Planetary Citizenship Research Articles

Who and what belongs to us? Towards a comprehensive concept of inclusion and planetary citizenship

In this theoretical article, we ask who and what belongs to us. We aim to conceptualise planetary citizenship and identify the scale for experiences of planetary inclusion. As a basis for the planetary approach, we utilise systems thinking and eudaimonic well-being that transcends hedonism and materialism and that focuses on meaningful and purposeful living, personal growth, engagement and positive relationships. Expanding the concept of human participation is necessary as the contemporary lifeworld has gradually stretched beyond the traditional boundaries of local communities and nation-state societies. Furthermore, the lifestyle of people living in high-income industrial countries has also been noted to have serious consequences in wider circles of life. Thus, human–biosphere relationships must be renegotiated to strengthen responsible citizenship and facilitate caring for life on Earth. To promote this ideal, we widen the already validated scale for experiences of social inclusion towards a scale for experiences of planetary inclusion. We introduce the concept of planetary citizenship, which enhances the concept of inclusion. Planetary citizenship refers to a life orientation where the boundary between humans and the rest of nature disappears. It refers to the citizen who is simultaneously a local, global and planetary actor. The attachment to something larger could help planetary citizens grow towards being a person who is aware and reflective and can look at the world from new perspectives. Experiences of planetary inclusion could also help to solve the problems of climate change, depletion of natural resources and biodiversity loss.

Between the local and the global: The tension of cultivating a bi-directional ecocritical awareness in education

Although numerous approaches to cultivating an ecocritical awareness in students exist, much scholarly dialog has revolved around ecojustice education and ecopedagogy. Whereas the former seeks to cultivate a local ecocritical awareness in students, the latter advocates for a globalized “planetary citizenship.” While both cultivate an ecocritical awareness, they focus this awareness in different directions: the local and the global. This tension is illustrated by the 2004 disagreement between Gadotti and Bowers. In this article, I use this disagreement as a starting place to examine this tension and challenge the perceived opposition between cultivating a local and a planetary ecojustice awareness.

Integrating planetary citizenship as a cross-curricular theme and a whole-school approach: using a value-creating approach to learning

This article reflects on the double planetary crises of climate impacts and Covid-19 from a study of certain Indigenous perspectives. An early review of the impact of these crises suggests the importance of resilience at the national and regional level to combat these challenges. Value-creating global citizenship education is a pedagogical approach developed from a study of certain Indigenous perspectives to enhance the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and beyond. The key focus of this approach is to build resilience and hope through engaged relationships between learners and their natural, social and educational environments. Using this approach, education for planetary citizenship is proposed as a cross-curricular theme, and a whole-school orientation for education across nation states, within formal and non-formal settings. Under this banner, the study of human relationship to Nature and its exploitation, risks such as climate change crisis, threats from global pandemics and lessons from Green Schools and Eco-Schools are suggested as focal points of study. In discussing these issues, this article enacts a dialogic engagement with multiple world views that brings into focus different ways of thinking about ourselves, society and Nature, such as reflected in the Earth Charter, which can enhance the intercultural dimension of education.

An authentic learner-centered planetary health assignment: A five-year evaluation of student choices to address Sustainable Development Goal 13 (Climate Action).

A Code Red has been declared for the planet and human health. Climate change (e.g., increasing temperatures, adverse weather events, rising sea levels) threatens the planet's already declining ecosystems. Without urgent action, all of Earth's inhabitants face an existential threat. Health professions education should therefore prepare learners to not only practice in a changing world, but authentic educational activities should also develop competencies for global and planetary citizenship. Planetary health has been integrated across the five-year Bond University (Australia) medical curriculum. It begins in the second week of Year 1 and ends with a session on Environmentally Sustainable Healthcare in the General Practice rotation in the final year. The purpose of this article is to describe the outcomes of the first 5 years (2018-2022) of a learner-centered planetary health assignment, underpinned by the 2030 United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in the second year of a five-year medical program. Using systems and/or design thinking with a focus on SDG13 (Climate Action) plus a second SDG of choice, self-selected teams of 4-6 students submit a protocol (with feedback) to develop a deliverable "product" for an intended audience. Data analysis of the first 5 years of implementation found that the most frequently selected SDGs in addition to SDG13 were: SDG12 Sustainable Production and Consumption (41% of teams), mostly relating to healthcare emissions and waste; SDG3 Health and Well-being (22%), generally involving the impact of air pollution; and SDG6 Clean Water and Sanitation (15%). A survey at the concluding conference garnered student feedback across various criteria. The planetary health assignment is authentic in that teams provide solutions to address climate change. Where appropriate, final "products" are sent to local or federal ministers for consideration (e.g., policy proposals) or integrated into the curriculum (e.g., learning modules). We believe that the competencies, attitudes, and values fostered through engagement with planetary health. Throughout the medical program, as evidenced by their evaluations, stands students in good stead to be change agents, not only in clinical practice but in society. An awareness has been created about the need for planetary citizenship in addition to global citizenship.

