The potential and actuality of sustainability agency of university faculty and staff

Abstract

This study explores the potential and barriers with regard to sustainability activities among university faculty and staff. We build on a university-wide questionnaire and a content analysis of reappearing expressions of activities being promoted, or of their sense of the activities being unsupported or prevented. We find that the personnel as potential agents have capabilities to exercise their transformative capacity, but also that some unsustainable practices and disabling contradictions prevail. The originality of this research is in studying the perspectives of university personnel, in exploring sustainability agency and structure equally, and in concluding the study with concrete recommendations to support university-sustainability endeavors. As implications, we suggest that universities be more explicit about the autonomy of the faculty and staff to promote sustainability and in their rhetoric and culture toward promoting transformative sustainability. In terms of the analytical thought of professional agents, we find that agency often emerges as choices among contradictions.