Thomas Kloster-Jensen Macintyre

• Macintyre, Thomas; Fisker, Jens Kaae; Muller, Anders Riel; Bjelland, Marianne Rosseid & Lindland, Kristiane Marie Fjær (2026). Enacting participatory democracy through futures making in the city. Futures: The journal of policy, planning and futures studies. ISSN 0016-3287. 179, p. 103811–103811. doi: 10.1016/j.futures.2026.103811. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This paper examines how futures thinking can support participatory democracy in urban development. It does so by analysing the tensions and contradictions that emerge when inhabitants lead futures‑making processes. Grounded in a case study of the Badedammen neighbourhood in Stavanger, Norway, the study explores how inhabitants engaged in critique, utopian visioning, and collective realisation through an extended Utopian Future Workshop (UFW) process. Drawing on Pateman’s participatory democratic theory and Gilmore’s conception of democratic life as ongoing rehearsal, the analysis highlights how futures‑making becomes a situated practice in which democratic ideals are enacted, negotiated, and contested. Methodologically, the study integrates participatory photography and utopian sketching to support inhabitants in articulating alternative neighbourhood visions. The findings reveal that while inhabitant‑led futuring can broaden participation and nurture democratic capacities, it also generates frictions around representation, timing, and trust—each shaping how legitimacy is conferred or withdrawn during the process. These insights contribute to debates on participatory futures and democratic innovation by showing how futures methods can extend agency and imagination while simultaneously exposing the practical and ethical challenges of enacting more inclusive urban development.

• Macintyre, Thomas Kloster-Jensen; Lindland, Kristiane Marie Fjær; Wall, Pia Susanne; Tessmann, Hildegunn Kalviknes & Yakira, Hagit (2025). Bærekraft i bevegelse: utopiske ideer og praktiske løsninger i akademiske rom. Forskning og Forandring. 8(1), p. 142–160. doi: https:/forskningogforandring.dk/index.php/fof/article/view/6982/11962. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Creative Collaboration for Change: Repurposing Space Through Utopian Thinking and Participatory Design This article explores how creative and artistic methods can be used to generate agency for change. Employing the method of utopian future workshops, underutilized areas on a Norwegian university campus were reimagined and transformed physically to foster social, aesthetic, and resource-based sustainability. Drawing on Mary Parker Follett’s understanding of power through integration and George Herbert Mead and John Dewey’s understanding of meaning-making as a social process of becoming, rooted in the tradition of American pragmatism, we show how participants’ differences not only opened new possibilities for innovative solutions in the campus areas but also stimulated a continuous development of new ideas in which no single actor could control the outcome. The empirical material demonstrates how research-based practice can be integrated into such change processes, and how collaboration between multiple stakeholders can generate lasting organizational and cultural transformations. In this way, the article contributes new insights into the interplay between research and practice in sustainable transformation processes.

• Macintyre, Thomas Kloster-Jensen; Sousa, Daniella & Wals, Arjen E. J. (2024). A regenerative decolonization perspective on ESD from Latin America. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education. ISSN 0305-7925. 54(5), p. 821–838. doi: 10.1080/03057925.2023.2171262. Full text in Research Archive
• Lotz-Sisitka, Heila; Managi, Shunsuke; Macintyre, Thomas Kloster-Jensen; Vickers, Edward A.; Chakraborty, Anya & Kitamura, Yuto [Show all 8 contributors for this article] (2022). Global change and the contextual dynamics shaping education: A view from the sustainability-education nexus. In Duraiappah, A.K.; Atteveldt, N.M. Van; Borst, G.; Bugden, S.; Ergas, O.; Gilead, T.; Gupta, L.; Mercier, J.; Pugh, K.; N.C., Singh & A., Vickers E. (Ed.), Reimagining Education: The International Science and Evidence based Education Assessment. Unesco. doi: 10.56383/qknp4119. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This chapter takes an ambitious look into global change and the contextual dynamics that are facing education in the twenty-rst century. Starting with a broad look at the sustainability–education nexus from economics and the sustainability sciences, we then consider scienti c insights on sociocultural, psychological and behavioural barriers as well as motivators to pro-environmental action and the di erent intervention pathways that might promote individual and collective sustainable behaviour. But recognizing the dangers of overemphasizing individual behavioural adaptation in light of powerful structural obstacles to change, we go on to problematize some of the epistemic underpinnings of modernity and consider the role of education in both enabling and hindering cultural and ecological transitions. We then turn to the question of how to achieve this sort of deeper educational transformation, proposing a move away from an individualist paradigm towards a more relational approach to one another around the world and to nature. Drawing on insights from the environmental and sustainability education movement and some of the transformative education dynamics emerging from this eld, we present the key messages and implications of this chapter, focusing on the need to work with interdisciplinary perspectives towards more sustainable, humanistic and transformative approaches to education.