‘Are you a green Guide’? Conservation, environmentalism, and citizenship in the British Girl Guides Association, 1986-1992

ABSTRACT This article explores the meaning and significance of environmental education within the British Girl Guides Association (GGA) in the period 1986–92. It considers how the youth organization reconceptualized meanings of citizenship in the wake of increased public and political concern surrounding the world environment. In doing so, it builds upon our understanding of the organization, by exploring changing understandings of citizenship within the movement in the context of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s Britain. It argues that a growing awareness of environmentalism in the latter half of the twentieth century saw a move towards an ideal of planetary citizenship, with members being encouraged to become agents of environmental change through their engagement with environmental issues and humanitarianism. This marked a shift in an organization that had long emphasized nationalistic ideas of duty and service, as organizational periodicals played a significant role in establishing in popular discourse an idea of green citizenship, which crossed geographical boundaries. Yet the organizational focus on world conservation also reinforced traditional models of citizenship, with an emphasis on civic duty and individual responsibility, which were reinforced in the social and political climate of the 1980s. Indeed, the construction of green citizenship within the organization was forged within, and reinforced, Thatcherite discourses of active citizenship and consumer duty, which had underpinned Thatcher’s ‘green turn’. Moreover, reflecting the emphasis on traditional gender roles in the 1980s, the green citizen was a gendered concept with girls encouraged to prepare for their roles as both young green consumers and future green homemakers. Therefore, green citizenship, as it was mobilized in the GGA, was a nebulous entity that was underpinned by a variety of contemporary socio-political discourses and played out on a variety of spatial registers, from the global to the individual.

The Planet: A Lament for Environmentally Engaged Citizenship?

This article focuses on Garin Nugroho’s stage play The Planet: A Lament, which combines song and dance, predominantly from Eastern Indonesia, with video and other visuals that bewail the human destruction of the natural environment. I argue that the performance embodies a call for planetary citizenship that bridges art and spirituality as well as aspects of deep ecology and political ecology. The combination of art and spirituality facilitates intimate connections between audiences and phenomena that are otherwise relatively inaccessible and difficult to grasp due to their specific philosophical, scientific, socio-political or cultural-linguistic character. Moreover, the stage play draws connections between some of the worst environmental disaster zones in Indonesia and the socio-political, religious and cultural suppression or marginalisation of the people living in the affected areas. I seek to demonstrate how its engagement with marginalised ethnic groups, cultural traditions and religions provide a foundation for environmental renewal. At the same time, some aspects of this foundation are weakened by ambiguities around the sponsorship and promotion of the production. This article discusses the play’s structure, aesthetics and representation of race and religion; its position in Nugroho’s larger socially, politically and environmentally engaged oeuvre; and the politics of promotion and sponsorship.

Do pensamento clássico ao complexo na busca por justiça social: ensaio teórico

O presente texto é resultado de pesquisa bibliográfica junto aos teóricos da complexidade, num esforço de tecer evidências, opiniões e posições que possam ofertar oportunidade para a contraposição de ideias e o esclarecimento a respeito de nossas individualidades, práticas e da própria sociedade. Busca-se através desse, a ampliação da consciência relativa ao conviver e ao pensar cidadão diante da crise civilizatória, humanitária, sanitária, educacional e econômica que se vive. Como indicativo teórico final aponta para o pensamento complexo, por meio da transdisciplinaridade como meio educacional saudável promotor da ética humana, assim como, indica caminhos educacionais possíveis para “cidadania planetária” e justiça social, além de demonstrar ser o desenvolvimento humano por meio da criatividade a estratégia educacional mais atrativa e colaborativa no evoluir sistêmico da consciência respeitosa no viver.

