Art As a Source of Learning for Sustainable Development
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ART AS A SOURCE OF LEARNING FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT Making meaning, multiple knowledges and navigating open-endedness Natalia Eernstman PhD 2014 Awarded by University of Arts London. In partnership with Falmouth University 2 AbstraCt This researCh is a praCtiCe-based inquiry into the Contribution of art to proCesses in which Communities explore, design and proCeed on sustainable ways forward. In reJeCting an overly teChnoCratiC approaCh, this thesis follows a learning-based ConCeption of sustainable development. Rather than transmitting predetermined solutions, social learning is about establishing a prolific framework of Conditions in whiCh people Can explore for themselves what is ‘right’, sustainable and desired. SuCh learning shows important overlaps with art, in that it does not set out to transmit a predetermined message; instead the meaning of something is ColleCtively made throughout the proCess. Where the shift from instrumental, teChnoCratiC approaChes to partiCipatory, intersubjeCtive and open-ended approaChes to sustainable development is relatively new in the soCial sCiences, artists arguably have a longer legaCy working in non- instrumental and ‘goal-searching’ ways. Subsequently, this thesis proposes a range of artful approaches that would allow eduCators to Create spaCes in whiCh meaning is mutually Created. These are the result of three researCh aCtivities: the researCher interviewed artists, she participated in praCtices of artists, and refleCted upon her own making proCess in which she ConCeived soCial learning as a Contextual arts praCtice. Where this thesis takes soCial learning into new areas of knowledge is in the way that it conceives the meaning of sustainable development as continuously coming out of the present. Despite a professed action-oriented and experiential rendition of sustainable development, aCademiCs in the field of learning for sustainability present the concept as theoretiCal and abstraCt: it exists separated from the lived world of practice that it draws meaning from. This thesis argues that the key potential of art lies in counteracting suCh exCessive obJectifiCation of soCio-environmental issues. Through locative meaning-making, for example, meanings are derived from the here and now rather than from abstraCted terms. Consequently, soCial learning should not strive for sustainable development as an obJeCtive, general goal in itself. Instead the learning should be ConCeived as an emergent proCess that is driven by an active vehiCle, sCore or invitation that generates an interaCtion-riCh environment in whiCh meaning-making Can happen. Sustainable development then threads through the fabriC of whatever is happening, rather than being a foCus on its own. 3 4 Contents Acknowledgements 7 1 Introduction 9 2 Research, practice and the arts 23 2.1 ResearCh and praxis 23 2.2 The nature of the praCtiCe 27 2.3 Summary 48 3 Conceptions of sustainable development 51 3.1 Opposing Conceptions 52 3.2 A learning-based approaCh 65 3.3 A post-normal world 76 3.4 Learning as art and art as learning 83 3.5 Summary 87 4 Outline of the research process 89 4.1 Methodology 89 4.2 ResearCh overview 107 4.3 Summary 124 5 Engaging citizens in processes of meaning-making 127 5.1 Stimulating involvement 128 5.2 Making partiCipation meaningful 134 5.3 Inconvenient questions 143 5.4 Summary 150 6 Eliciting multiple meanings, enabling dissensus 153 6.1 Art as meaning-making 154 6.2 Different knowledges in Contextual praCtiCe 164 6.3 Means to enable dissensus 171 6.4 Summary 184 7 Navigating open-endedness 187 7.1 The need for open-endedness 188 7.2 Making the pieCe that the plaCe lets you make 193 7.2 The idea is not the thing 197 7.3 The ICeberg 206 7.4 Summary 214 8 Conclusion 217 Bibliography 227 Appendices 249 5 6 Acknowledgements I Can traCe the start of this thesis to my participation in the course ‘CertifiCate in Education for Sustainability’ at the Schumacher College in Devon. It was over a range of inspiring sessions as part of this Course that I realised one Can Come to know about the world in playful, experiential and artistiC ways, besides mere rational or logoCentriC approaches. And that through suCh knowing Certain issues might be addressed more fruitfully. It was then that I, as a MSC. graduate in agriculture and nature Conservation, deCided to nurture that other, more artistiC way of knowing and integrate it into what I was trying to achieve: contributing to a more environmentally sustainable world through learning. I am grateful to the Schumacher College for planting this seed; espeCially to Chris Seeley, who as an artist, Clown, researcher, aCtivist, eduCator and theatre maker, showed me that everyone is an artist and that one Can ‘save the world’ by being playful. She died in DeCember 2014, and this thesis, which I hope Continues her work, is dedicated to her. I thank the EduCation and CompetenCe Studies Group at Wageningen University, for