Sustainability Science Partnerships: a View from the Antipodes

Drawing largely on recent educational and policy developments in the UK, Germany, Switzerland and Austria, de la Vega-Leinert et al. (2009: this issue) both make the case for, and highlight, the growing interest in 'sustainability science' in universities, often encouraged by national science research councils. They also point out that, at least in the progressive political climate of Western Europe, there is now considerable support for 'sustainability science partnerships, inside and external to academia'. While the authors draw transatlantic inspiration from such North American 'sustainability' luminaries as R.W. Kates and W.C. Clark, their essay sits squarely in the (largely European) tradition of writings about eutopia (a preferred real future, or 'good place') (Dator, 1983). Given that we are now at the half-way mark into the UN-declared Decade for Education for Sustainable Development, their essay is timely and complements the recent five-year review of that program (UNESCO, 2009) as well as other assessments of both the Decade and its antecedent, environmental education (Sherren, 2008; Venkataraman, 2009).