AJEE Special Issue - Launch: Beyond the Metacrisis

The event is hosted by AJEE and the Special Issue Guest Editors Ruth Irwin (Independent Academic) and Sandra Wooltorton (The University of Notre Dame AU).

At the launch some of the authors from the special issue will explain the common causality of the metacrisis – comprising the crises in each field from health, education, economics, climate, biodiversity, food systems, ocean acidification, and more. By looking at Earth systems as a whole, it’s possible to grasp the elements of modern globalisation that are both normative and deeply problematic. Identifying the interconnected problems means we can do something about it. The implication for every Australian and every planetary citizen is that we need to live in ways that regenerate soil, health, climates, and systems of care. It is to educate for regeneration of life, so that we have a future worth living in.

Depending upon the researcher’s perspective and cultural/geographic locatedness, there are various ways of explaining metacrisis so that the public can understand the meaning. Connected with this, there are different positions on how education systems need to respond to metacrises. The big recurring ideas across all the papers are the dualism dividing humanity from nature is artificial and dangerous; integration with the environment needs to be prioritised; relentless economic growth is a problem that causes climate emissions; failure is important information and we need to heed it rather than ignore it; local and indigenous knowledge and care for place is deeply connected with finding meaning and protecting our planet; adaptation involves other species as well as human  infrastructure; (individual consumerism showed up very little, as) - the problems are embedded in infrastructure and systems of knowledge; performativity and assessment is closely tied to modern beliefs in progress and growth rather than environmentalism; education is a key site for transition to a healthier way of living. 

The metacrisis emerges from those historical ideas that began with colonialism and the Enlightenment, that alienated communities from their lands, assumed humanity was more rational and powerful than nature and set Newtonian scientism as the apex of universal knowledge. The damage of resource use and pollution accelerated in the 1950s when modern societies became overtly committed to economic growth. These fundamentals create the ‘success’ of modern economics and set up the conditions for all of the polycrises into what is now becoming known as metacrisis.

There will be several speakers and rich discussion. Authors will address ideas in the following ways: 

·       Critique of neoliberalism

·       Indigenous relational ontologies

·       Philosophical response to metacrisis, and 

·       Transforming modern education.