Educating for Human, Community, and Ecological Flourishing

In a world of escalating social and ecological challenges, how can universities promote human, community, and ecological flourishing? This book sketches an answer to this question, calling for the institutional implementation of transformative “pedagogies of inquiry.”

The author offers an innovative posthuman reframing of Bildung and the modernist capabilities approach, introducing the concept of "Bildung capabilities." Through critical inquiry into timely and complex social and ecological issues—acknowledging diverse knowledge traditions and engaging in open dialogue across disciplinary and cultural perspectives—students come to appreciate the intersectionality of human, community, and ecological flourishing. This deep transformative inquiry enables the development of nine vital capabilities for navigating global challenges: building alliances; valuing relationships with the more than human; openness to different and contradictory viewpoints, including on nature and humans in nature; comfort with change and uncertainty; agency and stamina in doing the hard work of change towards undoing explicit, implicit, assumed and institutional injustices; ecological awareness and ‘biocentric wonder’; hope; a multi/transdisciplinary, pluriversal stance; and imagining alternatives to technological infringement of life and desires. Together, it is argued that these capabilities constitute a ‘capability (of flourishing), of all.’

Combining cutting-edge theory with practical insights, the book features eleven case studies written by instructors across a wide range of academic disciplines to demonstrate how inquiry-based approaches foster these Bildung capabilities in practice, equipping students to address interconnected contemporary challenges.

Essential reading for educators, students, and researchers interested in transformative pedagogy, sustainability education, and higher education reform.