On Cotonomy and Eco-Bildung as a Relational Transitional Pathway Toward Post-sustainability

Fifty years of education and learning in relation to the environment and sustainability have not made a dent in the current systemic global dysfunction that is propelling humanity toward collapse. In many parts of the world, education, learning, and capacity-building have been hijacked serve an extractivist and exploitive economy that cultivates materialist lifestyles and promotes extreme wealth inequality. In this chapter, the related concepts of cotonomy and eco-Bildung are introduced as a way to transgress this dysfunction and to break with hegemonic structures and systems that are underneath. Ideas from Daoism, ecopedagogy, and Bildung are brought together as socio-critical transitional pathway that moves humanity beyond sustainability.