Planetary health as a troubling concept for the ecological university: unification, revolution or utopia?

This paper contributes new insights into a topic of contemporary significance to higher education in general, and more particularly to this journal – that of the role and responsibility of the university in the context of socio-ecological crises. Specifically, it explores the (hitherto unexamined) relationships between the ideas of the ecological university and planetary health and the ways in which the latter might inform or ‘trouble’ the former. To provide a frame for this exploration, the Planetary Health Education Framework – developed to distil ‘the essence’ of planetary health in relation to values, knowledge and practices in higher education – is deployed. It is concluded that, while the relationship between the two concepts is (super)complex, the idea of the ecological university is supervenient on that of planetary health. Planetary health can be understood as a potentially unifying concept for the ecological university in its responding to three key planetary ‘failures’ (conceptual, knowledge and implementation). It is also a revolutionary concept, calling for an urgent transformation of major institutions, systems and frameworks at micro and mega-ecosystem levels. Most significantly, although both concepts contain utopian strains, with its foundation in ontological realism, planetary health offers a strong regulatory ideal for universities which seek to develop their ecological credentials.