Beyond Western and Indigenous Perspectives on Sustainability: Politicizing Sustainability With the Zapatista Rebellious Education

Abstract

This article discusses the contributions of different worldviews to the debates on what a transformative sustainability education could be. It focuses on mainstream and alternative strands of thought present in the West, as well as Indigenous worldviews, taking the Zapatistas as an example. The Zapatista social movement of Mexico fights for the autonomy of Mayan communities and the preservation of their culture, social organization and relationship to nature, all of which centers on traditional Mayan cosmovision. To secure the survival of the culture and of the movement itself, these ecological values are included in the education system. The Zapatistas remind us that it is possible to rethink the world and the ideologies underlying the discourses on sustainability and suggest that taking a stand and organize politically should be at the center of an education for sustainability that aims at being transformative.