Socio-Ecological Systems, Environmental Awareness, and Sustainable Environmental Education

Topic Information

Dear Colleagues,

Sustainability has become ubiquitous, yet its operational meaning remains elusive. The classic maxim—meeting present needs without compromising those of future generations in harmony with nature—offers a guiding horizon but insufficient traction within socio-economic systems shaped since modernity and the industrial revolution. The environmental, social, and economic pillars are entangled with enduring asymmetries of power, commodification of nature, and growth imperatives that generate contradictions on the ground.

Conceptual clarity improves when sustainability is examined through the lens of extractivism. Along a continuum from subsistence practices oriented to community reproduction among traditional peoples to colonial and capitalist extractivism organized around exploitation and perpetual accumulation, we observe markedly different socio-ecological outcomes. In Latin America, this debate intersects with a distinctive cultural dimension, namely Buen Vivir (“Living Well”), rooted in Indigenous worldviews that foreground reciprocity, solidarity, dignity, and the recognition of nature as a living subject rather than a mere resource. Although policy experiments inspired by Buen Vivir have faced political–economic headwinds, the paradigm endures as an ethical–political horizon for reimagining development, forest governance, and climate action, where Indigenous peoples often act as forest guardians against overexploitation and commodification.

This Special Issue invites the submission of contributions that integrate socio-ecological systems (SESs), environmental awareness, and sustainability education, closing persistent gaps between strands of scholarship that have often proceeded in parallel. We welcome theoretical syntheses, methodological advances, and empirical studies that illuminate how educational processes shape awareness, how awareness supports equitable SES management, and how cultural frames—from Indigenous and local ecological knowledge to urban commons—mediate these dynamics across scales.

We particularly encourage work that proposes conceptual frameworks linking SESs, awareness, and education; evaluates education programs and their effects on pro-environmental behavior; analyzes SES degradation and differentiated impacts on urban, rural, and ethnic communities; examines adaptive governance and co-management arrangements; mobilizes innovative methods such as citizen science, experiential learning, and digital pedagogies; identifies psychological, social, and structural barriers to awareness; integrates education for sustainable development in formal and non-formal contexts; and connects socio-ecological resilience, social capital, and community education. Policy analyses, case studies, mixed-methods designs, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses are welcome to be submitted.

By foregrounding culture, education, and governance alongside biophysical constraints, this Special Issue aims to showcase evidence and frameworks that inform both scholarly debate and practical action, advancing just and context-sensitive sustainability transitions in a world of many worlds.

Prof. Dr. Giovanna Campani
Dr. Davide Ricardi
Prof. Dr. Francisco Javier Maza-Avila
Topic Editors

Keywords

Participating Journals

Journal Name	Impact Factor	CiteScore	Launched Year	First Decision (median)	APC
Societies societies	1.6	3.0	2011	34.4 Days	CHF 1400	Submit
Social Sciences socsci	1.7	3.1	2012	34.5 Days	CHF 1800	Submit

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