Medan forskning kring utbildning i relation till FN:s globala mål för hållbar utveckling ökat sedan målenantogs 2015, finns det fortfarande få studier om förskoleutbildningens roll i en stundande samhällstransformationi enlighet med Agenda 2030. Den här studien syftar till att utforska utmaningar och möjlighetermed utbildning för FN:s globala mål för barn mellan 1-5 år. Genom en analys av fokusgruppssamtal medförskolepersonal visar studien att: 1) trots intention om en ämnesövergripande undervisning, tenderarfrågor om hållbar utveckling, och Agenda 2030, att bli fragmenterade, 2) förskolepersonal upplever attförskolan har goda förutsättningar att bedriva undervisning för hållbar utveckling, samt 3) förskolepersonaluttrycker att det finns ett dilemma mellan å ena sidan vikten av att se till och ta hänsyn till barnensintresse, och å andra sidan att bibehålla mål och fokus.

This article responds to recent calls for more creative expressions of climate and sustainabilitytransformations. In particular, research literature argues that the formulation of new narratives ofsustainable societies may function as a prominent intervention for system changes. Yet, few empiricalstudies exist on how creative climate and sustainability storytelling elicit varying levels of awareness andengagement. With the intention to advance scholarship in the role of narratives to create engagement withsustainability transformations, this study investigates children’s theater for the UN Sustainable DevelopmentGoals (SDGs) as one research site. By analyzing the interactive children’s theater play “Esmeralda and theDragon—The Global Sustainability Goals,”we show that creative storytelling can offer a meaningful space forengagement with Agenda 2030 and the UN SDGs. In particular, we find that (1) children’s cognitive andemotional associations and experiences shape the meaning of and responses to the SDGs and (2) the play’sfictional elements resonate with children’s emotional frameworks. Based on the results, we argue that newstories are needed for sustainability transformations and that there is transformative power in the creativeand performance arts in this respect, and we call for further exploration of various publics engagements withsustainability storytelling.

Trends towards unsustainability are worsening, driving interest in inner transformation to support progress towards a more viable and just future. Many approaches to these transformations include interventions intended to shift ways of seeing, being, and relating in the world from a narrative of separation towards one of interconnectedness. Transforming dominant systems that perpetuate inequities and imperil both social and ecological systems is a necessary yet profoundly challenging task. This paper synthesizes the dialogue between four individuals with diverse backgrounds in inner transformation, sustainability, and systemic change hosted by the Transformations Community at the annual 2023 conference. Diverse approaches to and cautions for shifting mindsets towards more sustainable worldviews were discussed. Emergent insights from the discussion inform a growing body of scholarship and practice at the nexus of inner and outer sustainability.

This review article addresses the need for systematic in-depth reflection on how narratives are used in scholarly climate change literature and synthesizes ten years of research literature between 2009 and 2019. Firstly, the analysis results show that the research field of climate change narratives is scattered yet complementary, as scholarly literature addresses the content of all three working groups’ assessment reports of the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report (AR6). Secondly, the analysis of narrative conceptualizations identifies three themes on the whats, whens, and hows of narrative: transmission, perspectives, and practices, embodied and entangled. On the basis of the analysis, this article concludes with a discussion of the potential of climate change narratives to nuance the emergency rhetoric of climate change communication and simultaneously argues that a plurality of theoretical perspectives in research on climate change narratives has the power to create the transformative change needed to address the sustainability and climate challenges outlined in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

In 2015, the United Nations member states agreed upon a universal agenda for sustainable development with seventeen belonging goals that are to be achieved by 2030. This agenda, which is generally known as Agenda 2030, is said to provide a shared blueprint for prosperity and peace for all human beings and the planet. It stresses that humans should get the opportunity to enjoy economic, social, and technological progress that occurs in harmony with nature (Desa, U.N, 2015). In other words, the human and the non-human world are enclosed in the agenda, but until now, no studies have focused on how they and the relationship between them are represented within Agenda 2030. This needs to be broadened since such a focus would make it possible to provide insightful reflections on the ontological and epistemological standpoints upon which human understandings of the human, the non-human, and their relationship are grounded (see Maraud & Guyot, 2016; Fletcher, 2016; Fälton, 2021). This study contributes to such broadening by focusing on narratives of the non-human world and its relationship to the human world enabled in Agenda 2030. Through a narrative analysis (e.g., Bruner, 2003; Haraway, 2016) of the text in the agenda, we unravel, make visible, and problematize what stories that occur and how those are told. As part of that analysis, we also discuss the possibilities and limitations of using the concepts of "nature", "the other than human world", "the non-human world", and "the more-than-human world" (see Escobar, 1996; Demeritt, 2002; Soper, 2012) when problematizing global sustainability transformations agreements. Our initial analysis shows that Agenda 2030 is permeated by anthropocentric values (see Lövbrand et al., 2015). This become visible in examples such as portrayals of the non-human world as a product that should be consumed by humans, and representations of the planet as a place that needs to be preserved for the need of present as well as future human generations rather than for its own sake. Another example is the agenda stating that all human beings of the world should be included in and supported by its actions, while only the most endangered species are integrated. Consequently, the separation between the human and the non-human world, creates hierarchies, where some species are presented as more valuable than others, who are being made invisible.

