ABSTRACT
At the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992, education was identified as one of the key forces central to the processes of sustainable development during the 21st century. Some years later, the goal of sustainability and the need for education in all of its forms in order to seriously engage with this imperative remain as significant as ever – possibly more so, as many of us are directly experiencing the risks, uncertainties and pressures of working and living within a globalized, weightless knowledge economy. As wealth increases for some, global poverty, insecurity and inequality are an obdurate reminder that economic development is far from even and far from fair. Higher education (HE) is implicated in all of this, for it is no longer in the privileged position of simply observing, criticizing and evaluating what goes on beyond the seminar room or campus. It, too, is a global player imbricated in both the production of knowledge and wealth and the maintenance of poverty and insecurity through its growing role as servant to the global economy. Higher education therefore helps to shape the material reality we all experience and the ways in which we attempt to understand, reflect on and, perhaps, even change it.
