Linking sustainability and spirituality: A preliminary assessment study in pursuit of a sustainable and ethically correct world

Journal article

Leal Filho, Walter, Salvia, A., Ulluwishewa, Rohana, Abubakar, I., Mifsud, Mark, LeVasseur, Todd Jared, Correia, V., McCrea, A., Paço, A., Fritzen, B., Ray, Subhasis, Gordon, N., Luetz, Johannes, Borsari, B., Venkatesan, M., Mukul, Sharif A., Carp, Richard M., Begum, Halima, Nunoo, E., Muthu, Nandhivarman, Sivapalan, Subarna, Cichos, Katarzyna and Farrugiay, Esther 2022. Linking sustainability and spirituality: A preliminary assessment study in pursuit of a sustainable and ethically correct world. Journal of Cleaner Production. 380 (2). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.135091
AuthorsLeal Filho, Walter, Salvia, A., Ulluwishewa, Rohana, Abubakar, I., Mifsud, Mark, LeVasseur, Todd Jared, Correia, V., McCrea, A., Paço, A., Fritzen, B., Ray, Subhasis, Gordon, N., Luetz, Johannes, Borsari, B., Venkatesan, M., Mukul, Sharif A., Carp, Richard M., Begum, Halima, Nunoo, E., Muthu, Nandhivarman, Sivapalan, Subarna, Cichos, Katarzyna and Farrugiay, Esther
AbstractThe influence of humanity on the environment and the use of natural resources may be affected by spirituality, through awareness for developing a greater conscience about the implications of human actions and needs to adjust these in achieving sustainable development. However, the literature indicates a lack of consensus about operationalizing spirituality outside the management field and its connection with sustainability. This study focused on the relation between these topics in the educational sector and investigated whether spirituality informs the teaching and research of sustainability within higher education curricula. An online survey was administered to a convenience sample (n = 100) of academic staff working at higher education institutions in 25 countries. The questions posed by the research instrument included open-ended and multiple-choice queries, that yielded qualitative and quantitative data. Overall, the results suggest that there is widespread awareness about making connections between spirituality and sustainability and a general agreement about the usefulness of including spiritual aspects in sustainability teaching and research practices. However, there are some elements which hinder progress in this area, such as a common understanding of spirituality definition and an apparent lack of training to handle matters related to spirituality as part of teaching and research. The study presents actions to promote a better integration of sustainability and spirituality, which include a greater emphasis on matters related to sustainability, human well-being, and ethics, a part of initiatives on spirituality, and involvement of key stakeholders.
KeywordsSpirituality; Sustainable development; Higher education; Teaching; Research
Year2022
JournalJournal of Cleaner Production
Journal citation380 (2)
PublisherElsevier
ISSN0959-6526
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.135091
Official URLhttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.135091
FunderInter-University Sustainable Development Research Programme
Publication dates
Online15 Dec 2022
Publication process dates
Accepted03 Nov 2022
Deposited16 Nov 2022
Output statusPublished
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https://repository.canterbury.ac.uk/item/931v7/linking-sustainability-and-spirituality-a-preliminary-assessment-study-in-pursuit-of-a-sustainable-and-ethically-correct-world

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