大学共同利用機関法人　人間文化研究機構　総合地球環境学研究所

The last six years have been very enriching for me through my contacts with European and Japanese colleagues.

Each of these cultures contributes in my opinion some very original and highly relevant themes and insights to global sustainability studies. Together, these have brought me to a thorough re-evaluation of the contribution of current sustainability science, raising questions about its effectiveness and how to transform research results into action.

Contrasting European and American approaches has alerted me to the need to think through the underlying values and epistemologies much more profoundly than is common in the USA. Learning from Japanese colleagues has first of all drawn my attention to the need for extended local work (instead of the global approach that is dominant in both Europe and the US), and second on the need to, and the difficulties of, developing an independent, non-western framework of thought about sustainability. In this talk, which is "work in progress"

I will try to point in some directions for the future.