Sustainable citizenship as practice

Written by Katrien Van Poeck.
Related to Sustainability Education.

A discourse of “citizenship-as-achievement” affects education for sustainable development. We address the problematic assumptions involved drawing on an analysis of the Transition Towns movement in Flanders (Belgium) and argue for a different perspective that shifts the focus from competences that citizens must acquire to the democratic nature of educational spaces and practices. We present a second case study of the making of documentary films and elaborate how education, here, creates a space for a struggle over divergent interpretations of what can be regarded sustainable in face of concrete issues as well as for a variety of images of sustainable citizens.

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