• Sabatini, John; Park, Jae; Chakraborty, Anya; Graesser, Arthur; Macintyre, Thomas Kloster-Jensen & Chandrasekharan, Manoj [Show all 7 contributors for this article] (2022). Education Technology. In Duraiappah, A.K.; Atteveldt, N.M. Van; Borst, G.; Bugden, S.; Ergas, O.; Gilead, T.; Gupta, L.; Mercier, J.; Pugh, K.; N.C., Singh & A., Vickers E. (Ed.), Reimagining Education: The International Science and Evidence based Education Assessment. Unesco. doi: 10.56383/sdro8173. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This chapter assesses how technological innovations are emerging as one type of solution to the global educational challenges of the 21st Century. It surveys across a broad typology of technologies in the information and communication domain, discussing their scope and a ordances in traditional and non-traditional learning, curriculum design and instruction. With an overview of trends, bene ts, and risks posed by recent technological advances in education, the aim of the chapter is to present a balanced view of the Education Technology (EdTech) eld, highlighting the relevant and necessary concerns within the di erent spheres of EdTech. Speci cally, the chapter discusses critical issues of the digital divide, equitable access to EdTech, privacy and security concerns, the role of teachers and real-world classrooms in an increasingly digitised education setting, and debates concerning the ethical use of arti cial intelligence, big data analytics and machine learning. The assessment supports an optimistic but cautionary role for EdTech in addressing education challenges when coupled with continued social and cultural context-driven research. With respect to policy, the assessment concludes that it is worthwhile to encourage innovations and implementations of EdTech globally, accompanied by sensible regulatory guidelines on data sharing, breach of privacy, security, misuse and misrepresentation of claims about what EdTech can and cannot do.

• Vickers, Edward; Pugh, Kenneth; Macintyre, Thomas Kloster-Jensen; Chakraborty, Anya; Gupta, Latika & Ogunniran, Moses Oladele (2022). Beyond Education – Context, End Goals and Limits. In Duraiappah, A.K.; Atteveldt, N.M. Van; Borst, G.; Bugden, S.; Ergas, O.; Gilead, T.; Gupta, L.; Mercier, J.; Pugh, K.; N.C., Singh & A., Vickers E. (Ed.), Reimagining Education: The International Science and Evidence based Education Assessment. Unesco. doi: 10.56383/dynt7243. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This chapter introduces Working Group 2 (WG2) of the International Science and Evidence based Education Assessment. Building upon WG1, which highlights the importance of mobilizing education to support human ourishing, WG2 emphasizes the complex ways in which diverse contexts (ecological, political, cultural, social and economic) shape, and are shaped by, diverse understandings of what it means to lead a ful lling life, and of education’s role in this. We begin by explaining our approach, acknowledging both the challenges and importance of analysing context from a multidisciplinary perspective. After summarizing the overall content of WG2, we discuss themes that are especially urgent, in particular the role of politics and ideology in shaping (or distorting) educational priorities. We challenge the tendency in much contemporary discourse to hail education as a silver bullet for society’s ills and argue that realizing an educational vision consistent with true human ourishing requires understanding the limitations of education to solve the problems that confront us. Recognition of the enormous transformative potential of education is at the heart of our vision, but rather than expecting education alone to transform our societies, we need to commit to action to alter our social and political contexts so as to enable education systems to refocus on the intrinsic value of learning.

