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Aesthetics and Sustainability

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Encyclopedia of Sustainability in Higher Education

Introduction

Common current English usage of “aesthetics” usually means “pretty” and almost always relates to visual perception. With this simplistic understanding, the idea of aesthetics is evident in connection with many disciplines. Anthropologists are often called upon to curate museum displays of cultural artifacts, dance and theater rely on visual elements of costume and sets, maps are fundamental in geography, and the study of history may rely on illuminations and handwriting in manuscripts. Even the sciences have a role for aesthetics: the visual representation of molecules helps make sense of the otherwise inaccessibly microscopic world of atoms in chemistry and physics, while biology and natural history have long relied on artistic representations of life forms of all types to explain concepts and disseminate findings. Even in the more abstract worlds of data and statistics, in disciplines such as sociology and mathematics, the elegant, logical, and truthful display of...

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Correspondence to Aaron S. Allen .

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Allen, A.S. (2019). Aesthetics and Sustainability. In: Leal Filho, W. (eds) Encyclopedia of Sustainability in Higher Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63951-2_403-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63951-2_403-1

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