Imagining Sustainability: A Nomadic Inquiry of Applied Drama in Higher Education

Posted on 12/12/2025 by arjenwals

At last a chapter appeared in the wonderful Handbook of Ecological Civilization published by Springer that I am proud of both for its content and for the pleasure of working with PhD candidate from Stockholm University, Julia Fries. Julia over the years has developed a wonderful collection of arts-based, drama-inspired research in a somewhat unusual setting: business education. Her research embodies her pedagogy which is fascinating. This chapter explores how drama can contribute to the necessary renewal of higher education to meet the sustainability challenges of our time. Results are presented from a drama-based research project in higher education, and in a youth project. In the chapter, so-called nomadic enquiry is combined with an arts-based approach to participant interviews. Through this innovative method, an image of a rhizome emerged. This rhizome of expanded learning highlights five necessities or critical nodes for expanded sustainability-oriented learning: emer-gence, expansion through role, embodiment, connection to self and others, and crucial conditions. The rhizomatic perspective not only shows the transformative potential of drama in higher education and adult learning but also identifies the levers and barriers teachers, students, and the academy as an institution are likely to encounter when trying to move towards a socio-ecologically more civilized world. The results point to how the integration of knowledge and wisdom that are striven for in the philosophy of ecological civilization can be put into pedagogical practice through the holistic learning of drama.

The Handbook of Ecological Civilization, unfortunately, is not an Open Access Handbook – but your library may have access. But I am happy to share the corrected proffs for your own use here!

ImaginingSustainabilityThroughNOmadicInquiry_Fries_Wals_CorrectedProofs Download

Full citation: Fries, J., Wals, A. (2025). Imagining Sustainability: A Nomadic Inquiry of Applied Drama in Higher Education. In: Peters, M.A., Green, B.J., Misiaszek, G.W., Zhu, X. (eds) Handbook of Ecological Civilization. Springer International Handbooks of Education. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-97-8101-0_73-1

New book: Civilizational Collapse and the Philosophy of Post-apocalyptical Survival

Posted on 05/07/2025 by arjenwals

“Collapse” “The end of the world as we know it” “Amargeddon” “Dystopian Futures” “Maintaining hope on a dying planet” – words, concepts, phrases, pointing at the serious state of Earth. This remarkeable book with a range of perspectives on what to do, is a must read for educators, activitsts, researchers and composites thereof. From the back cover:

“The collapse of civilization, the end of the world as we know it, has long been a cultural imaginary, but has rarely been as topical as it is today. Beyond the phantasmagoria of violence, depression and despair, the conviction of being doomed has always been present It can be a challenge to imagine a new, post-apocalyptic world, be it utopian or dystopian. Beyond questions of immediate survival, there is a growing concern about how to educate humanity for a new life after the end of this world. In this volume, the editors, Michael A. Peters and Thomas Meier, renowned scholars of educational and apocalyptic studies, have brought together 31 contributions that offer a diversity of perspectives on such post-apocalyptic education, from abstract philosophical reflections to applied studies, from historical and political analyses of how we got into the current situation of global devastation to decolonial perspectives and essayistic explorations.”

I was invited to contribute a chapter on what I have dubbed ´Earth-centered education´: Earth Centred Education: An Invitation to Relational Transgressive Learning as a Counter-Hegemonic Force in Times of Systemic Global Dysfunction Have a look at the ToC and consider getting a copy of the book from Peter Lang here

I am providing a link to the table of contents of the book and the typeset version of my chapter here.

Wals_ ApocalypseChapter Download

The art of arts-based interventions in transdisciplinary sustainability research

Posted on 20/01/2025 by arjenwals

Led by PhD-Candidate Sophia-Marie Horvath of Department of Forest- and Soil Sciences, Institute of Forest Ecology, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna, a paper just came out in Sustainability Science on the contribution of arts-based interventions in transdisciplinary sustainability research. Transdisciplinary, co-creative research deals with complex real-world problems, with complexity being a common denominator of sustainability issues. It is often understood as an interplay of two dimensions, collaboration and creativity, that facilitates the integration of different forms of knowledge and the creation of transformative outcomes. In the end, it aims to find more holistic and systemic solutions to complex real-world problems. Increasingly, Arts-Based Interventions (ABIs) are proposed to support sustainability-oriented transdisciplinary research. However, little research has been done so far to gauge the extent to which adding arts to the mix actually benefits the transdisciplinary research process and outcomes. In the research project reported on in this article, we took a first step into the realm of the arts by including ABIs into transdisciplinary brainstorming sessions. You can find the full paper here: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11625-024-01614-2#citeas