• Pherali, Tejendra; Blair, Clancy; Korostelina, Karina V.; Macintyre, Thomas Kloster-Jensen; Chakraborty, Anya & Ogunniran, Moses Oladele (2022). From perpetrator to peacebuilder: Rethinking education in conflict-affected societies. In Duraiappah, A.K.; Atteveldt, N.M. Van; Borst, G.; Bugden, S.; Ergas, O.; Gilead, T.; Gupta, L.; Mercier, J.; Pugh, K.; N.C., Singh & A., Vickers E. (Ed.), Reimagining Education: The International Science and Evidence based Education Assessment. Unesco. doi: 10.56383/roci5005. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This chapter explores the nexus between education and con ict, positioning education as a contested domain that shapes, and is shaped by, a broad range of social, political, economic and cultural dynamics in con ict-a ected societies. On the one hand, violent con icts and structural violence have detrimental e ects on educational processes and outcomes. On the other hand, education itself can (re)produce structural violence in society. Bringing together the elds of social science and cognitive neuroscience, this chapter provides a multi-faceted lens through which to address the challenges of education in di erent con ict contexts from around the world, highlighting that the search for a collective peaceful future is complex.

• McGarry, Dylan; Weber, Lena; James, Anna; Kulundu-Bolus, Injairu; Pereira, Taryn & Ajit, Shruti [Show all 12 contributors for this article] (2021). The Pluriversity for Stuck Humxns: A Queer EcoPedagogy & Decolonial School. In Russell, Joshua (Eds.), Queer Ecopedagogies Explorations in Nature, Sexuality, and Education. Springer Cham. ISSN 9783030653682. p. 183–218. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The Pluriversity for stuck humxns is an exploratory dialogue between early career researchers and established researchers. It responds to the concern that dominant forms of knowledge production are not assisting us to move towards life affirming ways of being and that alternatives are possible. The production of this chapter is one of many new acts towards realising other modes of being and becoming unstuck in scholar activist practice. The chapter begins with an invitation in the form of a poem by Lena Weber, and the resulting text is a response to the poem from multiple contributors from around the world, who imagine transgressive and progressive ‘departments’ of the Pluriversity. Situated amongst the impulses of queer ecopedagogy and drawing on imagination to understand and play with multiple (or diverse) knowledges, the authors explore what nurturing institutions for scholarly training and life may look like, and what might be possible and in fact are possible through our collaborative experience in the act of creating the Pluriversity for stuck humxns. Itself an intersectional being, this chapter is a queer inquiry dedicated to challenging and reframing norms and dogma and to shake up the boundaries of categories and narrowly and often dogmatically employed concepts. The authors break open pedagogy in ways that allowed them to question research practice and instead conceive of a ‘research worthy of their longing’.

• Macintyre, Thomas Kloster-Jensen; Witjes, Sjors; Vildåsen, Sigurd & Mejía, Mónica Ramos (2021). Embracing transdisciplinary tensions on the road to 2030. In Keitsch, Martina & Vermeulen, Walter (Ed.), Transdisciplinarity For Sustainability: Aligning Diverse Practices. Routledge. ISSN 9780367189075. p. 179–199. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This chapter explores transdisciplinary (TD) research from the context of sustainability in social sciences, with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a backdrop. The generative aspect of this paradox lies in the fact that it is precisely this tension that nurtures TD research. TD research is an apt approach to moving towards these goals through its ambitions to bring together various stakeholders in a participatory context which addresses complex issues in a reflexive manner. The role of tensions is an interesting topic for discussion in the TD field in general, as exemplified by Thomas Macintyre’s account earlier of how TD insights challenge the classical perception of societal actors, and especially the role of higher education. The SDGs and the Agenda 2030 framework address a broad array of societal issues, giving space for a large set of actors to converse, collaborate and disagree.

