Janne Salovaara - What is "sustainability" trying to sustain?

This month on the EXALT podcast we were joined by Janne Salovaara from the Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies Programme (DENVI) at University of Helsinki. His research looks at the discipline of sustainability science from the perspective of how it is educated at the University level. Janne’s first degree is in graphic design and his idea of design was that it was the path to change the world. He thought a lot about what are moral, ethics, and societal responsibility of a design. His frustration with design as a profession led him to the Creative Sustainability program at Aalto University. Our conversation was wide ranging and exciting. The big question we tackled is what is sustainability? It is such a buzzword today, but what does it mean in practice? What is the imaginary of sustainability actually supposed to be? What are we trying to sustain and how do we keep sustainability safe from corporate capture?  We explored some of the ontological, epistemological, and practical problems of sustainability. We discussed how it is being taught and what are some of the big failings of sustainability as a concept and a practice. If you want to learn more about Janne’s research, please check out his UH research profile and recent publications. Salovaara, J. J., & Soini, K. (2021). Educated professionals of sustainability and the dimensions of practices. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSHE-09-2020-0327 Salovaara, J. J., Pietikäinen, J., & Cantell, H. (2021). Perceptions of interconnected sustainability: Students’ narratives bridging transition and education. Journal of Cleaner Production, 281, 125336. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.125336 Salovaara, J. J., Soini, K., & Pietikäinen, J. (2020). Sustainability science in education: analysis of master’s programmes’ curricula. Sustainability Science, 15(3), 901-915. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-019-00745-1