Introduction

This chapter introduces the book’s approach to analysing and contributing to transformations to sustainability in different contexts across the globe. The Sustainable Development Goals are introduced as a “universal agenda”, but questions are raised about their meaning in different localities, each with their own environmental conditions and priorities, cultures and socio-political histories. What can we learn from experiences across these different contexts, and the different disciplines through which they are understood? The chapter sets the scene for the rest of the book and provides a roadmap to its use (for different readers). It lays out the forthcoming chapters, which introduce the Pathways re-framing sustainability challenges, theoretical and methodological anchors and learning.