Full citation: Horvath, SM., Payerhofer, U., Wals, A. et al. The art of arts-based interventions in transdisciplinary sustainability research. Sustain Sci (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-024-01614-2

Creating LivingLabs for Nature-Based Solutions – ENABLS Takes Off

Posted on 03/12/2024 by arjenwals

We are about to end the first year of an EU-funded project on developing LivingLabs for Nature-Based Solutions and will soon ‘implement’ / unfold 7 LivingLabs in the participating countries. Below some basic information that you can also find on the ENABLS Website. Together with Mieke de Wit, ouise van der Stok and Lian Kasper, I am representing Education & Learning Sciences of Wageningen University in this major project.

ENABLS is also on LinkedIn and Instagram

New Open Access Paper: River Co-Learning Arenas: principles and practices for transdisciplinary knowledge co-creation and multi-scalar (inter)action

Posted on 26/11/2024 by arjenwals

This collaborative multi-authored paper develops the methodological concept of river co-learning arenas (RCAs) and explores their potential to strengthen innovative grassroots river initiatives, enliven river commons, regenerate river ecologies, and foster greater socio-ecological justice. The integrity of river systems has been threatened in profound ways over the last century. Pollution, damming, canalisation, and water grabbing are some examples of pressures threatening the entwined lifeworlds of human and non-human communities that depend on riverine systems. Finding ways to reverse the trends of environmental degradation demands complex spatial–temporal, political, and institutional articulations across different levels of governance (from local to global) and among a plurality of actors who operate from diverse spheres of knowledge and systems of practice, and who have distinct capacities to affect decision-making. In this context, grassroots river initiatives worldwide use new multi-actor and multi-level dialogue arenas to develop proposals for river regeneration and promote social-ecological justice in opposition to dominant technocratic-hydraulic development strategies. This paper conceptualises these spaces of dialogue and action as RCAs and critically reflects on ways of organising and supporting RCAs while facilitating their cross-fertilisation in transdisciplinary practice. By integrating studies, debates, and theories from diverse disciplines, we generate multi-faceted insights and present cornerstones for the engagement with and/or enaction of RCAs. This encompasses five main themes central to RCAs: (1) River knowledge encounters and truth regimes, (2) transgressive co-learning, (3) confrontation and collaboration dynamics, (4) ongoing reflexivity, (5) transcultural knowledge assemblages and translocal bridging of rooted knowledge.

Citation:

De Souza, D. T., Hommes, L., Wals, A., Hoogesteger, J., Boelens, R., Duarte-Abadía, B., … Joy, K. J. (2024). River co-learning arenas: principles and practices for transdisciplinary knowledge co-creation and multi-scalar (inter)action. Local Environment, 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2024.2428215

The full paper can be downloaded here!

New book on 50 years of Education and Learning for Sustainable Futures

Posted on 19/11/2024 by arjenwals

We are pleased to share with you the publication of our new book, Education and Learning for Sustainable Futures: 50 years of learning and environmental change. This book explores fundamental questions about how the role of education has evolved over the decades since the pivotal 1972 Stockholm Conference, which brought environmental learning to the forefront of global awareness.

Co-authors, Daniella Tilbury and Thomas Macintyre and myself, have attempted to find some answers by tracking through the decades (1970-2020) the development of narratives, thinking, and practice of learning and education in support of the environment and sustainability. What is clear is that the profile and presence of learning and education for the environment has been elevated in today’s policy discourses and communities of practice. Yet, our analysis identified some clear differences in the way education and learning for the environment has been approached over time.

