The power of us : counteracting decreasing sustainability

Abstract

This PhD thesis comprises nine published papers covering three case study areas namely flexitarianism, the new human agenda and sustainability humanistic education. Whilst the case studies are concerned with three deliberately diverse areas, specifically food choices, development and tertiary education, they are united by the common conceptual themes of individual empowerment and action as a way of countering increasing unsustainability. The thesis takes a strong stance against the vast geopolitical megasystem of vested interests flourishing within the dominant geopolitical economic discourse and emphasises the role of personal power.To date, most attempts at countering mounting local and global unsustainability have failed, because those tasked and trusted to develop and implement solutions have a conflicting, short-term vested interest in maintaining the sources of the global human and environmental crisis. These globalised economic and political profit and power forces are subverting essential transformative change.The central premise on which the thesis is built is that there is an urgent need for a solution that offers an accessible and immediate opportunity for regaining, repairing and renewing human and biophysical wellbeing. Its main argument is that the possibility of countering increasing unsustainability perpetuated by global power alliances lies in the collective actions and outcomes of uncoordinated individual choices and endeavours mobilised through awareness, empowerment and education. Through such personal liberation from the duplicity of the megasystem and the ability to take back their power, humanity, comprising a collective of individuals and personal actions the world over, holds the key to a more sustainable future.In this previously academically unexplored area flexitarianism, the new human agenda and sustainability humanistic education are examples of how the sum of individual, uncoordinated actions, holds restorative and transformative opportunities for the achievement of a more sustainable world.