Heading towards an unsustainable world: some of the implications of not achieving the SDGs

Filho, Walter Leal; Wolf, Franziska; Salvia, Amanda Lange; Beynaghi, Ali; Shulla, Kalterina; Kovaleva, Marina; Vasconcelos, Claudio R. P.

doi:10.1007/s43621-020-00002-x

Cited by 27 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 72 publications

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“…Good Health and Well-Being and Quality Education. In the attempt to address the implications of an "unsustainable world" [96], there is a need to facilitate a "critical emancipatory understanding of sustainability" [97] (p. 99). The concept of (re)productivity allows combining questions of social and natural production and preproduction as dialectic relation that mutual depend upon each other.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Namibian bioeconomy: transformation to a sustainable society?

2020

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Worldwide, bioeconomy is promoted as an ‘engine for sustainable development’. However, increasingly, the notion that ‘the bioeconomy’ will facilitate sustainable development per se is challenged. Based on the assumption that when leaving the relations between ‘nature’ and ‘society’ unquestioned, inherent inequalities are rather reproduced than overcome, we draw upon a social-ecological framework to analyse the societal relations to nature in the Namibian bioeconomy. In Namibia, with independence, an array of different benefit-sharing mechanisms have been developed to implement local participatory governance structure, which will be further streamlined under the newly introduced access and benefit-sharing law. Results show that despite efforts to facilitate a diversity-based bioeconomy, separating structures and trade-offs are persistent. Images of ‘nature’, like the ‘eternal Namibian landscape’, that draw upon colonial notions are frequently used to market indigenous natural products. Institutions to ‘nature’ that guarantee fair and equitable terms of trade are often only short-term and/or small-scale, e.g. as shown at the case of Devil’s claw, Hoodia and Namibian Myrrh. Even when perspectives cannot be assigned in a stereotypical way between user and provider, and instead, all actors refer to biodiversity and traditional knowledge as ‘welfare of the people’, ‘cultural heritage’, ‘input for R&D’, ‘community benefit’, and ‘marketing tool’, a rational-instrumental reasoning tends to be favoured of a normative-ethical one. A more diversified awareness towards the dialectics entailed in the conception, making, and management of ‘nature’ potentially inhibiting an inclusive sustainable development is relevant at any theory–practice interface, including development project-management and environmental policy-making.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Namibian bioeconomy: transformation to a sustainable society?

2020

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“…The discussions raised by international studies [29][30][31] also emphasize the importance of ensuring quality in sustainability training in higher education, so that such concepts are in fact implemented in practical actions in the work environment. Likewise, as their studies point out, this project also sees the need for greater integration between sustainability and governance so as to streamline the implementation of sustainable actions in the institution, without having to face so many hierarchical barriers and bureaucratic procedures.…”

Section: Networking Within a Hierarchical Institutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, they indicate that there are still many challenges in terms of integration between sustainability and governance in these institutions. In addition, in another related study [31], the researches note that there is a demand of university lecturers themselves to be educated in sustainability. They point out applying concepts to real world problems as being important in Sustainable Development Education (SDE), recognising the value of using engaged and specific learning in each local context.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Reflections on educational leadership for sustainability: a Brazilian case study

Sudan

Zuin

2022

Discov Sustain

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Large-scale socio-environmental education to foster a culture of sustainability and transform degrading situations is considered a matter of worldwide urgency. Considering this, we present and discuss results from a thesis that investigated the potentials and challenges of a participatory methodology, capillarity architecture, to educate sustainability leaders used on a socio-environmental training programme for public servants from a Brazilian Higher Education Institution. Capillarity architecture, launched by the Brazilian Federal Government in 2005, is a methodological strategy that encompasses participatory action research and collective networks of educators for training in an exponential format. The participants in the process undergo training while developing educational practices for their university peers. The overall study included 2500 individuals, who were assigned to one of 160 learning collectives in seven university campuses. The research method includes a participatory-research approach, a focus group, participant observation and discursive textual analysis of process documents. The results are discussed considering two points: (1) Impacts of capillarity architecture on the university experience and; (2) Challenges and tensions between the commitment to leadership formation on a large scale and the search for emancipation in EE. It can be concluded that even considering the permanent risk of impairing quality in exponential Environmental Education training, capillarity (in its critical principles) allows for: gains in autonomy, critical reflection, exchanging experiences and repertoires within the university, educating new leaders, in addition to the concomitant engagement of a larger audience. The results of this project also provide us with evidence that leadership formation in sustainability is influenced by the access or not of the participants and coordinators to material conditions (budget, infrastructure, personnel). The relevance of promoting concrete investments in environmental education and training towards sustainability is indicated, so that large-scale training can take place in territories that have significant social inequalities. Capillarity architecture questions the traditional format of organisational training. It provides for the exchange of experiences among its participants, elaboration and development of courses in the socio-environmental area in a collective way, based on problems and social relations of the local territory. These are fundamental aspects when we think about leadership formation on a large scale in broad policies, which involve different cultures and diverse socioeconomic conditions worldwide.

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“…As a sector, HE is subject to the same responses to disruption as other sectors, for example, new entrants, the dominance of the incumbents for a period, new regulations and mergers and acquisition [ 11 , 12 ]. This is the moment for the sector to highlight its central role in recovery and transformation of the economy and society ahead, taking up its position in helping create a more equitable and sustainable future through fulfilment of the SDGs [ 13 ]. How might we sustain the role universities and colleges play as anchor institutions in place making, contributing to economic development and community service?…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Higher education and the COVID-19 pandemic: navigating disruption using the sustainable development goals

Purcell

Lumbreras

2021

Discov Sustain

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The COVID-19 health crisis has caused profound social and economic disruptions. Affecting everyone, its impact is not equal. Exacerbating deep social fissures and long-standing systemic inequalities, the pandemic reveals the fragilities and inequities in global higher education. Accelerating underlying trends and triggering seismic shifts in the sector, collective efforts over a period of weeks delivered massive change in a sector not known for being fleet-of-foot. As we envisage the ‘next normal’ for higher education, problems with the ‘old normal’ may be fixed and some recent innovations carried forward. Representing a period of punctuated equilibrium, COVID-19 could lead to transformation of the sector towards greater equity and impact across teaching/learning, research/innovation, community service/engagement and the staff/students’ experience. As we ask, “When will HE open again?”, and “When we do, what will it be like?” we may also find ourselves considering “Will some institutions open at all?” Seeking to navigate these volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous times—so-called VUCA conditions—we propose that the SDGs are positioned as a lens to re-imagine higher education in mounting an antifragility response. We examine whether a new paradigm is forming that could be more sustainable as budgets, priorities and institutional archetypes are challenged fundamentally in line with delivery against the SDGs.

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Heading towards an unsustainable world: some of the implications of not achieving the SDGs

Cited by 27 publications

References 72 publications

The Namibian bioeconomy: transformation to a sustainable society?

The Namibian bioeconomy: transformation to a sustainable society?

Reflections on educational leadership for sustainability: a Brazilian case study

Higher education and the COVID-19 pandemic: navigating disruption using the sustainable development goals

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