuals Who Write, Speak Or Consult About the Future.'' p. 273 In 1975 Pirages was appointed Professor at the University of Maryland. In those days he had come into prominence after co-authoring the ''ARK II: Social Response to Environmental Imperatives'' with
Paul R. Ehrlich Paul Ralph Ehrlich (born May 29, 1932) is an American biologist known for his warnings about the consequences of population growth and limited resources. He is the Bing Professor Emeritus of Population Studies of the Department of Biology of St ...
, which was published in 1974. In the late 1970s he contributed to ''
The Global 2000 Report to the President ''The Global 2000 Report to the President'' was a 1980 report commissioned by President Jimmy Carter. It warned that world population growth Population growth is the increase in the number of people in a population or dispersed group. Actual glo ...
,'' directed by Gerald O. Barney, and published in 1980. In the late 1990s Pirages also served as director of the Harrison Center on the Future Global Agenda at the University of Maryland. Until the early 2010s Pirages continued to served as Professor Government and Politics at the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences at the
University of Maryland, College Park The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of ...
. Around 2007 he had also started working at the Department of Political Science,
University of Nevada The University of Nevada, Reno (Nevada, the University of Nevada, or UNR) is a public land-grant research university in Reno, Nevada. It is the state's flagship public university and primary land grant institution. It was founded on October 12 ...
, Las Vegas. In 1988 Pirages has been elected lifetime fellow of the
American Association for Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respo ...
.


Work

Pirages is known for his political work on the environment, which according to Kassiola (1990), has long been a neglected field in
political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and ...
. Notable exceptions however are
William Ophuls William Ophuls, the pen name of Patrick Ophuls, (born 1934) is an American political scientist, ecologist, independent scholar and author. He is known for his pioneering role in the modern environmental movement. His work focuses on some of the ecol ...
, Lester W. Milbrath, Lynton K. Caldwell, Harold and Margaret Sprout, and Pirages, who all wrote extensively on the environment.


Society for Optimum Sustainability (S.O.S.)

In the year 1973–1974, Pirages took part of discussions around
Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen (born Nicolae Georgescu, 4 February 1906 – 30 October 1994) was a Romanian mathematician, statistician and economist. He is best known today for his 1971 ''The Entropy Law and the Economic Process'', in which he argu ...
, with
Kenneth Boulding Kenneth Ewart Boulding (; January 18, 1910 – March 18, 1993) was an English-born American economist, educator, peace activist, and interdisciplinary philosopher.David LatzkoKenneth E. Boulding Commentsat personal.psu.edu. Accessed 24 April 200 ...
,
Herman Daly Herman Edward Daly (July 21, 1938 – October 28, 2022) was an American Ecological economics, ecological and Georgism#Georgism and environmental economics, Georgist economist and professor at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy, S ...
and
Robert Heilbroner Robert L. Heilbroner (March 24, 1919 – January 4, 2005) was an American economist and historian of economic thought. The author of some 20 books, Heilbroner was best known for ''The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times and Ideas of the Great ...
to create a society "which Boulding tentatively called Society for Optimum Sustainability (S.O.S.)."Levallois, Clément. "Can de-growth be considered a policy option? A historical note on Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen and the Club of Rome." ''Ecological economics'' 69.11 (2010): 2271-2278. Levallois (2010) summarized, that: :"...Georgescu-Roegen argued that their envisioned society (which he would prefer to call the Bioeconomic Society, or else the Society for Environmental Economics, S.E.E.) should develop strong ties with the American Economic Association, because ''In the last analysis, our ulterior aim should be to make AEA SEE...''" These plans however faltered in 1974.


Dominant social paradigm (DSP)

In their 1974 book, entitled ''Ark II,'' Pirages and
Paul R. Ehrlich Paul Ralph Ehrlich (born May 29, 1932) is an American biologist known for his warnings about the consequences of population growth and limited resources. He is the Bing Professor Emeritus of Population Studies of the Department of Biology of St ...
contributed to the theory of social perception, and coined the term "dominant social paradigm" (DSP). This concept was defined as "a mental image of social reality that guides expectations in a society."Pirages and Ehrlich (1974;23) Pirages and Ehrlich (1974) further explained: :"... A DSP is the socially relevant part of a total culture. Different societies have different DSPs. A social paradigm is important to society because it helps make sense of an otherwise incomprehensible universe and to make organized activity possible. It is an essential part of the cultural information that is passed from generation to generation as it guides the behavior and expectations of those born into it. The
world view A worldview or world-view or ''Weltanschauung'' is the fundamental cognitive orientation of an individual or society encompassing the whole of the individual's or society's knowledge, culture, and point of view. A worldview can include natural ...
of each individual is somewhat different from that of every other, as are the shared world views of members of different families, classes, and so forth." Pirages and Ehrlich (1974) conclude, that dominant social paradigm "even within a single industrial nation, must be considered as the common content of the paradigms shared by most individuals, although it does not, of course, encompass all views of all citizens."


