Sustainable growth and development are intrinsically linked with the ways societal problems are thought of and addressed. In education, the concept first called for a new attention towards the environment as a subject matter, then for the need to re-consider nature as inseparable from societal matters. Ever since, the increasing worldwide awareness on sustainable growth has primarily linked with environmental concerns, but not independently from economic and societal matters.

Critical voices, however, have challenged oversimplified models of economic and societal sustainability by questioning the long-term evolution of inequality, the concentration of wealth, and the prospects for economic growth (Piketty, 2014), and proposed an alternative ontology for societal sustainability (Seghezzo, 2009), thus reconciling sustainable (economic) growth and social justice models. It is this perspective that informs this symposium.

Recent social and economic crises have shown the fragility of existing institutions and policies (Livingston, 2012), not least in Europe, where the move towards comprehensive lifelong learning seems to have been halted. The development of sustainable policies and practices for adult education and learning has become vital, but there is also a major challenge in establishing balance between the institutions and workings of educational systems and the functions of these systems in society.

This symposium on ‘societal sustainability’ signals attention on this double implication of sustainability – the contribution of adult education and learning to sustainability and the development of sustainable policy frameworks for adult education and learning. In so doing, it addresses the conference theme “Education and transition” from the perspective of sustainability.

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