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The thesis demonstrates a rethinking of methodologies of communication through ecological design. Human communication and ecological accountability are inextricably linked in architectural design: the current global ecological crisis underscores this fundamental connection. Within architectural practice the communication from architect to participant or environment is not at all straightforward. This is also true of the dyadic relation between context, design and communication in architectural education. Notational systems within architectural education used as a communication tool have made the composition of architecture an activity like the composition of fiction: the activity of communication. So deep is the connection between architecture and communication in our culture that for much of the time we ignore it and behave as if notation were really a transparent window – just as in reading a working drawing in architectural practice we may ignore the intermediacy of notation and imagine that thoughts are reaching us directly from the architect’s mind. The most important criterion of notational systems, whether literally or architectural, is precisely that it should not draw attention to itself, nor disturb the illusion of neutrality and faithfulness. Through original design exploration, this work proffers a critical vision towards the built environment. These conceptions challenge the everyday education of architectural design by offering a transdisciplinary framework for design production. The work concludes with the necessity for a new design field entitled ‘Eniatype’. Eniatype is still in its nascent stages. It has the potential to become a far-reaching awareness that bonds the disciplines of design ecologies, theory of notation, instructional design and aesthetics; together they form the acronym ENIA. The work establishes the theoretical foundation for Eniatype in four parts. Part one, ideation, is a survey of visions on architectural practice illustrating original concepts such as ‘Correalism‘, ’Reflexive Architecture‘ and ’Recursive Vision‘. Part two, Enia, illustrates the principles of design ecologies, theory of notation, instructional design and aesthetical strands in projects such as ’Basque Enia‘ and ’Beijing Enia‘. Part three, Type, conveys the principles of the logical theory of types in ’Working Drawing, Participant and Environment‘. Part four, Eniatype, synthesise these approaches through a series of research sessions towards a transdisciplinary idea of architectural education and practice. The work describes a burgeoning field, Eniatype, which promotes ecological transitions within local and global contexts through architectural education. By linking working drawing and environment within architectural education, unique ecological design proposals were produced, which promote a new role in defining the ciphers of future design thought.

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Urban and regional development decisions have long-term, often irreversible impacts on the natural and built environment. These changes impact society’s wellbeing, yet rarely occur in the context of well understood economic costs and benefits. The cumulative effects of these individually small land use decisions are also very large. Ecological economics provides several frameworks that could inform more sustainable development patterns and practices, including ecosystem service valuation (ESV) and the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI). This dissertation consists of a series of articles addressing urban and regional development from an ecological economic perspective, using GPI, ESV, and evaluation of tax and subsidy programs. The GPI has been well developed at the national level but is of growing interest to stakeholders and citizens interested in better measuring social welfare at local and regional scales. By integrating measures of built, human, social, and natural capital, GPI provides a more comprehensive assessment of social welfare than consumption-based macroeconomic indicators. GPI’s monetary basis allows these diverse metrics to be integrated, and can also facilitate intra- and inter-regional comparisons of social welfare. Ecosystem services are also increasingly recognized as important contributors to human well-being, particularly in areas where they are becoming scarce due to rapid land conversion. Despite recent advances in measuring and valuing ecosystem services, they are often not considered in decision making because of both scientific uncertainty and the difficulty in weighing these values in tradeoffs. Techniques to speed the valuation process while maintaining accuracy are thus in high demand. As public recognition of the value of ecosystem services grows, ESV can serve as the basis for a variety of policy tools, from inclusion in traditional permitting or conservation easement programs to new programs such as payments for ecosystem services. Ideally planners, citizens, and decision makers would better weigh the diverse costs and benefits of land use decisions as part of development and conservation planning. By quantifying changes in: 1) contributors to social welfare and 2) the value of ecosystem services across the urban-rural gradient, the GPI and ESV frameworks developed as part of this dissertation can thus be used to better inform local and regional policy and planning.

The importance and contribution of healthy ecosystems to human well-being and poverty reduction have gained increasing awareness and attention in recent years. Despite this wide-scale acknowledgement, the majority of the benefits yielded by ecosystem services are currently exogenous to the economic system, so their value is not equally weighted in decisions that directly impact their functioning and welfare. Public understanding of the importance of these contributions and the necessity of healthy ecosystems and sound management is vital for their conservation. However, thorough understanding of what ecosystems are, how they function, and how to manage them on a systems-based level for sustainability, known as ecological literacy (ecoliteracy), is lacking in various publics. In fact, at the nexus of the complex environmental problems facing the world today is the lack of understanding of the impact of individual and aggregate actions, particularly on ecosystems. The emerging field of ecological economics seeks to reconcile the roots for this disconnect. By developing new methods of ecosystem management that simultaneously address complex economic, social and environmental needs, ecological economics seeks to develop a comprehensive, systems-based approach to engender global sustainability. Ecolitercy is a critical component to developing new methods in development and management. This dissertation research examines and applies several ecological economic tools – rapid assessment valuation, payments for ecosystem services and service-learning education – to determine how to best promote ecoliteracy and ecosystem management on individual and collective levels. There are several findings that highlight the importance of and areas of improvement for integrating such tools in a comprehensive sustainable development approach. (1) Ecosystem services valuation, which assigns economic values to the benefits humans derive from natural environments, is a framework that can provide vital insight into the ecological costs of large-scale development projects. It can also be used as a way to incorporate local/traditional knowledge into decision-making. (2) Payments for ecosystem services programs, while effective in conserving and regenerating forests in developing countries, still have significant areas of improvement to be considered for similar future projects. Particularly, it has not been demonstrated that they are effective mechanisms for poverty alleviation, as it has been suggested in the literature. In fact, if not meaningfully supported, poor participants may face serious trade-offs and their involvement in such programs may negatively affect social capital in the community. (3) Service-learning, or working with communities to address real world-problems through a rigorous academic framework, is more effective at developing critical, ecological and civic literacy in students and develop more knowledgeable agents to solve the world‘s complex problems. Overall, these new and other tools must be developed to specifically address the ecological illiteracy that so often guides development decisions and be integrated into a comprehensive, inclusive framework for sustainable development.

Thesis advisor: Stephen J. Pope / This dissertation argues that industrial food production, characterized under the term “big food,” is an environmental and social problem that requires a response from Christian theology and ethics. However, previous scholarship addressing “big food” did not confront the intransigent nature of this problem. As a result of this state of the problem, the dissertation poses the question: what is an adequate response to the intransigent problem of “big food?” In response this dissertation argues that a proper response involves an integrated Catholic ecological ethic. An integrated ecological ethic combines the methods of virtue ethics and social ethics to propose virtues within a contextually aware framework. The resources of the Catholic tradition can be utilized to develop an integrated ethic that balances the concerns of ecojustice and environmental justice. The solution proposed involves the development of ecological reformulations of the virtues of charity, prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude. The above virtues are not proposed within a theoretical vacuum, but rather within an awareness of various unjust structures in the United States that support “big food” and habituate the ecological vices of pride, fearlessness, and gluttony. The dissertation makes constructive proposals for structural change to develop structures of “big food” that can promote ecological virtue as opposed to ecological vice. In addition, the dissertation makes several recommendations for personal reforms in relation to food habits so as to move toward ecological virtues. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2016. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Theology.