The Relationship between Sustainability and Inner Development: Towards More Integrative Worldviews, Paradigms, and Actions

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce this Challenges Special Issue: “Relationship Between Sustainability and Inner Development”.

At the roots of the many grand challenges of the Anthropocene lies an imbalance between external (material) approaches and “inner” approaches considering attitudes, awareness and other attributes that influence relationships, behaviors, worldviews, and underpin many power structures. This has, amongst other things, hampered progress to improve planetary health and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). More integrative approaches, that link inner and outer dimensions of sustainability are thus urgently needed to address the root causes and support sustainable transformations. There are growing efforts to increase the focus on inner development (e.g. through initiatives like the Inner Development Goals or the UNDP Conscious Food Systems Alliance), recognizing that individual and collective transformational capacities, intrinsic values and wisdom are likely to support sustainable development at scale.  At the same time, there are many open questions regarding the concepts, methods, theories and practical tools that can support more integrative approaches.

This Special Issue calls for efforts that seek to understand, define, implement, and assess strategies aiming to promote meaningful change through purposeful relationships with self, others, and the natural world. This includes efforts from all fields and communities aiming to cultivate social responsibility and environmental stewardship through awareness of connectivity and interdependence.

We invite you to contribute to this exploration through diverse contributions that may include rigorous research, case studies, novel perspectives, viewpoints, creative narratives, community initiatives (either complete or still in progress), protocols, new proposals and other work in this emergent field. Cross-sectoral, inter- and transdisciplinary engagement is core to this, and we warmly welcome submissions from researchers from all fields, clinicians, artists, educators, community groups, policymakers, civil-society, private-sector representatives, and others seeking to critically address these questions and advance related action.

Topics may be on any aspect of inner development, and we encourage all authors to articulate the ways in which their submission is relevant to some (or preferably, many) of the grand challenges of our time, and/or ways in which the work could contribute to societal, environmental, and planetary wellbeing and flourishing. Examples of topics may be found below in the “keywords” below.

It is our hope that this Challenges Special Issue will facilitate collaborative vision and shared agendas that drive activity to increase focus on self-awareness, spirituality, purpose, meaning and other positive emotional assets for personal and collective wellbeing—for flourishing of people, places, and planet. 

Dr. Kristian Stålne
Prof. Dr. Christine Wamsler
Prof. Dr. Susan Prescott
Dr. Kristofer Vernmark
Dr. Jonathan Reams
Dr. Vivianna Rodriguez Carreon 
Guest Editors

Dr. Kira Cooper
Stefanie Greca
Lene Søvold
Guest Editor Assistants

Manuscript Submission Information 

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Challenges is an international peer-reviewed open access semiannually journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this special issue is 0 CHF (Swiss Francs).. Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• inner development, inner growth, inner development goals, inner transformation, inner transition, consciousness, positive emotional assets, mindsets, skills, capacities, capabilities, inner qualities, openness, self-awareness, critical thinking, complexity awareness, long-term orientation, other aspects of mental health, emotions and wellbeing, adult development, personal development
• social paradigms, narratives, imaginaries
• value systems, indigenous knowledges, cultural shift, narrative medicine, reciprocity, mutualism, storytelling, belief systems, traditional cultures, consciousness, spirituality, mindfulness, wisdom
• caring for others and the world, appreciation, connectedness, humility, empathy, mindfulness and compassion
• collaboration and social skills, communication skills, co-creation, inclusive mindsets and intercultural competence, trust, mobilization
• actions to drive change, courage, creativity, optimism, perseverance; transformative leadership, transformative education, art-based approaches
• nature-relatedness, green space, green prescriptions, biodiversity interdependence, cooperation, integration, human-nature connectedness
• social and ecological justice, intergenerational justice, health disparities, socioeconomic inequalities
• life-course (developmental origins), transgenerational perspectives, early life education, early intervention
• biological measures, health outcomes