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Transformative Sustainability Education: From Sustainababble to a Civilization Leap

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The Palgrave International Handbook on Adult and Lifelong Education and Learning

Abstract

With the realities of climate change pressing in on us, sustainability discourse has gained currency, although some consider it to have been co-opted and emptied of meaning—‘sustainababble’. This chapter reviews the state of sustainability education, including a brief update on the state of sustainability vis-à-vis climate challenges, the contested meanings of sustainability and the historical development of sustainability education particularly in relation to environmental education and the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. The chapter ends with a glimpse into the polyarchy of learning edges in transformative sustainability education and the shift towards a relational ontoepistemology, creating conditions for a civilizational leap.

If this world does not have a place for us,

Then another world must be made.

Zapatista saying

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, NS, Canada

    Elizabeth A. Lange

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  1. Elizabeth A. Lange
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Correspondence to Elizabeth A. Lange .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Human Sciences, University of Verona, Verona, Italy

    Marcella Milana

  2. Faculty of Education, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia

    Sue Webb

  3. School of Education, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom

    John Holford

  4. Department of Education and Childhood, University of the West of England, Bristol, United Kingdom

    Richard Waller

  5. Department of Politics, University of Surrey, Guildford, United Kingdom

    Peter Jarvis

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Lange, E.A. (2018). Transformative Sustainability Education: From Sustainababble to a Civilization Leap. In: Milana, M., Webb, S., Holford, J., Waller, R., Jarvis, P. (eds) The Palgrave International Handbook on Adult and Lifelong Education and Learning. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55783-4_21

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55783-4_21

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