Education for Sustainable Development in an Unequal World - (Bristol Studies in Comparative and International Education) (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is recurrently depicted as an enterprise that unites humanity in a common pursuit of a more just and sustainable world. But how is this enterprise pursued on a planet that is enormously unequal? Drawing on biopolitical theory and rich empirical data from different contexts around the world, this book explores how ESD is unpacked depending on whether people are rich or poor.

The book demonstrates how ESD is adapted to the lifestyles and living conditions of different populations. The implication of this depoliticized sensitivity to local 'realities', the book argues, is that inequality becomes accommodated and that different responsibilities are assigned to rich and poor. Ultimately, the book considers alternatives to this biopolitical divide.

Review Quotes

"This is an important, urgent and sophisticated book. Surely the best book yet written on Education for Sustainable Development. Using a subtle and impressive combination of carefully elicited research data from different socioeconomic settings and pertinent and effective theoretical resources, it argues for an affirmation of equality and life within a critical and situated ESD. Anyone with concerns about the extinction of our species and all practitioners of ESD must read this book now!"

Stephen J Ball FBA, UCL Institute of Education

"Education for sustainable development has been gaining strength in institutional politics, but it has also been seen as a slogan due to its conceptual ambiguity. This book constitutes a proposal from biopolitical theory to seriously consider specific realities, mainly in countries that suffer from great social inequality." Edgar Javier González Gaudiano, Universidad Veracruzana

About the Author

Beniamin Knutsson is Associate Professor and Senior Lecturer at the Department of Pedagogical, Curricular and Professional Studies, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, and Research Associate of the Centre for Education Rights and Transformation, University of Johannesburg, South Africa.

Linus Bylund is Senior Lecturer at the Department of Pedagogical, Curricular and Professional Studies, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

Sofie Hellberg is Associate Professor and Senior Lecturer at the School of Global Studies, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

Jonas Lindberg is Associate Professor and Senior Lecturer in Human Geography at the Department of Economy and Society, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.