Being human in sustainability
In September 2019, an international group of independent scientists called for a fundamental — and urgent — change in the relationship between people and nature, if we are to address global sustainability challenges such as climate change and poverty, and not undo the progress made in the last few years towards the Sustainable Development Goals.
Such a shift will mean rethinking our current economic paradigm — of industrial growth and relentless consumption without regard to bio-physical limits — and transforming the way in which our societies and economies function in order to deliver long-term well-being for all.
Scientists have rightly been at the forefront of such debates — keeping us abreast of trends and trajectories, and keeping us accountable in terms of progress made. Yet science alone will not suffice in supporting radical shifts to a sustainable future. As Erle C. Ellis comments in the New York Times, “[t]he real question is how we better negotiate among ourselves, across all our many diverse peoples and cultures, so that we can navigate together toward the better futures we wish for, in our different ways”.
Science can talk about environmental limits and bio-physical capacity, but has less to say about the most effective social strategies for negotiating life within these boundaries. Science may be able to inform global debates about earth systems, and provide micro-level data about the most local of phenomena, but it will not by itself be able to adjudicate between the inevitable trade-offs and dilemmas, nor reconcile the different values and perspectives, which characterise ‘global challenges’. Science alone will struggle to provide us with a compelling shared narrative about the purpose of humanity and our relationship with nature.
For this reason, I am starting a research project looking into the role of the arts and humanities, and how they might inform our response to global challenges. The arts and humanities are those academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. They include subjects like ancient and modern languages, literature, philosophy, history, religion, and art. In simple terms, they explore what it is to be human.
So my aim is to explore ‘being human’ as we respond to the critical global challenges of our day. How does ‘being human’ affect our understanding of the issues, our (shared or otherwise) goals and purposes, and the pathways we explore for change? There are many ways I could approach this topic, but I’m going to start in my own context of higher education: the University of Cambridge, where I work for the Institute for Sustainability Leadership. Over the next three months, I plan to meet with 20 academics working within the arts and humanities, to hear about their research and teaching, and how they feel it intersects (or doesn’t) with the big societal issues of our time, the nature of contemporary leadership, and the dynamics of social change.
I’ll be meeting with those working in History, Philosophy, English, Divinity, Modern and Medieval Languages, Middle Eastern and Asian Studies, Architecture, and Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic. I’ll be asking them questions about how history informs our understanding of contemporary societal transformation, and how insights into inter-cultural communication can inform our understanding of effective leadership in a global context. Together we will ponder whether there is a distinctive contribution that the arts and humanities play, and if so, what is it and why is it important?
In their report exploring culture change and transformations to sustainability, Ann Light and her colleagues celebrate work that encourages creativity and positive responses to change, that finds new ways of bringing people together and inspires new meaning and action. I hope to discover examples of my own of this type of thinking and practice, and look forward to sharing it with others.
