ABSTRACT
The chapter examines the significance of education for sustainability development (ESD) within business studies, but the lessons presented can be just as readily applied to other disciplines. Adopting Sen’s capability approach, it argues for ‘sustainability’ as the underlying capability of ESD. This gives rise to what Sen (1999) refers to as ‘evaluative space’, whereby we understand how actions within one domain impact upon other domains and seek greater consensus with business and wider society.
Understanding ESD as a form of capability, as a forum for critical thinking, and as an evaluative space for education itself provides the means for significant change in how we approach the subject of business and in turn how businesses might view themselves.
This capability is essential in a multidomain relational understanding of the broad and at times competing factors at stake in sustainable development.
