Social sustainability, past and future: undoing unintended consequences for the earth's survival
In: New Directions in sustainability and society
In: New Directions in sustainability and society
In: Villes et territoires
La 4e de couverture indique : "Il y a 70 000 ans, Homo sapiens sortait d'Afrique pour coloniser le monde. Il y a 6000 ans, il fondait les premières villes. Aujourd'hui, à l'ère des réseaux de villes, il crée dés réglons métropolitaines de plus en plus étendues et complexes. De la préhistoire à l'ère des métropoles, l'homme occupe l'espace terrestre selon des modalités d'une infinie variété, sous l'influence d'une multitude de facteurs. Comment les Bantu peuplent-ils un espace déjà occupé par les Pygmées en Afrique équatoriale ? Comment naissent les villes à l'Age du bronze ? Comment se développe puis disparaît la société des pueblos aux Etats-Unis ? Quels sont les effets de la romanisation sur le peuplement de Gaule méridionale ? Comment émerge le système villageois aux alentours de l'an Mil en Europe ? Ce livre aborde douze grands changements du peuplement mondial formalisés sous forme de "transitions". Qu'est-ce qu'une transition ? Comment l'identifier dans le domaine empirique ? Archéologues, historiens, linguistes et géographes unissent leur regard pour construire, analyser et comparer des modèles de transition du peuplement dans l'histoire mondiale. Observant le particulier, ils recherchent l'universel, Ce livre propose une méthode pour comprendre les lois du peuplement humain dans la très longue durée
In: One world archaeology 14
In: International journal of sustainability in higher education, Band 15, Heft 4, S. 431-449
ISSN: 1758-6739
Purpose
– The article aims to describe the problem- and project-based learning (PPBL) program and the institutional context at Arizona State University's School of Sustainability (SOS), with the goal of offering experience-based guidance for similar initiatives in sustainability programs around the world.
Design/methodology/approach
– This case study presents the diverse PPBL activities that SOS offers on the undergraduate and the graduate levels and examines the institutional structures in place that support these activities. Data were collected through literature and document reviews, observations, interviews, student evaluations and faculty surveys.
Findings
– The review of the PPBL program at SOS illustrates a case of successfully inaugurating a PPBL program in sustainability at a major university in the USA. Yet, a key challenge for this program and similar programs around the world is how to maintain the institutional momentum and make advances after the initial takeoff. SOS is attempting to address this issue by developing greater program cohesion and coordination, synthesizing past products and learning, monitoring and evaluating impacts, and developing PPBL training programs for faculty and graduate students.
Practical implications
– The experiences and findings presented can help other programs to articulate the benefits of a PPBL initiative, anticipate implementation challenges and successfully support their own PPBL initiatives through adequate institutional structures. The review points to the fact that the major impact on both student learning and outcomes for partner organizations is achieved through a concerted effort by the organization as a whole. Successful PPBL programs require both top-down commitments from the administration and bottom-up drive from interested faculty and students.
Originality/value
– This case study discusses the PPBL program at SOS. The findings can inform and support the ongoing transformation in sustainability education with the ultimate objective to build students' capacities to address and solve wicked sustainability problems in the real world, competently collaborating with partners from government, business and civil society.
This article explores the links between agency, institutions, and innovation in navigating shifts and large-scale transformations toward global sustainability. Our central question is whether social and technical innovations can reverse the trends that are challenging critical thresholds and creating tipping points in the earth system, and if not, what conditions are necessary to escape the current lock-in. Large-scale transformations in information technology, nano- and biotechnology, and new energy systems have the potential to significantly improve our lives; but if, in framing them, our globalized society fails to consider the capacity of the biosphere, there is a risk that unsustainable development pathways may be reinforced. Current institutional arrangements, including the lack of incentives for the private sector to innovate for sustainability, and the lags inherent in the path dependent nature of innovation, contribute to lock-in, as does our incapacity to easily grasp the interactions implicit in complex problems, referred to here as the ingenuity gap. Nonetheless, promising social and technical innovations with potential to change unsustainable trajectories need to be nurtured and connected to broad institutional resources and responses. In parallel, institutional entrepreneurs can work to reduce the resilience of dominant institutional systems and position viable shadow alternatives and niche regimes.
BASE