Ecological integrity: a beguiling but ultimately impossible challenge for the ecological university

In this conceptual chapter, we form an argument as to the relationship between the ecological university and The Earth Charter, and more specifically, the latter’s central concept of ecological integrity. In this exploration of the concept of ecological integrity, we press at two inter-connected matters – firstly, its potential to act as a guiding principle for the realisation of the ecological university, and secondly, as a characteristic of the ecological university. We argue that despite its intuitive appeal, it is an ultimately impossible guiding principle for the ecological university due to its mercurial tendencies. Nonetheless, by drawing on contemporary critiques of ecological integrity within nature conservation, we show that its real value may lie as a provocation that could help the ecological university to work out what might be practicable at this time and in this place as it seeks to co-evolve in and with the world toward a more sustainable future.