Vermont Public Radio on the Institute for Social Ecology's 40 years

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The Incubator For Social Change; Institute For Social Ecology Celebrates 40 Years

 By JON KALISH

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  The Institute for Social Ecology was founded in Plainfield in 1974.

  Jon Kalish VPR

Social ecology is an academic discipline that favors a democratic and communal approach to social, political and environmental problems.

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5:01

Vermont has played a seminal role in the development of this somewhat obscure social science, thanks to the Institute for Social Ecology founded in Plainfield in 1974.

The institute started at Goddard College and operated out of Goddard's 90-acre Cate Farm, which had a brick farmhouse and a huge dairy barn that served as the institute’s lecture hall and fabrication workshop.

The institute’s far flung alumnae recently gathered in Marshfield for a reunion. Co-founder Dan Chodorkoff  served as its director when it began in 1974.

“People thought we were kind of crazy back then but the ideas have percolated into the larger society and I think that’s particularly true in Vermont: ideas around de-centralization and ecological forms of food production,” he said.