In our new book, we trace these changes over the decades while looking ahead to the challenges and opportunities of the future. A key wildcard in this journey is Artificial Intelligence (AI), which holds immense potential to bridge digital and green agendas, enabling smarter environmental management and driving innovation toward a sustainable future. However, we also address critical concerns: data privacy breaches, outsourcing human thinking to profit-driven algorithms, exacerbation of inequalities, and the environmental footprint of AI infrastructure.

This book provides a light way into the history, developments and prospects of the field of Environmental and Sustainability Education.

Full reference:

Macintyre, T., Tilbury, D., & Wals, A. (2024). Education and Learning for Sustainable Futures: 50 Years of Learning for Environment and Change (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003467007

Wish to read more? Our book is open access thanks to the funding of the Dutch Government that funded this publication: https://www.routledge.com/Education-and-Learning-for-Sustainable-Futures-50-Years-of-Learning-for-Environment-and-Change/Macintyre-Tilbury-Wals/p/book/9781032727912

Our thanks also go to Stakeholder Forum and to @JanGustav for his leadership role in the Stockholm+50 reflective dialogues, and to UNEP/ the Swedish Government for spurring us on to track the historical development of education and learning for the environment. We are also grateful to @Routledge for taking an interest in publishing the text.

Whole School Approaches to Sustainability

Posted on 25/06/2024 by arjenwals

Education Renewal in Times of Distress

LInk to the book: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-56172-6

At last – the edited volume on ‘Whole School Approaches to Sustainability – Educational renewal in times of distress’ has come out. Together with co-editors, Birgitte Bjønness, Astrid Sinnes and Ingrid Eikeland, and managing editor Stine Marie FyskeHaraldsen, we have worked with authors from around the world to create this rich picture of principles, practices and prospects of school working more systemically and holistically with sustainability, rather than treating it like another subject to be added to an already overcrowded curriculum.

The book has been made Open Acess and all 24 (!) chapters can be downloaded for free thanks to a grant provided through the Dutch Government-Supported Programme for Learning for Sustainable Development (LvDO).

We wish to acknowledge Roel van Raaij who has been an advocate of Education for Sustainable Development, both nationally and internationally, from within the Dutch government for decades, and Ellen Leusink who facilitates and supports ESD through the LvDO program and paved the way for the open access.

We also want to acknowledge the Department of Educational Science at
the Norwegian Life Science University (NMBU led by Hans Erik Lefdal together with Akershus county municipality (the school district South of Oslo) for the support to establish and run the University—School partnership for the last 6 years or so, continuing to this
day. The partnership with schools, especially the collaboration with school
coordinators and principals, have supported the development of the Whole
School Approach through research and praxis. Without this foundation and
support, we would not have had the knowledge, time, and confidence to work
on this book.

Here is the link to the book: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-56172-6

Analysing farmers’ learning for socio-ecological stewardship in Eastern Uganda: A transformative learning ecology perspective

Posted on 22/05/2024 by arjenwals

This paper stems from the research of PhD Candidate Doreen Misanya. It analyses how smallholder farmers are learning for socio-ecological stewardship in a specific case study context in Eastern Uganda. The case under analysis is a watershed management project that uses an integrated farm planning (PIP) approach to strengthen farmers’ stewardship capacities within the Manafwa watershed through interactive and dialogic ways of engaging and teaching farmers. Utilizing a transformative learning ecology (TLE) perspective, this study investigated features of the PIP approach that support transformative learning for socio-ecological stewardship in a rural context. Data was collected by interviewing eighteen farmers from different villages and PIP generations and all three PIP trainers of the project, and by observing training sessions as well as sensitisation workshops. As a main result, the study yielded new insights that can help enhance PIP-like learning configurations consisting of interconnected learning tenets, dimensions and processes. This enhanced learning configurating comprises an organic learning system that facilitates farmers to change their mindsets and redefine their values, perspectives, routines, and practices towards those that encourage socio-ecological stewardship. The TLE fostered by the PIP approach represents a useful heuristic that can guide and inspire both scholars and educators engaged in processes of cultivating socio-ecological stewardship in similar contexts.

