"""Vol. ʹ͵ No. ͳ"""""6#24116""
duction and the product itself, while the perpetration of
social and ecological injustices are considered unfortu-
nate byproducts. With one in six humans currently living
in slum conditions (Davis, 2004; 2006), the social and
ecological destitution facing the planet is nothing short
of a crisis (Buell, 2003). However, embedded within this
crisis is reason for hope: with the material inputs and
the energy intensive nature through which it operates,
“capitalism is efectively running up against its planetary
limits” (Wainwright & Mann, 2013, p. 8), indicating we
will need a new global political economy in the com-
ing decades (Exner, Fleissner, Kranzl, & Zittel, 2013; Li,
2008; 2010). Whatever the future might hold, from an
environmental, social, cultural, and political economic
perspective, we can only know it most certainly cannot
look like our current situation, which is deinitively un-
sustainable (Williams, 2010).
How is it appropriate to critically respond to such a
seemingly dire analysis of the current social, political,
economic, and environmental world order? Our exist-
ing educational practices are clearly failing to efectively
promote and nourish notions
of justice, equity, and ecological
sustainability in our students,
who are both citizens and deci-
sion makers. It seems necessary
to question all levels of formal
and informal education as to
how we can create a stronger,
more egalitarian, and more just
socioecological world.
Experiential education gen-
erally, and outdoor education
speciically, may be ahead of
some traditional education-
al institutions in both content
and pedagogy concerning is-
sues of justice and sustainabili-
ty (Cachelin, Paisley, & Dustin,
%øÆßÆØ"5-œßƺÆØÆß°"ƺ"1-߸ææø"
'¸-ßÆæº┺"%溺ßÆæº"ßæ"2Ø"
œ""/ºœ"ßæ"5æÆØ",-œßÆ"º¸"
'æØæÆØ"+ºßøÆß°
Jeff Rose and Adrienne Cachelin
Abstract
he socioecological challenges we face have never been
so complex, so intractable, and so urgent. And while
both justice-oriented education and education for sus-
tainability are growing in colleges and universities across
the United States, normative perspectives of outdoor ex-
periential education have fallen behind. In this paper,
we ofer critical sustainability as a conceptual basis for
engaging students in the beauty, perversity, and com-
plexity of our world. Critical sustainability, integrating
sociopolitical systems of privilege and oppression with
the socioecological imperatives of global health and jus-
tice, provides an exciting and promising pedagogical
direction. With this conceptual framework, we explore
perspectives of “nature,” placefulness, and our multiple,
overlapping subjectivities as students, educators, and en-
gaged citizens. Our task as outdoor educators is to bring
the faraway nearby and inspire students to engage in the
myriad challenges we face as individuals, citizens, and as
members of a global ecological community.
A previous version of this article was published by
these authors in the May 2013 issue of the Journal of Sus-
tainability Education.
Introduction
Stated mildly, critical assessments of the current state
of the planet do not illustrate an image of enduring
health. Social unrest, political brinkmanship, and eco-
nomic insecurity receive media and popular attention,
while seemingly without notice, the ecological integrity
of the planet is collapsing. Root causes of these injustices
are detly hidden, yet simultaneously and paradoxically
readily recognizable. he expansion of neoliberal capi-
talist accumulation, oten termed simply and benignly
“economic growth,” is solely reliant upon the conversion
of the material planet—“nature”—into the means of pro-
®Æœßƺ"
¸-ßÆæºØ"
ıøßÆœ"ø"
ØøØ°"ÆØƺ"
ßæ"ßÆ©Ø°"
ıøæŒæß"
º¸"ºæ-øÆœ"
ºæßÆ溜"æ"
ª-œßÆ┸"ł-Æß°┸"
º¸"æØæÆØ"
œ-œßƺÆØÆß°
d t it lf hil th t ti f
Ææº"ßæ"2Ø"
,-œßÆ"º¸"