About the Book

This book explores the role universities have to play in fulfilling the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). At the heart of “sustainable development” is the legacy of unsustainable development with its roots in modernity and colonialism. Critical engagement with the SDGs involves recognising these roots are shared by universities and the reciprocal need for maintenance, repair and regeneration. Universities are not just enablers of change, but also important targets of change. By focusing on the role of education about, for and through the SDGs, the authors seek to advance critical engagement with higher education that is both progressive and meaningful. We are all responsible for bearing witness to our age. This book will appeal to all those who hope that more sustainable future worlds are still possible.

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Contents

1.   A Transformative Agenda
2.   Sustainable Development in the Anthropocene
3.   The Role of the University in Society
4.   Ethical Innovation
5.   Re-thinking Research Engagement
6.   Learning and Teaching Matters
7.   What Does Success Look Like?
8.   Sustainable Futures

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About the Author / Editor

Wendy Steele is Associate Professor in Sustainability and Urban Planning in the Centre for Urban Research (CUR) at RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. Her research focuses on cities in climate change and human-nature relationships in the urban age, as a key dimension of scholarship and education in, for, and about environmentally sustainable development. She is the author of six books on the role and impact of quiet activism, critical urban governance, climate justice and sustainability as a transformative agenda.

Lauren Rickards is Professor in the Centre for Urban Research (CUR) and Director of Urban Futures Enabling Capability Platform at RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. Based in human geography, her research focuses on social responses to the climate change crisis, including the role of climate change in sustainable development, and implications for the research and education sectors.

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