Abstract
The chapter discusses consequences of individualistic and nationalistic approaches to sustainability and how discourses organize what is seen as reason as well as the reasonable, desirable children who engage in environment and sustainability in a proper way, and consequently also who becomes the eco-certified child’s Other. Furthermore, this chapter focuses on how the child is constructed in and through this discourse; how the child becomes the representative for the pure, untouched soul—still not destroyed by the cynicism of the adult world. The figuration of the eco-certified child as an agent of change is problematized. Here I also discuss alternative ways of talking about environment and sustainability, and how other perspectives can redistribute the responsibility for the future from childhood into the political arena.
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Ideland, M. (2019). Eco-Certified Children and Irresponsible Adults. In: The Eco-Certified Child. Palgrave Studies in Education and the Environment. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00199-5_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00199-5_6
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Publisher Name: Palgrave Pivot, Cham
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