In the last few years, a growing endorsement of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), in both research and praxis, has been observed worldwide. Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has described ESD as the biggest challenge in the current century. Since then several states, NGOs, and educational organizations such as schools or universities have undertaken intensive efforts to anchor the concept into educational settings, systems and organizations at the global, national, regional, and organizational levels. At the same time, the definitions and operationalizations of ESD vary considerably. ESD in so-called developing countries, for instance, may be understood completely different than in the so-called industrialized world.

Since social innovations such as ESD are implemented and realized through social relations, applications of quantitative and qualitative techniques of Social Network Analysis (SNA) or network and governance approaches as such to study the increasing relevance of ESD seem apparent. Despite considerable research on the involvement of ESD, however, its implementation through relations, as well as the interactions between different actors in these processes, have been researched scarcely with social network approaches. This Special Issue addresses the research gap and welcomes articles that are related to aspects of social networks and collaboration with a focus on education and sustainability. It encourages contributions employing different approaches and quantitative and/or qualitative network methods and drawing on different data. Possible topics for article submission include, but are not limited to:

1. Social networks and collaboration in ESD
2. Social network analysis in ESD
3. Cross-sectional partnerships in ESD
4. Diffusion or transfer of ESD
5. Implementation of Sustainable Development Goals in education
6. Student engagement in ESD
7. Strategic partnerships
8. Gender, Diversity, Heterogeneity or Inclusion in ESD
9. Incentives for integrating ESD in networks—including excellence ranking and ratings
10. Measuring and monitoring ESD

Prof. Dr. Nina Kolleck
Guest Editor

http://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability/special_issues/social_networks