Education for Sustainable Development Review

Education for Sustainable Development Review

Memory of Water: Boundaries of Political Geography and World Literature

The fact that dystopian literature has a great potential for envisioning alternative futures is elaborated in this article in relation to the Finnish/British author Emmi Itäranta’s Memory of Water (2013). Itäranta’s gloomy low-fi novel is read alongside contemporary ecocritical theory with a focus on issues of vernacular cultures and knowledges versus ideas of cosmopolitan planetary citizenship. Reflections are made about the profound nature of the concept of borders: cultural, temporal, informational, geographical, political, in the event of massive catastrophes. The article investigates how Rob Nixon’s concept of ‘slow violence’ and Ursula Heise’s ‘eco-cosmopolitanism’ are played out in a novel, and how the novel in turn poses important questions for ecocritical theory. Thus, the interplay between ecocritical literary theory, on the one hand, and literature, on the other, is highlighted. What can dystopia make visible in contemporary theory?

O princípio responsabilidade e a educação: aportes freirianos para uma compreensão ecopedagógica da heurística do temor em Hans Jonas

Este artigo apresenta uma reflexão sobre a ética da responsabilidade do filósofo alemão Hans Jonas, especificamente a partir da sua concepção de heurística do temor em diálogo com o pensamento de Paulo Freire. A reflexão objetiva compreender a expressão heurística do temor a fim de interpretar a contribuição do seu significado com algumas proposições pedagógicas para contribuir com as discussões sobre ética, responsabilidade e a ação educativa. A metodologia da abordagem é de cunho bibliográfico e hermenêutico. Discute-se que a educação pode assumir essa tarefa de produção intencional da representação dessa imagem do temor que ainda não foi experimentado, de modo que a mesma traduza em aspectos político-pedagógicos seus reais propósitos de problematizar conjunturas e conscientizar a partilha global da responsabilidade. Propõe-se, com base em Paulo Freire, uma educação conscientizadora, uma ecopedagogia para a cidadania planetária.

Trabajo social y el enfoque sostenible 2030

<p>Recepción: 22/ 07/ 2019</p>
 <p>Aceptación: 12/ 08/ 2019</p>
 <p>Publicación: 07/ 09/2019</p>
 <p>La actual investigación tiene como propósito la revisión del trabajo social y el enfoque sostenible, esto permite conocer la tendencia del trabajo social como factor cooperativo en la consolidación de los objetivos de desarrollo sostenible, siendo pertinente diseñar políticas públicas que permitan promover acciones concretas en tal fin, para tal fin se ha empleado la revisión documental de 25 referencias bibliográficas, siendo el 99% pertenecientes a trabajos publicados en revistas arbitradas indizadas, para lo cual se aplicó la técnica de análisis de contenido para analizar los significados presentes en los documentos. Entre los principales aportes, se tiene que el trabajo social debe redescubrir su esencia desde la visión sujeto – sujeto como medio de contribución eficaz de cara al 2030, siendo que la formación de los nuevos profesionales de trabajo social, debe contar con las aristas necesarias para una formación compleja que les permita tener una visión global de ciudadanía planetaria.</p>
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Formación de profesionales para una ciudadanía planetaria. La educación para el desarrollo sostenible en los títulos de grado de la Facultad de Educación de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid

This research work has been developed within the framework of the Project Detection of standards and quality criteria for sustainable development and its incorporation into internal systems Quality assurance in the Faculty of Education (Innova-Docencia Projects 2017/2018 de the Complutense University of Madrid) whose objective focuses on trying to answer the following questions: are graduates and graduates of the Faculty of Education of the UCM competent to respond to the different challenges, social and environmental needs that arise each day on our planet? Is education for sustainable development considered as a quality criterion? From a qualitative methodology, a mapping has been constructed based on a selection of educational records and ANECA memories of the different degrees taught in the Faculty of Education: Degree of Primary Teacher, Degree of Infant Teacher, Degree in Social Education and Degree in Pedagogy to identify the strengths and weaknesses in the formation of the different professional profiles. For the collection of data and subsequent analysis, a matrix was designed taking as reference the Sustainable Development Goals, the competences developed by UNECE and UNESCO as indicators of analysis. Although sustainable development is present in the competences, objectives, etc. of some of the subjects analyzed, the results point to the need to introduce improvements related to sustainability in the degrees taught at the Faculty of Education of the UCM in compliance with the objectives and goals of the 2030 Agenda, to incorporate the Education dimension for Sustainable Development in each of the professional profiles. Keywords: Sustainable Development Education, Sustainable Development Goals, curricular sustainability, planetary citizenship

