Education as a response to sustainability issues

Abstract

In the field of environmental education and education for sustainable development, there is a lively discussion about the paradox between acknowledging pluralism and taking into account urgent sustainability concerns. With this article, we aim at nurturing this debate theoretically and empirically. We draw on concepts of Latour and Marres that allow an analysis of educational practices that strive to take into account a multiplicity of views, values, interests and knowledge claims without resorting to an ‘anything goes’ relativism vis-à-vis the far-reaching implications of sustainability issues. We present an analysis of a guided tour of a CSA farm (Community Supported Agriculture) which is understood as an invitation to respond to the issue at stake in full recognition of the antagonism, ambiguities, and differences implied in it.

In the field of environmental education and education for sustainable development, there is a lively discussion about the paradox between acknowledging pluralism and taking into account urgent sustainability concerns. With this article, we aim at nurturing this debate theoretically and empirically. We draw on concepts of Latour and Marres that allow an analysis of educational practices that strive to take into account a multiplicity of views, values, interests and knowledge claims without resorting to an ‘anything goes’ relativism vis-à-vis the far-reaching implications of sustainability issues. We present an analysis of a guided tour of a CSA farm (Community Supported Agriculture) which is understood as an invitation to respond to the issue at stake in full recognition of the antagonism, ambiguities, and differences implied in it.

A2