The paper can be found here https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/27685241.2023.2191795

Full citation:

Misanya, D., Tassone, V. C., Kessler, A., Kibwika, P., & Wals, A. E. J. (2023). Analysing farmers’ learning for socio-ecological stewardship in Eastern Uganda: A transformative learning ecology perspective. NJAS: Impact in Agricultural and Life Sciences, 95(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/27685241.2023.2191795

The research took place within the Manafwa Watershed Restoration (MWARES) Project in Bududa District, Eastern Uganda. A Baseline Report of the project appeared in 2020. It outlines the starting position of the PIP farmers in the region. This report can be found here.

mwares-baseline-survey-final-version-20210702 Download

Rethinking pedagogy in the face of complex societal challenges: helpful perspectives for teaching the entangled student

Posted on 15/04/2024 by arjenwals

This paper appeared online in 2022 and was a part of the wonderful dissertation of Koen Wessels which was later published by Springer Nature as a book within the publisher´s SDG 4 ´Quality Education´ Series. Now has been formally published in open-access form as a part of the latest issue of Pedagogy, Culture and Society. Full citattion: Wessels, K. R., Bakker, C., Wals, A. E. J., & Lengkeek, G. (2024). Rethinking pedagogy in the face of complex societal challenges: helpful perspectives for teaching the entangled student. Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 32(3), 759–776. View and download here: https://doi.org/10.1080/14681366.2022.2108125

Here is the abstract to give you a bit of a flavor of the paper:

White Paper on Regenerative Higher Education – Rethinking education in times of dysfunction and collapse

Posted on 08/03/2023 by arjenwals

Regrettably this white paper is only available in Dutch. Some ot the ideas artuclated in the paper can also be found in The Regenerative Education Podcast Series created by PhD Bas van den Berg see: The Regenerative Education Podcasts – Planting the seeds of change

Ik maak sinds een paar jaar deeluit van een Nederlandse Community of Practice rondom Regenerative Higher Education bestaande uit PhDs en medewerkers van verschillende universiteiten en hoge scholen. Dit White Paper is het resultaat van de samenwerking in de Community of Practice en is samengesteld door Martine de Wit en gebaseerd op interviews met Bas van den Berg, Daan Buijs, Mieke Lopes Cardozo, Marlies van der Wee en Arjen Wals. Met input van Nina Bohm, Linda de Greef, Michaela Hordijk, Naomie Tieks, Koen Wessels, Rosanne van Wieringen, en Roosmarijn van Woerden. De illustraties en vormgeving zijn verzorgd door Mari Genova.

Het paper vertrekt vanuit de vraag:

Onderwijs dat het beste haalt uit onszelf en onze studenten, op weg naar herstel van de aarde. Hoe komen we daar?

Lees hier ons verhaal en laat ons weten wat resoneert, schuurt of wat het anderzins losmaakt!

whitepaperrenerativeeducation Download

A regenerative decolonization perspective on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) from Latin America – new research

Posted on 02/03/2023 by arjenwals

Central Figure in the article: Regenerative education through decolonial praxis.

Led by former Wageningen University PhD Dr. Thomas Macintyre and current Wageningen University Post-Doc, Dr Daniele Tubino de Souza, I was priviledged to collaborate on this new paper that appeared in the latest issue of Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education. This paper provides a Latin American perspective on ESD, with a focus on transformative and participatory learning in community contexts. With a long history of critical pedagogies, Latin America provides a fertile ground for exploring alternative forms of education as a means to address deep-rooted challenges in western traditional strands of education. We start by providing an overview of pertinent educational currents present in Latin America, then ground these perspectives in two case studies carried out by the authors – one from Colombia, the other from Brazil – which explore grassroots initiatives in community settings that utilise different forms of education and learning. We then propose an integrative model to foster alternative educational approaches that might lead to decolonial and regenerative praxis, finishing with a discussion on how Latin American-rooted regenerative decolonisation perspective and praxis can inform global ESD discourses.

