With Matteo Giusti, University of Surrey.
Part of the Environment and Society Seminar Series.
To cultivate a sustainable future for humanity, it is essential to reconnect people with nature and separate human wellbeing from superfluous consumption. Sustainability is long-term wellbeing for all and cannot emerge from institutions that prioritise short-term self-interest over social cooperation, ignoring the health of the biosphere that ensures humans survival.
The seminar addresses the values and shared assumptions that define our culture and create unsustainable systems and institutions. Promoting a cultural shift has the power to transform our notion of progress and put humanity on a path of regenerative development.
The seminar introduces Human-Nature Connection, systems theory, and methods to initiate transformative change. It examines the cultural assumptions that have characterised unsustainable development in our society as a whole or in specific case studies for centuries.
Matteo is an undisciplinary academic who studies sustainable human-nature relationships. The objective of my research is to understand the personal, spatial, and cultural factors that can systemically promote sustainable civilizations. My goal is to enable the emergence of sustainable human systems.
Matteo's research combines sustainability science, systems thinking, environmental psychology, and spatial analysis. He collaborates with artists, educational groups, and planning offices to apply his research in real-world situations.