UNLEARNING UNSUSTAINABILITY
Authors:   , van Oers Laura Maria 
Published: May 2024

There is an increased urge to facilitate a transformation of the Dutch food to address pressing sustainability challenges. At present, these calls for transformation are most often met with calls for new technologies, practices and innovation, supported by claims that they will eventually outcompete unsustainable ones. This “innovation bias” in transition’s research and practice emphasises novelty, while it often obscures the need to also let go of specific unsustainable technologies, practices and ways of thinking about our food system. Given that the Dutch food system remains unsustainable despite innovation efforts, this thesis draws attention to research and practice describing how to address unsustainability directly.
Specifically, I introduce and develop the concept of “unlearning” that involves distancing or discarding of skills and practices; norms, values and beliefs; and mindsets and worldviews that perpetuate unsustainability. Empirically, I study how processes of unlearning unfold within “unlearning spaces” in which individuals are confronted with the limits of their habitual behaviours and beliefs. The unlearning spaces that are studied in this thesis are community-supported agriculture (CSA) initatives in which consumers and farmers collaborate as around local food. Such initiatives enable rethinking our food system, for example: how food is produced, by whom, and who carries responsibility for a sustainable food system transformation. Additionally, this thesis explores how unlearning may be facilitated in agricultural programmes at secondary vocational educational (Dutch: MBO), specifying a key role for teachers as “unlearning facilitators”. Facilitators can inspire and support individuals who are unaware or reluctant to unlearn.
Combining my literature review and empirical findings, this thesis develops nine propositions on unlearning for sustainability transition studies: unlearning (i) involves the distancing and discarding of skills and practices; norms, values, and beliefs; and mindsets and worldviews; (ii) is intentional, not accidental; (iii) unlearning can be triggered by “forms of crises” and/or “forms of confrontation”; (iv) is a process that consists of different sub-processes; (v) may support the adoption of new skills and practices; norms, values, and beliefs; and mindsets and worldviews; (vi) has strategic and pedagogical relevance; (vii) is a personal and (generatively) confrontational process, which may be characterised as emotionally painful and hampered by socio-cultural dynamics; (viii) may be enabled by “unlearning facilitators”, who can inspire and support individuals who are unaware or reluctant to unlearn; (ix) and “unlearning spaces” are important to trigger and nurture unlearning.
I close this thesis with four implications for future research. In sum, I urge transition scholars to start or improve how they (i) foreground unlearning in transition theory, (ii) recognise and create unlearning spaces, (iii) diversify and pluralise phase-out, and finally, (iv) discuss “what” needs to be unlearned for sustainability transitions, in particular how unlearning can be a tool for degrowth transformations.