Sixteenth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic & Social Sustainability

Abstract

Much of the sustainable developmental goals (SDGs) relate to food-energy-water nexus situated in larger social-ecological framework. Traditional models of sustainability education focused on imparting information must give way to more realistic psychological-foundational models that can enhance a participant’s motivation and further enable them to put into practice what they have learned. This study describes a platform that engages students using the domain of social innovation and project-based learning (PBL) in teams and further analyze how these teams engage on incorporating sustainability within their social innovation ideas. A total of 1560 student participant projects were analyzed and based on the data gathered, the paper presents a set of examples of how social innovation across SDGs are guided by social topics and issues. These examples suggest that creating a platform for interdisciplinary research communities and multisectoral practitioners to engage in sociology of approach so that concepts, issues, opportunities and resilient solutions of the intricately coupled F-E-W nexus are thoroughly discussed, debated and culminated into larger SDG research questions can result in fostering a holistic understanding of the risks and opportunities of the complex and dynamically interconnected social-ecological systems. An intentional sustainability scholarship can thus engage social innovation as a conceptual framework for creating transdisciplinary engagement amongst students from all disciplines. It can lead to convergence across multiple fields to address the moral, social, and cultural questions and the scientific and economic challenges surrounding SDGs and their interconnectedness to twenty-first century sustainability issues and needs.