Vocation for planetary citizenship: Lutheran liberal arts education in the Anthropocene

AbstractThe focus question of this article is, “In what ways should Lutheran higher education's teaching on vocation be revised to include the fact that we are living in a natural world massively impacted by human behavior, the Anthropocene Era?” This can be broken down into two more explicit questions: “What is the role of liberal arts education in such a changed context?” and “What resources in the Lutheran tradition can contribute to preparing students to become effective sustainability leaders?” The thesis of this article is that Lutheran liberal arts education, to foster planetary citizenship, must move students from an anthropocentric to an ecocentric understanding of vocation, preparing them to become leaders for a sustainable, interfaith society. This change can be accomplished by reaffirming the value of the liberal arts to foster sustainability education and retrieving Luther's understanding of creation to elicit wonder and appreciation of the natural world.

Sostenibilidad, desarrollo «glocal» y ciudadanía planetaria. Referentes de una Pedagogía para el desarrollo sostenible

Sustainability approaches advise adopting a glocal development model that links local possibilities and practices to global needs and constraints. The complexity of this phenomenon, taken to the political plane, leads to a model of planetary citizenship where humanity’s commitment to nature and the necessary social equity amongst human beings are emphasized. This has clear implications for pedagogy, which this paper aims to highlight. This work starts from the sustainable development scenarios and concludes with a proposal of a planetary citizenship rooted locally. Glocality and planetary citizenship, a concept close to that of cosmopolitan citizenship –once stripped of its anthropocentric connotations–, both lead to significant missions of education in this framework: the formation of a holistic worldview, based on a complex-system thinking, and building a planetary citizenship. In both cases, the consideration of the human as an eco-dependent being, attributes nature an essential position in the educational processes.

Sostenibilidad, desarrollo «glocal» y ciudadanía planetaria. Referentes de una Pedagogía para el desarrollo sostenible

Los planteamientos de la sostenibilidad abocan a un desarrollo glocal que articule las necesidades y condicionamientos globales con las posibilidades y prácticas locales. La complejidad del fenómeno conduce a un modelo de ciudadanía planetaria que enfatiza el compromiso de la humanidad con la Naturaleza y la necesaria equidad social entre los seres humanos. De ello se derivan implicaciones para la Pedagogía que este artículo pretende destacar. A partir de los escenarios del desarrollo sostenible se avanza la propuesta de una ciudadanía planetaria enraizada en lo local. Glocalidad y ciudadanía planetaria –concepto próximo al de ciudadanía cosmopolita, despojada ésta de sus connotaciones antropocéntricas– dan lugar a sendas misiones de la educación: la formación de un pensamiento sistémico-complejo que articule una cosmovisión holística y la educación para una ciudadanía planetaria. En ambas, la condición del ser humano como ser ecodependiente concede a la Naturaleza un lugar principal en los procesos educativos.

Ecopedagogía y buen vivir: los caminos de la sustentabilidad

El descubrimiento de la Tierra como sistema vivo en evolución ha despertado en la humanidad nuevas sensibilidades y percepciones; de un lado el reconocimiento de la Tierra como nuestra patria-matria de origen, no sólo nos ha recordado nuestra membresía en la comunidad de la vida, sino que ha ayudado a despojarnos del ego antropocentrista que nos alejó de ella. De otro lado sobrevino la preocupación por mantenerla sana, y, por supuesto, garantizar nuestra supervivencia como especie. El presente documento pretende dar luces sobre los caminos de la sustentabilidad y el desarrollo de prácticas que favorezcan el sostenimiento de toda la vida, consideramos que es preciso empezar a explorar nuevas formas de habitar la Tierra, de ejercer con responsabilidad la ciudadanía planetaria; por lo que planteamos nuestra propuesta para el buen vivir.

