Add sustainability and stir

Abstract

This paper employs systems psychodynamics to make sense of the relational dynamics of a consortium whose primary task was to provide leadership in sustainability research and education. Working at the interface between human and human-nature relatedness, members of the consortium seemed unable to extricate themselves from the interconnected and mutually self-reinforcing task and relational tensions. They were, in the end, unable to sustain themselves even as they sought to collaborate for sustainability. While on the surface consortium dynamics manifested as banal inter-personal and inter-group phenomena, upon close examination, the untenable situation in which the participants found themselves becomes apparent. One begins to appreciate just how much work is needed still, if contemporary society is to get closer to the ideal of sustainable futures.