The educative potential of encountering and attending to losses in sustainability transitions

People are increasingly experiencing losses in their lifestyles, habits, and environments, not only due to unsustainability and climate change but also due to sustainability transitions (STs). Encountering the latter can lead to “transition pain” and resistance to STs, but it is still underexplored empirically in environmental and sustainability education. With transactional learning theory based on Dewey and the concept of conflicting attachments by Marres, this paper seeks to identify the educative potential of encountering such losses due to STs. The analyses use empirical examples from participant observations of ST initiatives. Through encountering and attending to losses in informal learning situations, participants and facilitators change their habits and expand their repertoire of action. New ways of doing, arguing, knowing, noticing, and feeling emerge through recognising one’s own and others’ attachments, conflicts between those, inquiring upon solutions to avoid losses, the development of one’s position, and the emergence of empathy for another’s losses.