Planetary citizenship and the ecology of knowledges in Brazilian universities

This article discusses the formation of a 'planetary citizenship' based on the 'ecology of knowledges' perspective in Brazilian universities. It is informed by the authors' experiences and the partial results from a research project entitled 'Planetary citizenship and the ecology of knowledges: Interdisciplinarity, transdisciplinarity and internationalization in the university curriculum', a followup project to a previous study conducted with trainee teachers at the Federal University of Ceará (UFC) between 2008 and 2012. Planetary citizenship is conceived here as a floating signifier to be articulated in concrete projects proposed by different groups that work inter- and transdiciplinarily. It is motivated by the major civilizational and humanitarian crisis in which we find ourselves. The ecology of knowledges, premised upon the epistemological diversity of the world, is a dialogue between official/Western knowledge and those other knowledges that have long been excluded from the scenario. It stands within a paradigm shift, a process whereby a new way of perceiving the world comes into existence. We argue that the university is an ideal context for the development of projects that have planetary citizenship as their transdisciplinary theme and the ecology of knowledges as their basic perspective. We illustrate this with examples of this epistemic and pedagogical experimentation, inside and outside the university, that aim to educate planetary citizens.

Ecopedagogy as an element of citizenship education: The dialectic of global/local spheres of citizenship and critical environmental pedagogies

Emerging from popular education movements in Latin America, ecopedagogy is a critical environmental pedagogy which focuses on understanding the connections between social conflict and environmentally harmful acts carried out by humans. These connections are often politically hidden in education. Ecopedagogy, while being pluralistic, is in its essence defined as a critical, transformative environmental pedagogy centred on increasing social and environmental justice. Its ultimate aim is to find a sustainable balance between the conflicting goals of diverse notions of human progress and environmental wellbeing. This article is based on two comparative research projects. The first was a qualitative study on ecopedagogical models involving 31 expert ecopedagogues in Argentina, Brazil and the Appalachian region of the United States. They were asked for their perspectives on how successful ecopedagogy can be defined within the contexts in which they taught and conducted research. The second study analysed how 18 international expert scholars of citizenship and/or environmental pedagogy from six world continents regarded the ways in which citizenship intersects with environmental issues and the pedagogies of both in an increasingly globalised world, with specific focus on Global Citizenship Education. Results from the first study indicate the following two needs for effective environmental pedagogies: (1) for there to be an ecopedagogical paradigm shift in environmental teaching and research; and (2) for ecopedagogy to be an essential element of citizenship education (and vice versa). This article examines how conflicting processes of globalisation both help and hinder in achieving such a paradigm shift by decentring traditional nation-state citizenship. Results from the second study indicate how critical teaching within and between different spheres of citizenship (e.g. local, national, global, and planetary citizenship) is essential for ecopedagogy (and the ecopedagogical element).

The University Curriculum and the Ecology of Knowledges towards building a Planetary Citizenship

This paper presents results of the project Global citizenship as an inter/transdisciplinary theme in the university curriculum. The first part of the research was made with student-teachers at the Federal University of Ceara (2008-2012). To broaden our perspective on the topic, a second part was dedicated to analyze how other countries deal with this issue in their university curricula. For this purpose, Moraes spent 2013 at the Institute of Education, University of London (Capes, Estagio Senior) and Freire went to the Centre of Social Studies, University of Coimbra (Capes, Doctoral Internship, 2013-2014) to become acquainted with Boaventura de Sousa Santos’s Ecology of Knowledges. In Brazil, the concept evolved from global to planetary throughout our study. Portuguese has two words for knowledge: conhecimento and saber. The first one may refer to a more formal knowledge, as from the academic sciences. Saber is a contextualized knowledge, related to social demands, to the life-world (Habermas) where traditions, culture and sciences meet. Some Brazilian institutions are engaged in an epistemic and pedagogical experimentation that promotes dialogue between the academic world and the world of indigenous and African matrixes. We assume the university as a discursive context for building a Planetary Citizenship and the ecology of knowledge stands as the main category to support our reflection. This citizenship is conceived as a floating signifier that is articulated in a variety of concrete projects proposed by different groups. Planetary citizenship is the transdisciplinary theme that gives coherence to those projects; it is their ’saber organizador’.

The Transformative Value of Liberating Mars

Humanity has the knowledge to solve its problems but lacks the moral insight to implement these ideas on a global scale. New moral insight can be obtained through transformative experiences that allow us to examine and refine our underlying preferences, and the eventual landing of humans on Mars will be of tremendous transformative value. Before such an event, I propose that we liberate Mars from any controlling interests of Earth and allow Martian settlements to develop into a second independent instance of human civilization. Such a designation is consistent with the Outer Space Treaty and allows Mars to serve as a test bed and point of comparison by which to learn new information about the phenomenon of civilization. Rather than develop Mars through a series of government and corporate colonies, let us steer the future by liberating Mars and embracing the concept of planetary citizenship.