You can find the full paper here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03057925.2023.2171262

Full citation: Macintyre, T. Tubino de Souza, D. & Wals, A.E.J. (2023) A regenerative decolonization perspective on ESD from Latin America, Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, DOI: 10.1080/03057925.2023.2171262

Education in Times of Climate Change – comprehensive NORRAG Special Volume

Posted on 27/09/2022 by arjenwals

Climate change is not a new issue for education, but new levels of consensus and concern are emerging, suggesting that new policy developments may follow. This NORRAG Special Issue (NSI 07) addresses the question of how education is to equip learners to participate in climate action that would fundamentally disrupt existing problematic systems. This NSI has the potential to inform pedagogical praxis, co-learning, curriculum, climate action, policy formulation, frameworks for evaluating success, resourcing decisions and what we might consider educative acts for engaging with climate change and its multi-dimensional uncertainties, risks and opportunities.

Edited by South African Professors Eureta Rosenberg and Heila Lotz-Sisitka, this is one of the most comprehensive and ground braking collections of papers available at the moment. The special issue is completely open access. You can find the full table of contents here.

I am very pleased to have found two wonderful Norwegian colleagues – Astrid Sinnes of the Norwegian Life Sciences University and Ole Andreas Kvamme of the University of Oslo who were willing to join in writing a contribution which is titled: School Strikes as Catalysts for Rethinking Educational Institutions, Purposes and Practices

I am also delighted to see two of my former PhD’s, Thomas Macintyre and Martha Chaves, based in Colombia in the special issue as well with a paper on Climate Change Resilience through Collaborative Learning in the Colombian Coffee Region – they co-authored with Tatiana Monroy who, like omas and Martha volunteers for Fundación Mentes en Transición, Colombia, South America

There will be an online launch of the NORRAG Special Issue 07 (NSI 07): Education in Times of Climate Change, will take place on 6 October 2022 at 16:00 – 17:30 CEST. For more information about the llaunch event have look here!

Transgressive learning, resistance pedagogy and disruptive capacitybuilding as levers for sustainability

Posted on 25/05/2022 by arjenwals

Earlier this month the 8th Report from the Global University Network fir Innovation (GUNi) was published with a wealth of contributions critiquing current resilient modes and models of education and outlinig alternative one in light of the current systemic global dysfunction we find ourselves in. I was asked to contribute a chapter on transgressive learning. The link to the chapter is here

TransgressiveLearningResistancePedagogyWals_2022_GUNI Download

You can find the entire book at www.guni-call4action.org

The full citation for my chapter is: Wals, AEJ (2022) Transgressive learning, resistance pedagogy and disruptive capacity building as levers for sustainability. In: Higher Education in the World 8 – Special issue New Visions for Higher Education, Barcelona: Global University Network for Innovation (GUNi). Open access: www.guni-call4action.org, p216-222.

Creating a sense of community and space for subjectification in an online course on sustainability education during times of physical distancing

Posted on 25/04/2022 by arjenwals

Handmade painting by a student on “Empowerment –
a rising sensation that liberates you from ‘sinking’ into negativity” – using artistic forms of evaluation of learning, helped both subjectification and creating a sense of community in the course

This paper recently appeared in International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education. It explores students’ sense of community and belonging in an online course on environmental and sustainable education during times of physical distancing as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a case study approach, the results show that students perceived a sense of community that was collectively build during the four week program. Sense of community was linked to and facilitated by the learning environment and the educators’ and students’ role throughout the course. Prominent factors here are interaction and inclusion created with mutual effort by design, the educator and student.

This research arose after the course ELS-31806 Environmental Education and Learning for Sustainability[1] was converted as an ‘offline’ course into an online course due to COVID-19. The original content of the course enables students to systematically discuss important concerns in the development of an effective curriculum and/or operation for the environment and sustainable development using a range of instrumental and emancipatory approaches. But foremost ELS-31806 is a course that has always been, well appreciated and highly valued by participants for its highly experiential and hands-on approach.

However, due to COVID-19 this year’s course (2020) was changed into a less experiential on-line format mediated by Zoom for interaction and by Brightspace for course structure and organisation. This somewhat ad-hoc and sudden departure from the traditional successful format, lowered the instructors, and probably also, the students’ expectations about the course’ ability to create a vibrant learning community. Yet, contrary to pre-course expectations, ‘something’ (i.e. a sense) arose over the course of four weeks online education that both students and staff considered to be special or meaningful. These hunches got confirmed several weeks after by Wageningen UR’s student evaluation system PACE which revealed that the students highly valued the course.

