Presentation short abstract

The critical framework suggests education that could offer students hope, knowledge, and skills to critically examine, discuss, choose and work for aims, visions and strategies of solidarity, earth care, and good life for all today and in the future. Central elements draw from political ecology.

Presentation long abstract

At schools, colleges and universities in most countries, new generations have for a long time heard about sustainable development. What we may call the first wave, started with the report ‘Our Common Future’ almost forty years ago, while the second wave, centering around the SDGs, is still on-going. Both waves have been dominated by neoliberal thinking and more specifically ecomodernism, and when sustainable development has entered classrooms and auditoria, these have tended to provide invisible frames.

Today it is reasonable to say that we are moving into times of post-sustainable development. The delimitations of the SDG approach are getting more obvious, and at the same time much political focus shifts towards crises seen in need of more immediate attention.

Meanwhile, many youths express tiredness about the sustainable development education they are offered, and there is frustration about being taught to be individually responsible, although without being exposed to education that they would need for understanding and addressing the maldevelopment.

In this paper, I suggest a critical framework for post-sustainable development education that can provide students with hope, knowledge, and skills for critically examining, discussing, choosing, and working for aims, visions and strategies of solidarity, earth care, and good life for all today and in the future.

The framework draws on several critical social science fields in contrast to the economist and ecomodernism framing of sustainable development. Inputs from political ecology are central, and these will be emphasized in the presentation at POLLEN 2026.