From the Anthropocene to Mutual Thriving: An Agenda for Higher Education in the Ecozoic

Ivan Vargas Roncancio, Leah Temper, Joshua Sterlin, Nina L. Smolyar, Shaun Sellers, Maya Moore, Rigo Melgar-Melgar, Jolyon Larson, Catherine Horner, Jon D. Erickson, Megan Egler, Peter G. Brown, Emille Boulot, Tina Beigi and Michael Babcock
Additional contact information
Ivan Vargas Roncancio: Department of Natural Resources Sciences, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 0G4, Canada
Leah Temper: Department of Natural Resources Sciences, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 0G4, Canada
Joshua Sterlin: Department of Natural Resources Sciences, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 0G4, Canada
Nina L. Smolyar: Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05405, USA
Shaun Sellers: Department of Natural Resources Sciences, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 0G4, Canada
Maya Moore: Gund Institute for Environment, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05405, USA
Rigo Melgar-Melgar: Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05405, USA
Jolyon Larson: Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05405, USA
Catherine Horner: Gund Institute for Environment, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05405, USA
Jon D. Erickson: Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05405, USA
Megan Egler: Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05405, USA
Peter G. Brown: Department of Natural Resources Sciences, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 0G4, Canada
Emille Boulot: Department of Natural Resources Sciences, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 0G4, Canada
Tina Beigi: Department of Natural Resources Sciences, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 0G4, Canada
Michael Babcock: Department of Natural Resources Sciences, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 0G4, Canada

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 12, 1-19

Abstract: Higher education in the global North, and exported elsewhere, is complicit in driving the planet’s socio-ecological crises by teaching how to most effectively marginalize and plunder Earth and human communities. As students and activists within the academic system, we take a firm stand to arrest this cycle, and to redirect education toward teaching how to create conditions for all life to thrive. In this paper, we articulate a research and education agenda for co-constructing knowledge and wisdom, and propose shifts in the ‘ologies from the current, destructive modes to intended regenerative counterparts. We offer to shift from an ontology of separation to that of interconnectedness; from an epistemology of domination to that of egalitarian relationship; and from an axiology of development to that of plural values for world- and meaning-making. Such paradigm shifts reflect the foundational aspirations of the consilient transdiscipline of ecological economics. We analyze several introductory university textbooks in economics, law, and natural sciences, to demonstrate how destructive ‘ologies are taught in North American universities, and how such teaching implicitly undermines critical inquiry and effective challenge. Our strategy for change is to provide a new theoretical framework for education: the regenerative ‘ologies of the Ecozoic’, based on biophysicality, embedded relationality, pluralism, and the sustainable well-being of all members in the community of life.

Keywords: Higher education; Ecozoic; justice; sustainability; pluriverse; interdependence; relationality; ecological economics; research agenda; textbooks (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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