TY - JOUR

T1 - Embodying relationality through immersive sustainability solutions with Indigenous communities in the Ecuadorian Amazon

AU - Polheim, Antonia

AU - Manuel-Navarrete, David

AU - Goebel, Janna

AU - Loos, Jacqueline

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Japan KK 2024.

PY - 2024/7

Y1 - 2024/7

N2 - The sustainability crisis is rooted in Western paradigms of separation. To overcome the challenges we face, Western-educated people, like us, must question our deeply internalized ontological assumptions and welcome alternative relational perspectives. Grasping a relational cosmovision, not only cognitively but embodying it physically and emotionally, can enable personal and social transformations that address the root causes of sustainability problems. We explore how relational forms of immersion in Kichwa and Waorani communities, through transformative and place-based learning experiences, may foster the embodiment of relationality. Students from a Western research institution participated in a two-week study-abroad program on Indigenous sustainability solutions in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Participant observation and interviews revealed how students built stronger and more relational connections to nature and questioned the universality of Western ontological assumptions. These transformative shifts were fostered through experiences of embodying relationality facilitated through opportunities of relating, reflecting, and embracing offered by the setting and the program’s activities. Findings showcase how transformative experiences of embodying relationality can contribute to ontological shifts strengthening the relation with and to nature and constitute immersive sustainability solutions. We conclude with a dynamic model of the process through which Western-educated people trained in experiencing themselves as separate individuals realize and embody their embeddedness in the net of relationships with all beings.

AB - The sustainability crisis is rooted in Western paradigms of separation. To overcome the challenges we face, Western-educated people, like us, must question our deeply internalized ontological assumptions and welcome alternative relational perspectives. Grasping a relational cosmovision, not only cognitively but embodying it physically and emotionally, can enable personal and social transformations that address the root causes of sustainability problems. We explore how relational forms of immersion in Kichwa and Waorani communities, through transformative and place-based learning experiences, may foster the embodiment of relationality. Students from a Western research institution participated in a two-week study-abroad program on Indigenous sustainability solutions in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Participant observation and interviews revealed how students built stronger and more relational connections to nature and questioned the universality of Western ontological assumptions. These transformative shifts were fostered through experiences of embodying relationality facilitated through opportunities of relating, reflecting, and embracing offered by the setting and the program’s activities. Findings showcase how transformative experiences of embodying relationality can contribute to ontological shifts strengthening the relation with and to nature and constitute immersive sustainability solutions. We conclude with a dynamic model of the process through which Western-educated people trained in experiencing themselves as separate individuals realize and embody their embeddedness in the net of relationships with all beings.

KW - Embodiment

KW - Human–nature connection

KW - Relational ontologies

KW - Relational turn

KW - Study abroad

KW - Transformations

KW - Sustainability Governance

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85197195635&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/s11625-024-01523-4

DO - 10.1007/s11625-024-01523-4

M3 - Journal articles

AN - SCOPUS:85197195635

VL - 19

SP - 1445

EP - 1457

JO - Sustainability Science

JF - Sustainability Science

SN - 1862-4065

IS - 4

ER -