Embedding European citizen visions in sustainability transition: Comparative analysis across 30 European countries

Abstract

Co-production of knowledge with international publics can reveal novel insights into sustainability concerns across countries. However, generalisable studies on how place-specificity corresponds to sustainability transition are lacking, although there is an emerging body of literature on the geography of sustainability transition. This article contributes to that aim by examining 1) how citizen perspectives on sustainability are distributed across countries and groups of countries, and 2) what sustainability directions the citizens in their respective countries are likely to support. Empirical analysis of citizen visions of sustainable and desirable futures from 30 European countries identifies distinct topics through modelling and categorises groups of countries according to similarities. The study finds an overarching, education-related European citizen approach to sustainability. However, there are other topical differences across groups of countries, which implies that there is not one European but several optional policy directions for successful sustainability transition.