Introduction

In 2012, twenty years after the 1992 World Summit on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, the normative idea of sustainable development was celebrated with a follow-up conference – again in Rio de Janeiro (Rio+20). In this time, a growing awareness of the increasing scale of human impacts on the natural environment not only contributed to the emergence of the concept of sustainable development but also fostered a scientific response to the fundamental social, cultural, economic and ecological changes that humankind is confronted with. This search for ways for a transition towards sustainability is a process of social learning in its broadest sense. Accordingly, it is not only learning that is at issue but education and educational science, which is about exploring the preconditions of and opportunities for learning and education – whether individual or social, whether in formal or informal settings.