Topics and research questions include:

• What is ‘Education in the Anthropocene’ and how does its designation help with the transition economy?
• How can STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) enable the transition economy?
• How are sustainability-oriented technologies produced and integrated with society through education (e.g., through digital means)?
• What are the values embedded in the transition economy and how are they communicated by education?
• What is the relationship between education and social change in the Anthropocene, and how is it (or can be) mediated by technology?
• What are the socio-economic realities for populations in terms of the transition economy, and how are they influenced by education?
• What are the main factors addressed by ‘Education in the Anthropocene’ that will aid with net zero and societal transformation?

This Collection suggests that education (at all levels) is the key to producing sustainability-oriented technologies, and their integration with everyday societal needs and general usage. However, every society is different and hence the challenges to transition are different, and, furthermore, the time scale(s) and speed(s) set for this integration (e.g., Net Zero by 2050), means that careful planning and integration of new technologies with societal practice is necessary for the transition economy to be successfully achieved. This Collection has no one set model for ‘Education in the Anthropocene’ or explains universally how it will enable sustainability-oriented technologies and societal uptake globally but looks to intellectual inspiration, inquiry and critique, and the inclusion of diversity as being key to making the bridge between the production of new sustainability-oriented technologies and their widespread usage. In corollary, one may suggest that it is in nuanced diversity, difference, and context-driven transformations, that technologies will be specifically produced, connected, and used by human society to make the transition to net zero and other Anthropocene goals happen – such as those entwined with the nine planetary boundaries hypothesis (Stockholm Resilience Centre).

It is the contention of this Collection that is only through an enhanced and revised educational practice that socio-technical and sustainability transitions will integrate with the necessary interconnected matrix (human-economic-societal) to make them work in practice. This will specifically elaborate the matrix behind the transition economy, and work out how education is part of this matrix and as a means to make progress towards societal goals such as net zero by 2050, the SDGs, and the reduction of plastic waste and other pollutants.

This Collection is fundamentally inter-disciplinary, as it includes knowledge from the educational sciences, economics, and technological disciplines that rely on applied science. It is of interest to policy makers looking to enact goals such as ‘net zero for 2050’, the SDGs, and improve environmental outcomes through education.