Education for Sustainable Lifestyles

Dear Colleagues,

Achieving sustainable lifestyles involves rethinking how we put our values into action, how we organize our daily life, socialize, share, learn and educate. It means rethinking our ways of living and what we consume.” (UNEP, 2010)

Education for sustainable lifestyles is an essential aspect of quality education. It is an integral part of education for sustainable development and global citizenship. Be it in early childhood education, in formal school contexts, or in social learning situations, education for sustainable lifestyles has been introduced in order to learn how to respect life in all its diversity and how to care for oneself and others by adopting patterns of behavior that safeguard well-being and promote human development. However, sometimes education for sustainable lifestyles appears as a superficial effort that supports shortsighted and disconnected environmental campaigns rather than being a holistic, interdisciplinary approach to understanding the systems and processes that affect the planet and the human condition.

This Special Issue seeks to examine education for sustainable lifestyles, the values upon which it is based, the objectives that drive it, and the competencies it attempts to foster. By reviewing the historical background of education for sustainable lifestyles, and the content, methodologies and assessment models most commonly used, a clearer picture of the scope and impact of education for sustainable lifestyles can be ascertained. There are numerous themes that deserve special attention such as: the role of families in education for sustainable living, the responsibilities of businesses and advertisers, technology’s influence, and the validity of alternative economic systems. Vital questions also need to be addressed such as: to what extent should education for sustainable lifestyles challenge the status quo; and how does education for sustainable lifestyles highlight the importance of equity and justice for people all around the globe?

This Special Issue welcomes papers from both academicians and practitioners.

References:

1. A Framework for Shaping Sustainable Lifestyles-Determinants and Strategies. Available online: http://scpclearinghouse.org
2. Here and Now! Education for Sustainable Consumption. Available online:http://wedocs.unep.org/handle/20.500.11822/8011
3. Fostering and Communicating Sustainable Lifestyles: Principles and Emerging Practices. Available online: http://www.scorai.org
4. Rethinking Education. Available online: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002325/232555e.pdf
5. Human Development Index (Annual reports). Available online: http://hdr.undp.org
6. World Happiness Index (Reports). Available online: http://worldhappiness.report
7. State of the World (Annual reports). Available online: http://worldwatch.org
8. How was life? Global well-being since 1820. Available online: http://www.oecd.org
9. Greening Household Behaviours. Available online: http://www.oecd.org
10. Universal Skills. Available online: http://www.oecd.org
11. Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform. Available online: http://sustainabledevelopment.un.org
12. Hatched: The Capacity for Sustainable Development. Available online: http://www.digitalscholarsip.unlv.edu/cdi

Prof. Victoria W. Thoresen
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Education for sustainable lifestyles
• Education for sustainable development
• Sustainable consumption
• Transformative learning
• Critical thinking
• Well-being
• Happiness research.