ABSTRACT
This book started with a question about the role played by science and education-two major sectors of the life of our Western societies-in the current critical scenario of global environmental changes. The analysis of current issues and debates surrounding complex and controversial environmental issues has provided the backdrop for a refl ection on the modes of production and use of scientifi c knowledge. The recognition of the complexity of coupled systems-human and natural-and the environmental emergencies challenged the image of technoscientifi c enterprise. Science as a body of consolidated knowledge, to which to refer for the solution of problems and for the fulfi lment of people’s requirements, has fallen short. Some authors have called for holistic approaches to be developed, including interdisciplinary methods:
a core sustainability science research program has begun to take shape that transcends the concerns of its foundational disciplines and focuses instead on understanding the complex dynamics that arise from interactions between human and environmental systems (Clark 2007, 1737).