giving me the opportunity to integrate some of these ideas into formal Courses, whiCh has allowed me develop my interest to the level of a PhD. Furthermore, I should thank the European SoCial Fund for making this researCh happen and enabling me to live in Cornwall. This thesis would not have existed without the contribution of many partiCipants in both my praCtices. I thank the residents of Constantine and Penryn that joined me on walks, told me their stories and memories, introduCed me to neighbours, and refleCted on the value of my practiCe in interviews. In Penryn I am espeCially grateful to the following two people: Helena Korpela, my Finish friend who Joined me on that playful exploration of mail during the first spring of my PhD, and Paul Kitts, the postman who generously allowed us to trawl behind him on his mail delivery. For the Creation of Stones & Water in Constantine I am espeCially indebted to the members of Transition Constantine, the Constantine Enterprise Company, the Heritage Museum and the Tolmen Centre. 7 The other people that have greatly Contributed to this researCh are the artists that let me to learn from their praCtiCes. I thank the organisers of the Emergence Summit, Simon Whitehead who Curated The Land Journey and the partiCipants of the walk who shared their paCe and thoughts with me. I am grateful to WildWorks for allowing me to volunteer on Ark-Ive. And I thank the 13 artists that I interviewed: Sue Hill, Gregg Whelan, Caroline Garland, Olly Langdon, RiChard Spaul, Suzi Hopkins, Stephan Israel, Louise Ann Wilson, Nigel Stewart, Peter Moser, MalColm Green, DunCan Speakman and Sue Palmer. Furthermore, there are many that helped me produCe this thesis. First of all, I thank my supervisors −Mike Wilson, Misha Myers, Daro Montag− and external advisor ArJen Wals. And I am indebted to Jan van boeCkel and David Peat who at different times read my writing to give adviCe and feedback. Finally, I am infinitely thankful to my partner James for putting up with the erratiC weather system of my moods and for dragging me to the sea, reminding me that there is more to life than sitting at my Computer. I thank MirJam for never Ceasing to reassure me of the relevanCe of my work and enriChing my thinking with her profound philosophiCal insights. And finally I am grateful to my parents, Hanka and TJeerd, for raising me with a passionate awareness of the human and more-than-human world, and for inheriting their creativity, curiosity and perseverance. 8 1 IntroduCtion The study ensues from the idea that as a researCher ‘it is not enough to understand the world, but that one has to Change it for the better’ (Reason Cited in Kindon et al. 2007: 13). Subsequently, it is firmly rooted in praCtiCe. The urge to Catalyse change stems from the assumption that Considering the extensive depletion of natural resources, destruCtion of habitats and our impaCt on physiologiCal systems suCh as the climate, we need to shift something in order to sustain our existenCe and that of other speCies on this earth. Hence, rather than merely observing a state of affairs or trends in the arena of sustainable development and soCio-environmental Change the researCh itself was ConCeived as an instrument for aCtion and transformation. My entire professional and a large part of my personal life thus far have revolved around finding out what that Change is and how it Can be generated. After having tried different avenues (direCt aCtion, rainforest proteCtion, sustainable agriCulture, Consumer awareness raising, environmental eduCation) this study explores an artistic pathway. While notiCing overlaps between the realms of sustainable development and the arts I grew ever more dissatisfied with the lack of imaginative, Creative and embodied approaches in the former. I beCame inCreasingly sCeptical about the presumed division between these two fields of praCtiCe, as well as the assumption prevailing espeCially in academia and eduCation that the arts are something ‘other’: a niCe deCoration or addition, but expendable when researChing, praCtiCing and learning (how to) Change towards a more sustainable world. Through my experienCe with Community theatre and creative teaching methods, I realised that that there is a fruitful interface between these two seemingly separated realms; that similar approaChes, values and ideas Circulate in both fields. And, more importantly, that some of the Conundrums in the field of sustainable development might be solved through the arts. Consequently, this research aspired to establish this interfaCe, by Creating, exploring and desCribing it, and finding deviCes through whiCh others (artists, eduCators, Community workers, aCademiCs) Can do the same. Thereby Catalysing positive Change on a Community, village, national and/or global level. 9 My initial researCh question thus read: How does/can art contribute to social learning processes in which communities1 explore, design and bring forth sustainable ways forward? In bringing together the fields of art and learning, this thesis is interdisCiplinary.