Abstract
This chapter focuses specifically on the role of universities as climate leaders, a role that many have suggested universities are well placed to adopt. However, tensions exist as many universities have become increasingly neoliberalised in their ideology and actions. By exploring three areas of university action – teaching, buildings, and air travel – the chapter explores the neoliberal nature of higher education and suggests it acts as an impediment to climate action. Further, the chapter suggests that the climate emergency is critical and represents an urgent need for action: the civic university agenda is not yet tackling this. Universities could provide more radical space for debate, experimentation and new practices for addressing the climate emergency and living well in the ‘Anthropocene’.
It is difficult to imagine a future that is humane, decent and sustainable without marked changes in the substance and process of education at all levels, beginning with the University.
—(Orr, 1994, Earth in mind: On education, environment, and the human prospect. Island Press)
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Notes
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https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v25/n21/stefan-collini/hiedbiz (accessed 22 June 2022).
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https://ecoversities.org/ (accessed 28 June 2022).
- 6.
https://www.theccc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Fact-sheet-buildings-updated-July-2015.pdf (accessed 10 June 2022).
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See, for instance, the Universities Partnership Project: https://www.upp-ltd.com (accessed 28 June 2022).
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https://indigenous.ubc.ca/longhouse/ (accessed 21 June 2022).
- 9.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-48233548 (accessed 9 June 2022).
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O’Neill, K. (2023). Can Universities be Climate Leaders?. In: Dobson, J., Ferrari, E. (eds) Reframing the Civic University. Rethinking University-Community Policy Connections. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-17686-9_4
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