Propagating an integral and transdisciplinary approach to sustainability education

Recent directions in engineering for sustainable development (EESD) (and in ESD more generally) have pointed towards an increasing realisation that in order to adequately begin to address respective meta-problems associated with global (un)sustainability, ‘object world’ disciplinary perspectives alone are insufficient. Instead, the required depth of knowledge that expert disciplinary knowledge can provide must be both complimented and built upon by other disciplinary as well as experiential knowledge. Integral and transdisciplinary approaches to learning can play a central role in helping achieve this. When such approaches are applied, they facilitate the possibility of new and emergent knowledge and insights which can transcend disciplinary bounds, with the potential to reach places where no single disciplinary approach can; a classic case of ‘whole greater than the sum of parts’. This however requires a degree of disciplinary humility and openness to other approaches and disciplinary norms, as well as a degree of trust, patience and time. Nevertheless, in the context of seeking authentic sustainability, it is necessary. The classical engineering degree structure is not amenable to this approach. Engineering has traditionally seen itself as a ‘problem solving profession only insofar as ‘problems’, including complex socio-technological ones (with ecological and economic import) can be neatly reduced to well-defined closed system decontextualized ‘puzzles’ which can then be algorithmically optimised. This is deeply problematic as it cannot map reality; specifically, complex contemporary 21st century reality, instead resulting in emergent ‘unintended consequences’. A key intervention point therefore in the development of a fit-for-purpose cohort of engineering graduates capable of addressing emergent twenty first century meta-problems is through their formative education. Here integral and transdisciplinary approaches to sustainability education/ESD offer a useful approach. But this requires not just the inclusion of ‘sustainable development material’, but a perpendicular reconceptualization of pedagogical approaches. This approach coheres with contemporary pedagogical best practice as it privileges relational and constructivist approaches to learning over the traditional atomistic approach, incorporating as it does, peer to peer and personal reflective learning opportunities. This paper reflects on the experiences of a programme where undergraduate chemical engineering students undertaking a sustainability module collaborate with students on an analogous sociology module. It describes how this transdisciplinary collaboration takes an integral approach to sustainability learning, incorporating both subjective and objective perspectives as well as inter-subjective and inter-objective. The work reflects on how this initiative worked by drawing on student feedback and the authors’ experiences

Educating engineers to embrace complexity and context

Education represents a key intervention point in encouraging the emergence of a professional engineering ethos informed by a sustainability ethic. In terms of establishing an appropriate relationship between sustainability and education, many would contend that incorporating sustainability as merely add-on material to already overcrowded curricula is insufficient. Instead sustainability should actually be a leading principle for curricula. Traditional reductionist models of engineering education seek to extinguish context and uncertainty and reduce complexity across socio-economic and ecological domains. They therefore constitute a wholly inadequate response to the need for fit-for-purpose, twenty-first century graduates required to address broader sustainability issues. This paper presents research from an undergraduate module at University College Cork, Ireland. The module is aimed at developing students' conceptions of complexity, uncertainty, risk, context and ethics as foundational bases for productively engaging with sustainability. The paper also highlights some problematic issues

Citizen or consumer? Reconsidering energy citizenship

The transition to more sustainable energy systems has set about redefining the social roles and responsibilities of citizens. Implicit in this are expectations around participation, though the precise contours of what this might mean remain open. Debates around the energy transition have been skewed towards a normative construct of what it means to be a ‘good citizen’, the parameters for which are shaped by predetermined visions of statist and/or market-driven determinations of the energy systems of the future. This article argues that concepts such as ‘energy citizen’ are co-opted to reflect popular neoliberal discourses, and ignore crucial questions of unequal agency and access to resources. Paradoxically, official discourses that push responsibility for the energy transition onto the ‘citizen-as-consumer’ effectively remove agency from citizens, leaving them largely disconnected and disempowered. Consequently, energy citizenship needs to be reconceptualised to incorporate more collective and inclusive contexts for action. Considering how much energy consumption occurs in (traditionally female) domestic spheres, do conventional notions of citizenship (especially with regards to its associated rights and duties) need to be recalibrated in order for the concept to be usefully applied to the energy transition

Metaphor, transformation and transdisciplinarity

Metaphor, along with narrative and other linguistic devices such as myth, fable, parable, and allegory, enables us to make sense of the world around us and shape how we think and act individually and collectively in relation to society and the natural world. The chapter considers the properties of metaphors and how they can promote or curtail action towards transformative change in the direction of sustainability. The notion of transformation itself is examined and is taken to represent profound changes in the ways we understand economy, society, and the place of technology. Indeed, it calls for a recalibration of the popular imagination – and this is where metaphor, myth, and fable have such a vital role to play. As an introduction to the book, the chapter explains the structure of the volume comprising four parts each of which explore different dimensions of metaphor from the ways it shapes our relationship with science and technology to the rich terrain of psychoanalysis, creativity, and artistic practice. Each of the subsequent 13 chapters are briefly described and demonstrate the spirit of transdisciplinary collaboration which informs their quite different analyses, but which share a commitment to sustainability representing an authentic societal and environmental flourishing

Understanding how institutions may support the development of transdisciplinary approaches to sustainability research

This article analyses the approaches of academics seeking to engage with private, public and community-based stakeholders through transdisciplinary research about pressing sustainability challenges and, in particular, climate change; it outlines aspects of the institutional factors which influence transdisciplinary research. A qualitative approach was employed in conducting 10 semi-structured interviews to analyse the challenges and motivations of academic researchers when working with a range of other stakeholders through transdisciplinary practice. Two key contributions are made through this work. First, this article adds to the existing literature on motivations and challenges for undertaking research with private, public and community stakeholders in a cross-disciplinary manner. Second, the current institutional circumstances influencing such research practices are outlined, alongside potential ways forward. The research presented here has been undertaken in light of the experiences of the two lead co-authors as early career researchers coming from the disciplines of sociology and energy engineering, engaging in transdisciplinary research within a local community context in relation to a regional energy transition project

Innovative methods of community engagement: towards a low carbon climate resilient future

The proceedings of the Innovative Methods of Community Engagement: Toward a Low Carbon, Climate Resilient Future workshop have been developed by the Imagining2050 team in UCC and the Secretariat to the National Dialogue on Climate Action (NDCA). The NDCA also funded the workshop running costs. The proceedings offer a set of recommendations and insights into leveraging different community engagement approaches and methodologies in the area of climate action. They draw from interdisciplinary knowledge and experiences of researchers for identifying, mobilizing and mediating communities. The work presented below derives from a workshop held in the Environmental Research Institute in UCC on the 17th January 2019. These proceedings are complementary to an earlier workshop also funded by the NDCA and run by MaREI in UCC, titled ‘How do we Engage Communities in Climate Action? – Practical Learnings from the Coal Face’. The earlier workshop looked more closely at community development groups and other non-statutory organizations doing work in the area of climate change