TY - JOUR

T1 - Inside-out sustainability

T2 - The neglect of inner worlds

AU - Ives, Christopher D.

AU - Freeth, Rebecca

AU - Fischer, Joern

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2019, The Author(s).

PY - 2020/1/1

Y1 - 2020/1/1

N2 - In the context of continuing ecosystem degradation and deepening socio-economic inequality, sustainability scientists must question the adequacy of current scholarship and practice. We argue that pre-occupation with external phenomena and collective social structures has led to the neglect of people’s ‘inner worlds’—their emotions, thoughts, identities and beliefs. These lie at the heart of actions for sustainability, and have powerful transformative capacity for system change. The condition of people’s inner worlds ought to also be considered a dimension of sustainability itself. Compassion, empathy and generosity, for example, are personal characteristics that mark individual expressions of sustainability. Sustainability science must take inner life more seriously by considering how language shapes and is shaped by paradigms about the world, prioritising enquiry into how spirituality, contemplation and sustainability transformation relate, and encouraging scholars and practitioners to intentionally cultivate their inner worlds to strengthen inner resources necessary for addressing sustainability challenges.

AB - In the context of continuing ecosystem degradation and deepening socio-economic inequality, sustainability scientists must question the adequacy of current scholarship and practice. We argue that pre-occupation with external phenomena and collective social structures has led to the neglect of people’s ‘inner worlds’—their emotions, thoughts, identities and beliefs. These lie at the heart of actions for sustainability, and have powerful transformative capacity for system change. The condition of people’s inner worlds ought to also be considered a dimension of sustainability itself. Compassion, empathy and generosity, for example, are personal characteristics that mark individual expressions of sustainability. Sustainability science must take inner life more seriously by considering how language shapes and is shaped by paradigms about the world, prioritising enquiry into how spirituality, contemplation and sustainability transformation relate, and encouraging scholars and practitioners to intentionally cultivate their inner worlds to strengthen inner resources necessary for addressing sustainability challenges.

KW - Interiority

KW - Leverage points

KW - Religion

KW - Spirituality

KW - Sustainability transformation

KW - Values

KW - Environmental planning

KW - Transdisciplinary studies

KW - Ecosystems Research

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85064825897&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/s13280-019-01187-w

DO - 10.1007/s13280-019-01187-w

M3 - Journal articles

C2 - 31020612

AN - SCOPUS:85064825897

VL - 49

SP - 208

EP - 217

JO - Ambio

JF - Ambio

SN - 0044-7447

IS - 1

ER -