We communicate, relate, educate and make our world meaningful through stories. Stories are integrated in and are a part of every sustainability issue. In this article, we develop the concept of sustainability stories, and how they can be assessed and developed to correspond with the intentions of education for sustainable development (ESD). Literature shows that valued competences such as action competence, systems perspectives, student engagement and critical reflection have difficulties when it comes to informing educational practices in profound ways. In this article, we argue for the use of sustainability stories as an educational strategy to overcome this problem. Here the didactical tool ecolocigal, pluralism, organisations, social, economic and, agents (EPOSEA) aids teachers in enhancing their ESD classroom activities as well as providing a tool for co-producing sustainability stories. We argue for the potential of serious stories in ESD to holistically engage learners in exploring complex issues.

While previous studies have found games and gaming to be a new andinnovative communication strategy to inform the public and citizens aboutscientific research and engage them with it, this article addresses theunder-researched question of credibility aspects in research-basedgaming. The study analyses agricultural stakeholders’ discussions on thecredibility of scientific descriptions in The Maladaptation Game — a gamebased on research on climate change maladaptation in Nordic agriculture.The analysis of focus group transcripts and frame credibility finds thatplayers attribute credibility to 1) the perceived correspondence betweengame-articulated information on climate change, suggested adaptationactions and their potential maladaptive outcome, 2) the perceived “fit”between these elements and players’ experiences, and 3) the informationsources underpinning the game. Lastly, the article discusses the role ofresearch-based games in science communication and advocates the needfor careful balance between models of conceptual and scientific thinking ingame design and everyday experiences among players.

As local climate adaptation activity increases, so does the number of questions about costs, benefits, financing and the role that economic considerations play in adaptation-related decision-making and policy. Through five cases, covering a range of climate risks and types of adaptation measures, this paper critically examines Swedish project coordinators perceptions of costs and benefits in already-implemented climate adaptation measures. Our study finds that project coordinators make use of different system boundaries - on temporal, geographical and administrative scales - in their cost/benefit evaluations, making the practice of determining adaptation costs arbitrary and hard to compare. We further demonstrate that the project coordinators interpret costs and benefits in a manner that downplays the intangible environmental and social costs and benefits arising from the adaptation measures, despite their own experience of how such measures negatively impact upon social value. The exclusion of social and environmental costs and benefits has severe implications for justice, as it can bias decisions against people and ecosystems that are affected negatively. Based on the findings, we propose three tentative social justice dilemmas in local climate adaptation planning and implementation: 1. Cost and benefit distribution across scales; 2. The identification and valuation of non-market effects; and 3. The equitable allocation of costs and benefits.

Background. Serious games are gaining increasing prominence in environmental communication research, but their potential to form an integrated part of participatory research approaches is still strikingly understudied. This is particularly the case for applications of interactive digital formats in research on environmental challenges of high complexity, such as climate adaptation, which is a specifically suitable case as it involves complex interaction between climate systems and society, but where the response also involves trade-offs with potentially negative – maladaptive – outcomes.

Intervention. This article presents the Maladaptation Game, which was designed to facilitate dialogue about potential negative outcomes of agricultural climate adaptation.

Methods. We conducted test sessions with agricultural stakeholders in Finland and Sweden, and analysed quantitative and qualitative, audio-recorded and transcribed, material for opportunities and challenges related to dialogues, engagement, interactivity and experienced relevance.

Results. The qualitative analysis of recorded dialogues shows that the Maladaptation Game has potential to support dialogue by challenging players to negotiate between options with negative outcomes. The gameplay itself presents opportunities in terms of creating engagement with options that provoke disagreement and debates between players, as well as interactivity, that players reflected upon as quick and easy, while challenges were related to the experienced relevance, in particular the options provided in the game, and its general framing.

Conclusions. The results indicate a need for complementary approaches to this type of game but also suggest the importance of moderation when the game design is aimed at creating dialogue around a complex environmental challenge such as agricultural climate adaptation.