Biodiversity is intrinsically linked to the health of our...

Threshold concepts describe the core concepts that people must master if they are to effectively think from within a new discipline or paradigm. Here, I discuss threshold concepts relevant to the science and practice of sustainability, unpacking the persistent challenges and critiques that sustainability has faced over the decades. Sustainability is immensely popular, but also endlessly critiqued as being naïve, vague, and easy to co-opt. I argue that these challenges can be traced to sustainability’s status as a robust, alternative world view to the industrial, neoliberal paradigm. The threshold concepts discussed below are troublesome, and new learners face significant challenges when trying to learn them and move into the paradigm. Here, I review five threshold concepts that are widely discussed as important to sustainability: complexity, collaborative institutions, multiple ways of knowing, no panaceas, and adaptability. This list is not intended as comprehensive but exemplary of sustainability as a pluralistic paradigm. Recognizing the special status of these and other threshold concepts within sustainability, and the linkages and dependencies among them, is an important advance for sustainability education and practice. I also offer some suggestions on classroom activities that have proved effective in helping people through the process of learning these concepts.

In many small-scale communities, people’s health and well-being are intimately connected to their local environments. Indeed, it seems self-evident that healthy ecosystems are essential to people’s well-being. Yet, the relationship often works the other way: many contemporary ecological problems are

There have been strong calls for scientists to share thei...

Happy Open Access Week and welcome to our Open A Conversation Q&A series.

Migrating marine taxa encounter diverse habitats that dif...