Act Local, Think Global: What Does It Mean for Sustainability Today?

This colloquium brings together colleagues from across the University of St Andrews and beyond to explore the enduring mantra ‘act local, think global'.

Organised as a collaboration between the Environmental Humanities Network and the St Andrews Centre for Critical Sustainabilities (StACCS), it offers an opportunity to reflect on the current significance of this phrase and what is at stake in how it is understood and applied across disciplines. We are especially keen to consider perspectives from the arts, humanities, and social sciences, which have been less prominent in this discourse to date.

Aiming to support impactful and collaborative research, we will explore questions including:
● To what extent can local research and action support global change?
● How can we ensure that research partnerships avoid neo-imperial or extractive practices and instead promote equitable collaboration and mutual benefit?
● What different forms can ‘local to global' research take across disciplines, and what are their respective strengths and weaknesses?

To help frame the discussion, we invite you to consult some short texts we've selected. At the start, you will have the opportunity to offer a brief, informal reflection on the meaning of the term to you or your discipline (2 to 3 minutes; no slides necessary!), and/or some initial comments on one or several of these articles, before we open the conversation more widely. The event aims to consolidate the breadth and diversity of expertise across the University while strengthening connections with local and international universities, thereby enhancing capacity for collaboration on interdisciplinary research, funding applications, and high-impact publications. It will also be an opportunity to reconnect after the summer break and ahead of the start of the taught semester. Tea, coffee, and biscuits will be provided.

Recommended reading:
● Patrick Geddes, ‘Summary and Conclusion,' in Cities in Evolution (Williams & Norgate, 1915), 393–402, https://archive.org/details/citiesinevolutio00gedduoft.
● Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, Jennifer Deger, Alder Keleman Saxena, and Feifei Zhou, ‘Patches,' in Field Guide to the Patchy Anthropocene: The New Nature (Stanford University Press, 2024), 15–58. Available online via University of St Andrews's library.
● Arturo Escobar, ‘The Global Doesn't Exist', August 2019, https://greattransition.org/gti-forum/global-local-escobar/.