The Anthropocene Epoch is here: where is the sustainability thinking?

Despite the need for a more wide-reaching understanding of sustainability across disciplines, it appears that the Neoliberal political and Neo-Classical economic narratives leave little room for it in Higher Education. This... [ view full abstract ]

Despite the need for a more wide-reaching understanding of sustainability across disciplines, it appears that the Neoliberal political and Neo-Classical economic narratives leave little room for it in Higher Education. This paper aims to describe why this is the case and highlights what needs to change to enable sustainability to become a mainstream ‘subjectivity’.

Sustainability is still seen as a side issue, which is incredible if one considers the planetary damage which continues to escalate at an exponential rate. Some scientists believe that we are entering a new geological epoch called the Anthropocene, caused by human changes to the biosphere. Climate change is only one of many physical manifestations and other effects include the social and cultural damage being inflicted as globalisation continues to homogenise and commodify every aspect of life. Mass extinctions are already underway and yet the scale of action required to deal with this is sadly lacking.

There appears to be three barriers inhibiting the discourse on sustainability. Firstly, there is a silo mentality whereby the ‘Natural’ and ‘Social’ Sciences tend to stay within the relatively narrow parameters of their respective disciplines. Secondly, there are predominant grand narratives about the nature of ‘modern’ society, linked to an industrial/ mechanistic way of perceiving the world, which are themselves being manipulated by powerful elites who have the most to gain or lose from the present system. Thirdly, this system is also proving to be ‘unhuman’, in that it has a momentum of its own, which is being driven by new technology. All this can explain the ‘Anomie’ which is building in societies across the world as the gap between rich and poor widens, planetary resources shrink and a self-perpetuating global growth economy grinds on interminably.

What sort of leadership and thinking is required in this situation? Should we just mitigate, or actively alleviate and reverse damage to the environmental and social fabric of our world?  Perhaps we need new modes of language to adequately define the challenges and then seek equitable solutions. This can be done through ‘Critical Global Semiotics’, which provide trans-disciplinary frames to assess global impacts and create pathways to meaningful action. But above all, we need more debate as to why, despite the challenges we face, the 'Business As Usual' model still predominates, with much of the HE sector being oblivious to the consequences of this, hidebound by its control, or complicit in its promulgation.