We were intrigued by the question of how this online edition evoked similar, or nearly similar outcomes to its offline counterpart. After first checking whether our hunches were right about the course and what might explain the high evaluation marks, we centre in the paper’s main question:

What are key characteristics of an online course that fosters subjectification (personal development and inner-sustainability in relation to others and the other) and creates a sense of community?

The paper was led by former MsC student Robbert Hesen and co-authored by myself and ELS Postdoc Rebekah Tauritz.

Citation

Hesen, R., Wals, A.E.J. and Tauritz, R.L. (2022), “Creating a sense of community and space for subjectification in an online course on sustainability education during times of physical distancing”, International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, Vol. 23 No. 8, pp. 85-104. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSHE-07-2021-0270

Triggered by these results we decided to investigate what might explain these results.

[1] A course within the Education and Learning Sciences (ELS) chair group at Wageningen University & Research (UR): https://ssc.wur.nl/Handbook/Course/ELS-31806

Summer School River Lives and Living Rivers: Towards a transdisciplinary conceptualization

Posted on 07/03/2022 by arjenwals

I feel very privileged to be part of one of the two major International River Research projects led by Wageningen UR colleague Prof. Rutgerd Boelens: Riverhood and RiverCommons. Riverhood and River Commons are both 5-year research projects that focus on enlivening rivers, river co-governance initiatives, and new water justice movements.

Riverhood is funded by the European Research Council (ERC) (Grant Agreement No 101002921) and aims to build groundbreaking transdisciplinary concepts and methodological tools to analyze and support new water justice movements’ institutions, strategies and practices for equitable and sustainable water governance. It does so through comparing initiatives in Latin America (Ecuador and Colombia) and Europe (Netherlands and Spain). The focus will be on movements promoting novel concepts and practices such as Rights of Nature, new water cultures or nature-inclusive hydraulics, to name just a few.

RiverCommons is funded by Wageningen University’s Interdisciplinary Research and Education Fund (INREF) and unites chair groups from the social and natural sciences, as well as partners worldwide. Its objective is to develop transdisciplinary concepts and methods for research, education, and multi-stakeholder interactions to understand and support river co-governance initiatives and sustainable socio-ecological river systems in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe.

While each of the projects has its specific objectives, activities, regions, and partners, there is immense potential for synergies and cross-pollination. Riverhood and River Commons will therefore be integrated in multiple ways, to together build a diverse and wide network of river scholars, activists, and institutions that commonly aim to understand and strengthen river co-governance around the world.

Both projects are united by a common framework that illuminates the different facets and complexities of river systems. The framework encompasses four dimensions: River-as-Ecosociety, River-as-Territory, River-as-Subject, and River-as-Movement. You can find more information about it in Concepts.

Another important component of both projects is the development of Environmental Justice Labs (Riverhood) and River Co-governance Labs (River Commons) to be organized in the case study sites to co-create knowledge and mobilize and exchange ideas for change.

One exciting immediate prospect and possibility for PhD’s from around the world is our Summer School “River Lives and Living Rivers: Towards a transdisciplinary conceptualization”

Here is the short introduction to the course:

World’s rivers are fundamental to social and natural well-being but profoundly affected by mega-damming and pollution. In response to top-down and technocratic approaches, in many places riverine communities practice forms of ‘river co-governance’, integrating ecological, cultural, political, economic and technological dimensions. In addition, new water justice movements (NWJMs) have emerged worldwide to creatively transform local ideas for ‘enlivening rivers’ into global action and vice versa. The Summer School aims to provide PhD students who conduct research on these ‘river commons’ and NWJMs with transdisciplinary concepts and approaches for studying their emerging ideas, concepts, proposals and strategies. The training thereby focuses on conceptualizing river systems in all senses, and capacity-building for (understanding and supporting) river knowledge co-creation and democratisation from the bottom up.