All entries for Tuesday 26 November 2024

November 26, 2024

Attending the Third International Conference on Sustainability Culture

An early start for a truly international event on sustainability culture is well worth the effort

This morning I had a super early start…at 4am…in order to be up, ready and chirpy enough to attend the 3^rd International Conference on Sustainability Culture. This event, hosted by Dr Theodoor Richard and the National Chung Hsing University in Taiwan was, naturally, running on their local time for an afternoon’s event. While I’ll confess it was a bit of a challenge to rouse myself to alert status in the dead of night [1], I was really glad I did – not least because the event ties into a future special issue of Exchanges.

Mostly I was delighted to be there because the speakers and topics of discussion were fascinating ones. Perhaps I was a little spoiled because the topic of sustainability and environmentalism have long been close to my heart, but it was superb to hear such a variety of topics and insights too. The speakers were drawn from around the world, although I believe I was the furthest west of all the delegates for once. A refreshing change! Thankfully, most of the speakers are going to be (hopefully) appearing in the special issue, so it’ll be a pleasure you’ll all be able to enjoy once that comes out next year.

The event opened with a welcome from Professor Jen Ming-Song, a university dean of our hosts for today. This was followed by a keynote talk from Emeritus Professor Geoffrey Scott (WSU, Australia) who spoke with such a casual but engaging style that I found myself quite envious of his aplomb. Geoffrey shared many thoughts about enabling sustainable cultures within higher education institutions, and how to affect change from both a top down and bottom-up approach. As someone with a long and storied career his candid insights were useful – especially when it came to dealing with and influencing your university vice-chancellor (or similar) and their often-entrenched perspectives![2]

This rousing intro was followed by four shorter papers from Duncan Furquhar, Maria Giovanna Cassa, Graham Wood and Lucy Sabin. The topics were varied, from soil carbon capture to ethnographic studies of permaculture in Sardinia, through philosophical considerations of ‘sustainability culture’ and finally a fascinating look at the fusion of art and science in an over-agrochemicaled world. There was something to consider or be enlightened by in each of these talks, and I think what I liked the most was how genuinely interdisciplinary this made the event. Indeed, it reinforced for me that the topic of sustainability culture is an excellent match for Exchanges’ publication mission too.[3]

After a short break we went into an hour-long discussion, drawing in the other eager participants as we explored contrast viewpoints – not least of which being the tensions between expansion versus contraction as a key aspect of sustainability. Alongside this there was naturally, no pun intended, the extant tensions between industrialisation, expansional and economic factors vs traditional, local, and desirable lifestyles. There was much debate around agency and power relations, a long-time keen interest of mine, and while there was some common ground among the delegates, there’s also a fair bit of disagreement on where (and with whom) the power for change lies: be it the economic overlords, political actors or strongly networked communities.

For me, I certainly think one of the key takeaways from the discussions was that while much of is what is traditional (be it in agriculture, society or life in general) IS sustainable. Yet, the tensions arise, and the environment is impacted, because these aspects are not scalable or even maintainable at current levels. Food production and related security issues being just one such exemplar of this concern.

As I say, this was an excellent event and with lots to chew over for everyone in attendance – me certainly among them. I shall be reflecting on the lessons for some time, and no doubt once the special issue comes to publication, there will be more to be said by scholars better informed on the topics than I!

My thanks to Theodoor and colleagues for organising the event, and of course everyone who contributed to it!

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Endnotes

[1] I was up with my alarm, but how I made breakfast and tea beforehand, was pretty much on autopilot.

[2] Strong resonances here with our Research Culture issue(s) too.

[3] For more of my thoughts on the event – see the @ExchangesJournal Bluesky profile, or indeed follow the #tag #SustainabilityCulture.