Worldmaking Toward the Symbiocene Era

Transition Design in Community Sustainability and Climate Educatio

Authors

  • Elizabeth A Lange St Francis Xavier University (on leave)
  • Shandell Houlden Royal Roads University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.56105/cjsae.v38i01.5844

Keywords:

climate education, environmental and sustainability education, Storytelling, kinship, rationality, communal individuality, transition design, Symbiocene era, regenerative futures

Abstract

Amid the pressing realities of climate change, biodiversity loss, and eco-anxiety, we reconceive community adult education in service of sustainable and regenerative futures. We assert that the environmental crisis is, in part, a design crisis. Drawing on transition design and relationality theory, we approach pedagogy as designing for the transition to the Symbiocene era. In our Canadian comparative case study of a large urban city and a semi-rural community, we derived three pedagogy pathways from the first case and adapted them in the second: the power of story, connecting individual and community needs, and fostering kinship with the natural world. Their interpenetration encouraged adult engagement, overcame resistance, and opened pathways to civic involvement. We describe how the pedagogy developed in each context, then analyze how these pathways manifest transition design. We consider such learning worldmaking: it unleashes self-organizing energies, shifts perception toward communal individuality, and designs us back into the dance of life.

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Published

2026-06-10

How to Cite

Lange, E. A., & Houlden, S. (2026). Worldmaking Toward the Symbiocene Era: Transition Design in Community Sustainability and Climate Educatio. Canadian Journal for the Study of Adult Education, 38(01). https://doi.org/10.56105/cjsae.v38i01.5844

Issue

Vol. 38 No. 01 (2026): Adult Education and Sustainability

Section

Articles

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