The promotion of sustainable development in higher education institutions: top-down bottom-up or neither?
International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education
ISSN: 1467-6370
Article publication date: 20 October 2020
Issue publication date: 11 December 2020
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to analyze the sustainability approach within higher education institutions. Universities, as institutions of knowledge, play an important and strategic role in maximizing social and economic benefits in a hands-on way. However, some studies on sustainable development and HEIs reveal a distancing between students and the application of sustainable initiatives in universities. This fact differs from the premises of the Talloires Declaration, which points to students as a community and as global leaders and ambassadors for sustainability.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper mapped the approaches, present in the literature, used to develop sustainable campuses and in particular the apparent dichotomy between the changes indicated as top-down or bottom-up in HEIs. To that end, scientific articles focused on sustainable actions in HEIs were analyzed to identify implementation approaches for sustainable development and student involvement in the process.
Findings
Results have shown that sustainability promotion models in universities generally occur in a top-down manner, where students are receptors and not sources of development for sustainable policies in universities. Thus, the authors highlight the importance of students becoming central players in sustainable initiatives.
Originality/value
The article becomes original when it identifies the dichotomy between top-down and bottom-up approaches. It does so through multidimensional scaling and exploratory factorial analysis in scientific articles on the topic Sustainability Funding in Higher Education. These findings show that, unlike what is discussed in the literature, sustainability promotion in universities generally occurs in a top-down manner, where students are receptors and not active agents in promoting sustainability. In response to this, the authors discussed the importance of the bottom-up approach, where they are key players.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Erratum: It has come to the attention of the publisher that the article Mazon, G., Pereira Ribeiro, J.M., Montenegro de Lima, C.R., Castro, B.C. and Andrade Guerra, J.B.S.O.d.A. (2020), “The promotion of sustainable development in higher education institutions: top-down bottom-up or neither?”, published in the International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSHE-02-2020-0061, was published with several author’s names containing errors.
The correct name for the author Brenda Caroline Castro is Brenda Caroline Geraldo Castro; and the correct name for José Baltazar Salgueirinho Osório de Andrade Andrade Guerra is José Baltazar Salgueirinho Osório de Andrade Guerra. This error was introduced in the editorial process and has now been corrected in the online version of the article. The publisher sincerely apologises for this and for any inconvenience caused.
The current citation for the paper is unaffected by the correction to the author’s names. When citing the article, please continue to cite the current citation provided.
This article was conducted by the Centre for Sustainable Development (Greens), from the University of Southern Santa Catarina (Unisul), in the context of the projects BRIDGE – Building Resilience in a Dynamic Global Economy: Complexity across scales in the Brazilian Food-Water-Energy Nexus and Technological Empowerment for family-farming agriculture in Santa Catarina: BRIDGE-TESC; funded by the Newton Fund, Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa e Inovação do Estado de Santa Catarina (FAPESC), Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível superior (CAPES), National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), Research Councils United Kingdom (RCUK) and Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF).
This paper forms part of special section “Accelerating the implementation of sustainable development in campus activities and programmes”, guest edited by Fernanda Frankenberger, Amanda Lange Salvia and Pedro José Vega Marcote.
Citation
Mazon, G., Pereira Ribeiro, J.M., Montenegro de Lima, C.R., Castro, B.C.G. and Guerra, J.B.S.O.d.A. (2020), "The promotion of sustainable development in higher education institutions: top-down bottom-up or neither?", International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, Vol. 21 No. 7, pp. 1429-1450. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSHE-02-2020-0061
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited