Sustainability and education for sustainability: An analysis of publications from the last decade

Abstract

This study analyzes the characteristics of publications on sustainability topics and education for sustainability in the Web of Science (WOS) database during the period ranging from 2005 to 2014. We identified the topics that are being studied within those subjects and other relevant topics. We also analyzed a special edition of the Journal of Cleaner Production on “Higher Education for Sustainable Development: Emerging areas,” published in January, 2014. Our approach was both qualitative and quantitative and aimed at qualifying and quantifying certain variables related to the scientific literature on the broad subject of sustainability. The number of published pieces in the WOS focusing on sustainability issues during the period from 2005 to 2014 was 5,924. In our analysis of the special edition of the Journal of Cleaner Production, we found and analyzed 17 abstracts and full papers. The main results of our survey highlight the education, educational research, environmental sciences, ecology, and engineering areas as including the greatest number of publications. Articles, as opposed to conference proceedings or reviews, accounted for 63% of the published documents, and the year 2013 showed the largest number of publications. Huisingh, Suciu, Katane, and Barth are the most published authors on these topics. Furthermore, management, environmental studies, ecology, and environmental sciences are the “hot topics” with the best search results, meaning articles of impact and high quality. Finally, it should be emphasized that publications on the subject of sustainability appear most often in the sciences.

Education for Sustainable Development: Evolution and Perspectives: A Bibliometric Review of Research, 1992–2018

“…The bibliometric analysis of ESD has been less covered by scientific publications, particularly after 2014-2015, when the SDGs were introduced. Moreover, they do not look at ESD globally, but choose either a research field (e.g., tourism [52] or ocean exploration [53]), a journal (e.g., Journal of Cleaner Production [7] or Sustainability [10]), or just a topic (e.g., higher education [54]). Sometimes, they are limited to only one database (Web of Science or Scopus), but they do not study in-depth co-citation, for example, or they do not do mapping science [3].…”

“…In recent years, numerous studies [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] have shown that the interest in research concerning Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) has grown considerably. As it expands rapidly, this sector is becoming more visible and significant in a global world affected by serious environmental issues and by growing social, economic, and political inequality.…”

Towards a Science Map on Sustainability in Higher Education

“…The bibliometric analysis has been applied previously to sustainability in higher education, but the results were limited to the use of a single database [13,14]. In contrast, this study using text mining and social network analysis provides a global view of the field, so the authors of this study consider that the findings show a reasonable approach to better understand all its dimension and could be used in the elaboration of public policies that promote its development and contribute to social benefit.…”

Transition to Sustainability in Macro-Universities: The Experience of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM)

“…The low priority given to sustainability in the management and development of universities translates, in turn, into the absence or inefficiency of a sustainability office responsible for promoting and coordinating activities linked to sustainability in universities [12,16]. The literature explains this situation by referring to the lack of knowledge on the importance and implications of the sustainability of universities [17,18] and on the potential of sustainable management strategies to minimize costs and recover investments. Other obstacles frequently mentioned in the literature are the lack of planning [10,15] and management instruments [15,19] to integrate sustainability into university activities, as well as the absence of specific goals [20] and monitoring mechanisms to measure the achievements made [21].…”

“…Other obstacles frequently mentioned in the literature are the lack of planning [10,15] and management instruments [15,19] to integrate sustainability into university activities, as well as the absence of specific goals [20] and monitoring mechanisms to measure the achievements made [21]. Some authors also point out that although a growing number of HEIs are making efforts to include sustainability in their planning and activities, the analysis of the sustainable development plans and strategies of universities shows that they often lack a holistic vision of sustainability [12,17] and that they usually prioritize the teaching and the operational management of university campuses [18], whereas they neglect research and culture [21]. In this investigation we are particularly interested in the discussion of the conditions that affect the organizational change for sustainability to become a "whole institutional approach" in higher education institutions, as outlined by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Global Action Programme on Education for Sustainable Development [22]; an important emergent field of research [23,24].…”