• Macintyre, Thomas Kloster-Jensen; Tassone, Valentina & Wals, Arjen E. J. (2020). Capturing transgressive learning in communities spiraling towards sustainability. Sustainability. 12, p. 4873–4873. Full text in Research Archive
• Macintyre, Thomas Kloster-Jensen; Villegas, Martha Cecilia Chaves; Monroy, Tatiana; Zethelius, Margarita; Villareal, Tatiana & Tassone, Valentina [Show all 7 contributors for this article] (2020). Transgressing boundaries between community learning and higher education: Levers and barriers. Sustainability. p. 2601–2601. Full text in Research Archive
• Macintyre, Thomas Kloster-Jensen; Monroy, Tatiana; Coral, David; Zethelius, Margarita & Tassone, Valentina (2019). T-labs and climate change narratives: Co-researcher qualities in transgressive action–research. Action research. ISSN 1476-7503. 17, p. 63–86. Full text in Research Archive
• Macintyre, Thomas Kloster-Jensen; Lotz-Sisitka, Heila; Wals, Arjen E. J.; Vogel, Coleen & Tassone, Valentina (2018). Towards transformative social learning on the path to 1.5 degrees. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability. ISSN 1877-3435. 31, p. 80–87. Full text in Research Archive
• Villegas, Martha Cecilia Chaves; Macintyre, Thomas Kloster-Jensen; Verschoor, Gerard & Wals, Arjen (2018). Radical ruralities in practice: Negotiating buen vivir in a Colombian network of sustainability. Journal of Rural Studies. ISSN 0743-0167. 59, p. 153–162. Full text in Research Archive
• Macintyre, Thomas Kloster-Jensen; Villegas, Martha Cecilia Chaves; Villa-Barajas, Sofia & Makú-Pardo, Andres (2017). Educating for Development or Educating for the Good Life? Buen Vivir Imaginaries and the Creation of One’s Own Myth. In Corcoran, Peter Blaze; Weakland, Joseph P. & Wals, Arjen E.J. (Ed.), Envisioning futures for environmental and sustainability education. Wageningen Academic Publishers. ISSN 9789086863037. p. 193–204. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Current perspectives on education for sustainability tend to focus on sustainable development as a means for raising ecological awareness and determining the ecological conditions for development. Yet there are emerging standpoints which are questioning the very need for western styled ‘development’ for reaching sustainability goals. One such approach is that of buen vivir, rooted in the cosmovisions of the Indigenous peoples of Latin America. Roughly translated as ‘the good life,’ buen vivir represents a community-centric, ecologically-balanced and culturally-sensitive set of worldviews whose plural nature opens up the possibilities for bridging cultures and knowledge systems. What this chapter aims to show is how a decolonial pedagogy based on buen vivir is emerging in praxis, and the lessons it can teach us. This will be accomplished by following the story of the initiative Colectivo Talanquera, who over the past eight years have been cocreating hybrid learning pedagogies with Indigenous communities in Northern Colombia, and whose methodologies are currently being used by some public and private non-indigenous institutions in rural areas of Colombia. With the necessity for envisioning alternative futures, this chapter hopes to inspire theorists and practitioners to move beyond educating for development, and instead towards educating for the good life.

• Macintyre, Thomas Kloster-Jensen & Villegas, Martha Cecilia Chaves (2017). Balancing the Warrior and Empathic Activist: The role of the'Transgressive'Researcher in Environmental Education. Canadian Journal of Environmental Education (CJEE). ISSN 1205-5352. 22, p. 80–96. Full text in Research Archive
• Chaves, Martha; Macintyre, Thomas; Verschoor, Gerard & Wals, Arjen (2016). Towards Transgressive Learning through Ontological Politics: Answering the “Call of the Mountain” in a Colombian Network of Sustainability. Sustainability. 9(1), p. 21–21. doi: 10.3390/su9010021. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  In line with the increasing calls for more transformative and transgressive learning in the context of sustainability studies, this article explores how encounters between different ontologies can lead to socio-ecological sustainability. With the dominant one-world universe increasingly being questioned by those who advocate the existence of many worlds—a so-called pluriverse—there lays the possibility of not only imagining other human–nature realities, but also engaging with them in practice. Moving towards an understanding of what happens when a multiplicity of worlds encounter one another, however, entails a sensitivity to the negotiations between often competing ontologies—or ontological politics. Based on an ethnographic methodology and narrative methods, data were collected from two consecutive intercultural gatherings called El Llamado de la Montaña (The Call of the Mountain), which take place for five days every year in different parts of Colombia. By actively participating in these gatherings of multiplicity, which address complex socio-ecological challenges such as food sovereignty and defence of territory, results show how encounters between different ontologies can result in transformative and potentially transgressive learning in terms of disrupting stubborn routines, norms and hegemonic powers which tend to accelerate unsustainability. Although we argue that a fundamental part of the wicked sustainability puzzle lies in supporting more relational ontologies, we note that such learning environments also lead to conflicts through inflexibility and (ab)use of power which must be addressed if sustained socio-ecological learning is to take place.

