SUSTAINABILITY IN ANTHROPOCENIC TIMES: A DIDACTIC PROPOSAL FOR A SOCIAL AND POLITICAL APPROACH OF PROBLEMS OF SUSTAINABILITY

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.23925/10.23925/2179-3565.2020v11i4p200-220

Keywords:

Sustainability, Education, Post-normal science, Anthropocene, Latin American thinking

Abstract

COVID-19 reaffirms that we are living out the consequences of the Anthropocene. In terms of education this affirmation has considerable implications: we must overcome the profound divisions between the fields of Natural Sciences and the Social Sciences while at the same time recognizing the political character of educational and scientific practices.

Sustainability is an idea that potentially embodies the elements that respond to these two challenges, but only distancing ourselves from a technocratic-instrumental approximation and assuming a political approach to the idea. Post-normal science provides an adequate framework for this because the emerging problems present democratic challenges that demand other academic and educational treatment.

Our intention with this text is to contribute didactic material that incentivizes the introduction of this conceptual debate into the classroom setting. Far from proposing a confrontation between the dominant mode of thought, in this paper we propose an argument that seeks to untangle the basic components of our thesis and show the arbitrariness of all the theoretical constructions that result from that. We hope, in this way, to contribute to a transdisciplinary environmental and sustainability education that consists in uncovering the political dimension of this issue, to repoliticize education, transcend the division between relativism and objectivism and, encourage theoretical positioning without determinisms.

 

Author Biographies

Thomas Block, Centre for Sustainable Development, Department of Political Sciences, Ghent University

The identity of his research approach lies in the use of a (nuanced) constructivist epistemology, a complexity-acknowledging perspective, an interpretative policy analysis framework, a participative research design, and in the framing of sustainability issues as ‘political’ matter. His research focus is on complex decision-making and transition governance, education on wicked sustainability issues, scenarios and future studies, sustainable cities and urban projects.

Thomas Block is Director of the Centre for Sustainable Development, Associate Professor ‘Sustainability and governance’ at the Department of Political Sciences and Special UGent Commissioner Sustainability, all at Ghent University.

Erik Paredis, Affiliation: Centre for Sustainable Development, Department of Political Sciences, Ghent University

His research interests include the politics of sustainable development, sustainability transitions, governance approaches, the role of civil society, of science and technology, and North-South issues of sustainability. Thematically, this research addresses the circular economy in a broad sense. Previously, he worked on topics such as food, building, climate, ecological debt and sustainable cities. 

Erik Paredis is associate professor "Transition governance and socio-technical system innovation for the circular economy" at the Department of Political Sciences.

Peter van Aert, Universidad Nacional de Tierra del Fuego, Antártida e Islas del Atlántico Sur

His PhD research focusses on the concept of sustainability, applied to the local context of Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina. Van Aert is cultural anthropologist with a Masters degree of de Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, and is currently enrolled in the phD program in Social Sciences and Humanities of the National University of Quilmes, Argentina, where he is part-time teaching faculty at the Department of Social Sciences.

He holds a full time research and teaching position at the National University of Tierra del Fuego, Antártida e Islas del Atlántico Sur. He is currently assigned at the Austral Centre of Scientific Investigation (CADIC-CONICET) in Ushuaia, due to a two-year grand (2020-2022) to fulfil his phD research.

Published

2021-01-08

Issue

Section

Papers