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Interdisciplinary Education Against Eco-anxiety: Learning How to Know About Bodying, Fascias, and Ecological Embeddedness

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Handbook of Sustainability Science in the Future

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Abstract

How can we best approach the increase in eco-anxieties as part of sustainable, generative education in universities or other key teaching locations? The term eco-anxiety refers to being concerned or worried about the future of Earth, and ecoanxieties affect in particular young people. Countering ecoanxieties is part of becoming response-able and earthbound, as Haraway and Latour would say. The proposition raised here is to move toward activating different modes of bodily presence and ecosystemic awareness, as key components of building sustainability education. The proposition draws on long-term research work around body-ecology relations, and especially the recent discoveries around fascia, our bodily connective tissue-system and largest sensory organ. Fascia tissues inspire an interdisciplinary approach for educational institutions to moderate the (destructive) effects of contemporary ecological changes on students’ wellbeing. Developing novel vocabularies around how human bodily presence is embedded in the environments that are giving rise to ecoanxiety, such as bodying, contributes to SDG 4 and transformative and lifelong learning.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Both spellings are commonly used: eco-anxiety or ecoanxiety, and I use them interchangeably in this article.

  2. 2.

    www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/10/overwhelming-and-terrifying-impact-of-climate-crisis-on-mental-health; www.theguardian.com/society/2020/nov/20/half-of-child-psychiatrists-surveyed-say-patients-have-environment-anxiety?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other; www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-the-real-cure-for-covid-is-renewing-our-fractured-relationship-with/?fbclid=IwAR3duxY43jnQYJ0ny0B7L38tjWUs-n5kwClHVH2Uv7-p_SJmZifMXwIAGpI.

  3. 3.

    Note here also the (anthropological) distinction between the pair of terms disease and illness, whereby disease is defined as a biological and biochemical malfunction. Illness is what the patient feels, within their cultural context (Strathern and Stewart 2010).

  4. 4.

    For example, stereotypes or prejudices, based on racial or other grounds, often arise from a feeling, a bodily sensation that leaves you feeling uncomfortable (Allport 1954) (author’s work).

  5. 5.

    The challenge to incorporate all aspects of fascia into one nomenclature is on-going (Stecco and u.a. 2018; Sharkey 2019).

  6. 6.

    The outermost layer is known as the hypodermis or ‘superficial fascia’ and has a spongy quality and yellow colour. The second level is the filmy and ‘membranous fascia’ which is like gauze with stretchy, wet, slippery, gelatinous qualities. The third layer is known as ‘deep or dense fascia’ which is both elastic and grid-like, stable like strapping tape and white in colour. These descriptions were presented by integral anatomist Gil Hedley at the British Fascia Symposium, Worcester, June 25–26, 2016. See also www.gilhedley.com, and an interview the author conducted with Gil about fascia: Hedley (2019).

  7. 7.

    The push-and-pull keeping the fascial system both stable and moving, have been conceptualized as biotensegrity (Levin 2002), the application of tensegrity already known in architecture as Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic dome. With fascia, also called the ‘organ of form’ (Varela and Frenk 1987) it has been shown how tensegrity extends to the cellular level (Ingber 2003).

  8. 8.

    See http://dumit.net/sitting-academic-style/.

  9. 9.

    Latour develops his argument through a critical assessment of James Lovelock’s Gaia theory.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Movement Research, Barcelona, Spain

    Doerte Weig

Authors
  1. Doerte Weig
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. FTZ-ALS, HAW Hamburg, Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

    Walter Leal Filho

  2. University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

    Anabela Marisa Azul

  3. Department of Business and Law, University of Milano-Bicocca, MILANO, Milano, Italy

    Federica Doni

  4. University of Passo Fundo, Sao Jose, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

    Amanda Lange Salvia

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Weig, D. (2023). Interdisciplinary Education Against Eco-anxiety: Learning How to Know About Bodying, Fascias, and Ecological Embeddedness. In: Leal Filho, W., Azul, A.M., Doni, F., Salvia, A.L. (eds) Handbook of Sustainability Science in the Future. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68074-9_92-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68074-9_92-2

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-68074-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-68074-9

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Chapter history

  1. Latest

    Interdisciplinary Education Against Eco-anxiety: Learning How to Know About Bodying, Fascias, and Ecological Embeddedness
    Published:
    01 April 2023

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68074-9_92-2

  2. Original

    Sustainability Futures: Bodying Challenges and Opportunities Toward a More Generative World
    Published:
    05 November 2022

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68074-9_92-1

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