Celebrating 15 Years of Leuphana School of Sustainability

Keynote by IDOS Director urges cooperation approaches as sustainability, development and security converge.

On 10 and 11 February, the anniversary symposium “Future – Sustainability – Science” celebrated the foundation of Germany’s first faculty for sustainability, the Leuphana School of Sustainability. IDOS Director Prof. Anna-Katharina Hornidge was invited to deliver the keynote for the event. Speaking on “Beyond ‘Development’ – Cooperation Policy for Times of Global (Dis-)Order”, she spoke on the emerging triangle of sustainability – development – security. Cooperative approaches are needed and innovative and creative potential lies in alliances and partnerships with actors across Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

The symposium also included panel discussions, interactive workshops and artistic interventions. As remarked upon by the dean of faculty, Prof. Harald Heinrichs, in his closing speech, the symposium showed that the push-back against sustainability can be met with confidence and a forward-looking attitude. The path forward lies in evolving sustainability research, teaching and practice in building more explicitly on its interlinkages with those domains currently more spoken about – geopolitics, security, the authoritarian turn – thereby reinforcing sustainability’s essential contribution to societal resilience.

IDOS congratulates Leuphana University and the Leuphana Sustainability School on 15 years of innovative work at the interfaces of sustainability, transformative knowledges and change. We look forward to continuing to shape the sustainability science landscape together!