As usually conceived and practiced, education – sustainability, environmental and beyond – is embedded in an overarching narrative of progress: increasing human knowledge leading us to make wiser decisions about our behaviour, as individuals and societies. This article outlines an alternative story that draws on the work of two Indigenous scholars, E. Richard Atleo (Nuu-chah-nulth) and Leanne Simpson (Nishnaabeg), who approach living well as a quest to co-exist in harmony and balance with all our relations (that is, the living world of which we are an integral part). Among the core principles they identify are self-determination, consent and sacred respect, understood both as operative in the functioning of healthy ecosystems and as guides to human development and relationships. We show how these principles are grounded in a quest for the mutual beneficial flourishing of free beings and trace some of their implications for environmental education. While stories of this kind are at odds with the current dominant conception of schooling, there are many ways in which they could begin to influence how we move beyond the metacrisis and further, how wethink about and practice education for eco-social –cultural change and the future world/s to come.

This theoretical paper responds to concerns surrounding the fracturing and opaqueness of the term “sustainability” and the related metaphysical crisis that underpins an existential polycrisis. Drawing on Nietzsche’s work on order and disorder (1873, 1901), Latour’s (2013) philosophical anthropology of modernity and Rosa’s (2019) theory of resonance, the author proposes a way of considering sustainability pluralistically, as a crucial mode of existence amongst others. Revisiting the dualism of subject/object, the author proposes a more implicated, associative way of viewing how humans and non-humans relate, introducing the term sobject: interpolated, entangled being(s). As this mode of existence is explicated, the paper articulates how this could be useful in an educational sense. What is proposed is a way to “zone in” to sustainability with students; a mode through which we can learn to see our connections to and within the world, through which we can actively renew the many-pronged path of Earthly existence. Authentic transformation of dysfunctional existence on Earth, this paper argues, will not arise from harmony or consensus but from engaging the generative dissonances through which we might move beyond perpetual reconsideration of “sustainability” towards the active reconfiguration of how we live, learn and co-create a more inhabitable world.

Many countries have implemented a variety of pension reforms in response to the challenges posed by an aging population. These reforms typically involve a trade-off between ‘refinancing’ (i.e., increasing contributions) and ‘retrenchment’ (i.e., reducing benefits). The primary question addressed in this study is whether policymakers in the European Union (EU) possess the necessary capacity to sustain legislated pension reforms, particularly given the growing political influence of the elderly. To examine this issue, we develop a bargaining model designed to optimally allocate the economic burden of aging between successive cohorts of workers and retirees, incorporating retirement incentives. In a scenario where bargaining power remains constant, the optimal allocation rule dictates a fixed-contribution system, effectively shifting the full burden of aging onto the elderly. However, when bargaining power is allowed to fluctuate in response to changes in the relative size of the retiree population (i.e., the dependency rate), the optimal allocation rule involves a compromise between increasing contributions and reducing benefits. In the empirical analysis, we compare these theoretical optimal allocation rules with projections of pension benefit rates and dependency ratios from the 2021 Economic Policy Committee. By calculating the implicit bargaining power required to align projected pension benefits with the optimal sharing rule for each year, we demonstrate a growing divergence between projected pension benefits and the optimal levels in many EU countries, as demographic shifts progress. Furthermore, our findings indicate that for most countries, projected pension benefits are increasingly falling below optimal levels when bargaining power adjusts in accordance with population aging.

Digital technologies are often seen as a powerful means for poverty reduction. Yet, much of the existing research focuses on macro-level outcomes, leaving gaps in understanding individual-level mechanisms and the processes behind successful digital interventions. This study addresses these gaps by examining how online platforms, developed as social innovation efforts, enable smallholder farmers in Japan to escape poverty. Using a qualitative, case-based approach, we analyze six social enterprises and explore how stakeholder mobilization drives the success or failure of these platforms. We developed a schematic model that captures the nonlinear, collaborative nature of the social innovation process. Our findings reveal a systemic account of why and how only two of the six platforms achieved meaningful impact, offering insights into the factors that shape the effectiveness of digital technologies in reducing poverty. In the end, our model offers practical implications for future digital poverty reduction initiatives.

This study examines the role of normative values and stakeholder commitment in the evalua-tion and implementation process of social and organizational innovations in highly regulated systems, using the example of the four-day work week in German healthcare. Based on 26 expert interviews across micro, meso, and macro levels, the study reveals how actor-specific values and institutional contexts shape judgment about ecological, economic, social, and or-ganizational performance sustainability. The findings show that commitment to innovation is not determined solely by functional considerations but emerges in a field of tension between normative aspirations. Stakeholders align themselves differently along axes such as employee vs. patient orientation or short- vs. long-term thinking, resulting in competing innovation scenarios. The study proposes a transferable framework enabling organizations to map stakeholder values, locate areas of tension, and assess the depth and direction of commitment.

This article critically examines the mediating role of teacher and student reflexivity in relation to promotional interest agents within the Global Action Programme on climate change. Regarding reflexivity, Margaret Archer’s basic idea seeks to mediate between agency and structure. Although social structures are considered limiting, it is believed that individuals can still practice personal reflexivity, leading to efforts to think and act critically in responding to climate change. Knowing the role and variations of environmental agent reflexivity in addressing climate change in Indonesian school is important. This study uses critical ethnography, which is intended to describe hidden realities. In a micro-sociological context, teacher’s interactions with students can be empowering and limiting. Both can interact dynamically, sometimes dominating, interdependent, connected and disconnected until connected again. This condition is influenced by the extent to which there is an opportunity for reflective monitoring through dialogue, discussion and deliberation. Referring to Archer’s typology of reflexivity, each environmental agent reflects four modes of internal conversation: communicative reflexivity, autonomous reflexivity, meta-reflexivity and fractured reflexivity. While Archer centres internal conversation in reflexive agency, this study foregrounds silent conversation in digital spaces as a critical bridge between reflection and environmental action in schools.

Many conceptions of Just Transition focus narrowly on how to create employment opportunities for those in the so called ‘dirty’ industries who are likely to lose their jobs in the transition to sustainability. However, there is an emerging concept of ‘Transformative Just Transition’ (TJT) which emphasises the need to entirely transform our societies in order to achieve justice in this transition. What a TJT should include is still being debated. In this article, I propose that the fundamental element needs to be a redistribution of income and wealth – globally, nationally and locally. This would mean the wealthier would inevitably have to reduce their ecological footprint while those on low incomes could afford to meet their social and environmental needs (healthy food, water and housing; adequate energy and transport; etc). This paper discusses the why and how (e.g. climate reparations, progressive environmental taxation) of redistributing income and wealth in order to achieve a TJT. It particularly focuses on the role of labour unions in achieving the necessary redistribution.

Climate change, biodiversity loss, and antimicrobial pollution caused by human activity are placing pressure on global microbiota. However, microbial protection remains mostly absent from international law and global governance frameworks. This policy brief highlights the chronic marginalisation of microbes in international health, environmental, and human rights law, as well as in governance frameworks addressing antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Drawing on recent genomics and humanities research, it argues that policymakers need to abandon interventions designed to control or combat individual microbes in favour of microbiota-oriented governance. This brief discusses three major areas (pollution thresholds, microbial conservation, and the human right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment) where change is already occurring.