The Sustainable Society

In the 1977 publication, ''The Sustainable Society: Implications for Limited Growth,'' edited by Pirages, he also published the article "A social design for sustainable growth." In this work Pirages gave one of the first definitions of
sustainable growth Sustainable development is an organizing principle for meeting human development goals while also sustaining the ability of natural systems to provide the natural resources and ecosystem services on which the economy and society depend. The desi ...
, the sustainable society and its connection.Faber, Niels, René Jorna, and J. O. Van Engelen. "The Sustainability Of" Sustainability"—A Study Into The Conceptual Foundations Of The Notion Of" Sustainability"." Journal of Environmental Assessment Policy and Management 7.01 (2005): 1-33. Pirages (1977;10) started, that: :"
Sustainable growth Sustainable development is an organizing principle for meeting human development goals while also sustaining the ability of natural systems to provide the natural resources and ecosystem services on which the economy and society depend. The desi ...
is a difficult concept with which to deal, but it seems to be the best guide to the future that we have at present. It means
economic growth Economic growth can be defined as the increase or improvement in the inflation-adjusted market value of the goods and services produced by an economy in a financial year. Statisticians conventionally measure such growth as the percent rate o ...
that can be supported by physical and social environments for the foreseeable future. An ideal sustainable society would be one in which all energy would be derived from current solar income and all nonrenewable resources would be recycled." Around the same time Robert L. Stivers had also published a pioneering work on the sustainable society. Another notable definition of the sustainable society was given by James C. Coomer Coomer (1979) described the sustainable society as a society "that lives within the self-perpetuating limits of its environment." According to Faber et al (2005) both perceptions of a sustainable society are static, and have the shortcoming that they don't take into account possible changes of the physical and social environments.


World views

Prager (1990) argued that Pirages contributed with a different
world view A worldview or world-view or ''Weltanschauung'' is the fundamental cognitive orientation of an individual or society encompassing the whole of the individual's or society's knowledge, culture, and point of view. A worldview can include natural ...
. Prager summarized, that: :"... Pirages has written extensively on the underlying bases of this current age. His work has been among the most important published in the political/ environmental field. Pirages has analyzed, as part of an overall understanding of environmental threat and challenge, the impact that dominant scientific paradigms exert in contemporary society. The concept of differing world views assumes a prominent place in his thinking." According to Pirages (1989) :The atypical four-hundred-year stretch of recent history dominated by the industrial revolution has given rise to a culture or predominant world view that could best be called ''exclusionist.'' This world view permeates social life and consciousness as well as academic enterprise in the industrial world. It is manifest in the beliefs that human beings exist apart from nature and that they are destined to dominate it, that the last four hundred years of growth and progress will be followed by a similar stretch of good fortune."Dennis Pirages (1989), ''Global technopolitics: the international politics of technology & resources.'' p. 9; as cited in Prager (1990;3)


Selected publications

* Dennis Clark Pirages,
Paul R. Ehrlich Paul Ralph Ehrlich (born May 29, 1932) is an American biologist known for his warnings about the consequences of population growth and limited resources. He is the Bing Professor Emeritus of Population Studies of the Department of Biology of St ...
, ''ARK II: Social Response to Environmental Imperatives.'' 1974. * Dennis C. Pirages, ''Sustainable society: implications for limited growth.'' 16 papers, 1977. * Dennis Pirages (ed.), ''Building Sustainable Societies: a blueprint for a post-industrial world.,'' M. E. Sharpe, 1996. * Dennis Pirages; Theresa Manley DeGeest (2004). ''Ecological Security: An Evolutionary Perspective on Globalization.'' Rowman & Littlefield * Dennis Pirages, Farooq Sobhan, Stacy D. VanDeveer and Li Li. ''Ecological and Nontraditional Security Challenges in South Asia.'' June 2011.


References


External links


Dennis Pirages
at MIT press
Dennis Pirages
(including a picture) {{DEFAULTSORT:Pirages, Dennis C. 1942 births Living people American political scientists American environmentalists University of Iowa alumni Stanford University alumni University of Maryland, College Park faculty University of Nevada, Reno faculty People from Davenport, Iowa Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science