• Lotz-Sisitka, Heila; Ali, Million Belay; Mphepo, Gibson; Villegas, Martha Cecilia Chaves; Macintyre, Thomas Kloster-Jensen & Pesanayi, Tichaona [Show all 12 contributors for this article] (2016). Co-designing research on transgressive learning in times of climate change. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability. ISSN 1877-3435. 20, p. 55–55. doi: 10.1016/j.cosust.2016.04.004. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This paper reflects on the epistemological context for the co-design of a research programme on transformative, transgressive learning emerging at the nexus of climate change, water and food security, energy and social justice. It outlines a sequence of learning actions that we, as a group of collaborating partners in a Transformative Knowledge Network (TKN) undertook to co-design a research programme, firstly in situ in various case study contexts, and secondly together across case study contexts. Finally, it provides some reflections and learning points.

• Villegas, Martha Cecilia Chaves; Macintyre, Thomas Kloster-Jensen; Riano, Eliana; Calero, Jorge & Wals, Arjen (2015). Death and rebirth of Atlántida: The role of social learning in bringing about transformative sustainability processes in an ecovillage. Southern African Journal of Environmental Education (SAJEE). ISSN 0256-7504. 31, p. 22–32. doi: https:/www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/download/137662/127225. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This paper explores the role of social learning in bringing about transformative sustainability processes among individuals and communities. At a time when sustainability is being seriously questioned in terms of what it is and how it can be implemented and evaluated, there are increasing calls to focus instead on sustainability processes. Drawing on 12 months of action-oriented research, including interviews and community-reflection meetings, and with contributions by two co-researchers from the community studied, this paper explores the triple-loop learning process of an ecovillage in Colombia called Atlántida. The findings show that disruptions in the community provided the opportunity for members to enter into a process of deep learning, because they were willing to reflect collectively on their process. This, however, took place in a tough reflective environment in which it was realised that differences in world views, ethics and leadership among members had contributed to the ‘death’of the community, while their acknowledgement and acceptance of these differences were contributing to a process of transformative ‘rebirth.’We therefore conclude that, when we talk about social learning as a deep transformative process, it is vital to remember that, though it may be necessary, nobody said it was going to be easy.

View all works in NVA

• Macintyre, Thomas Kloster-Jensen; Tilbury, Daniella & Wals, Arjen E. J. (2024). Education and learning for sustainable futures : 50 years of learning for environment and change. Routledge. ISBN 9781003467007. 118 p. Full text in Research Archive

View all works in NVA

• Macintyre, Thomas Kloster-Jensen & Ribeiro, Leo (2025). A Journey through Grydå. doi: 10.31265/usps.316. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This comic, A Journey Through Grydå, presents the outcomes of a collaborative initiative between local inhabitants and researchers from the University of Stavanger, developed within the framework of the EU-funded NEBSTAR project (2022–2025). The project investigates creative, participatory approaches to fostering inclusive, sustainable, and aesthetically grounded urban development in Stavanger. Using the Utopian Futures Workshop method, residents and stakeholders of the Badedammen neighborhood engaged in a collective process of envisioning alternative futures for this historically and culturally significant area, which currently faces challenges from commercial development pressures. The comic serves as a visual narrative that captures these community-driven reflections, aspirations, and alternative visions. Grydå (meaning "the pot") represents a shared space for reimagining urban development beyond profit-oriented models, offering an invitation to consider more regenerative and community-centered pathways.

• Hellstrand, Ingvil; Müller, Anders Riel; Fisker, Jens Kaae; Macintyre, Thomas Kloster-Jensen; Ecclesia, Silvia & Myong, Lene (2025). Framtidsverksted på Ungdommens forskernatt | Universitetet i Stavanger. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Hvordan vil du at framtida skal se ut?

• Macintyre, Thomas (2019). The transgressive gardener : Cultivating learning-based transformations towards regenerative futures. Wageningen University. ISSN 9789463952064. doi: 10.18174/505808. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This thesis represents a transgressive journey into the quest for answers in the nexus be­tween education, sustainability, and climate change. The point of departure is our shared planetary crossroads: In one direction we have the beaten path of the status quo, replete with, socio-ecological injustice, ephemeral prospects of technological salvation, and a highly probable end to the human race as we know it. Branching off to all other sides, however, are the more overgrown and uncertain paths representing alternative futures, some of which may lead to future prosperity for all. In a world seemingly spiraling out of control, the ques­tion of our time is whether we have the will and drive to step off the known but destructive path we are on, and break into unknown but possibly liberating terrain.

View all works in NVA