The Necessity for Processual Relational Sustainability for Affective Cultural Transformation

A relational map illustrating entangled sustainability across human and non-human
cultures of feeling, knowing, and doing, promoting healthy connections and relationships.

The Necessity for Processual

Relational Sustainability for

Affective Cultural Transformation

by R.E. Slater & ChatGPT

Entwined roots of connected, open futures

bespeak relational renewal of what

the world could be, would be, can be, might be.  - R.E. Slater

A relational approach to human cultural sustainability focused on

healthy pluralism, cross cultural communities, and cosmoecological biotas.

Above is a tanglegram mapping significant relational approaches for developing cultural mindsets whereupon everyone, and all things, are understood (or, felt) to be intimately and uniquely, entangled together, one with the other. This includes not only humanity but nature as well (sic, conveying the idea of valuing all non-human  entities).

Within the tanglegram is a map of the many different academic fields and perspectives which connect the three main pillars of relational transformation. These pillars are:

• Relational Ontology (blue) → How we see reality as made up of relationships.

• Relational Epistemology (orange) → How we know and study those relationships.

• Relational Ethics (green) → How we act ethically within those relationships.

Additionally, the lines themselves illustrate how each field or idea links to one or more of the pillars. For example, Eco-feminism connects to Ontology, Epistemology, and Ethics, meaning it helps shape how we see, know, and act relationally.

The net result of this mapping illustrates that many disciplines and cultural permutations overlap and contribute complexly together to build a relational way of understanding and practice between individuation and community for affective, transformal sustainability.

Descriptors such as Co-operation, Co-Flourishing, Nurturing,

and Nourishing would all be indicators of successful transformation.

In lay terms, relational sustainability does not simply involve "green infrastructural fixes," but is a deep and systemic multimodal approach for affecting solidarity between societies of humans and natural ecosystems as dynamic cooperative actors living together rather than as "separate sectors of self-involved operators."

Further, a processual approach to life recognizes that all people, ecosystems, cultures, and beliefs are interdependent each upon the other. Thus transforming how we live, learn, govern, and care not only for one another but - for the Earth as well - based on generative and beneficial relationships to-and-with one another.

In this form of processual arrangement we do not manage resources. Rather, we lean into one another for co-development for justice, resilience, and co-flourishing between communities of humans and non-humans. In short, this attitude is more than an approach for “sustainable development” but is an approach for sustainable processual relations and relationships.

R.E. Slater

July 8, 2025

Reference:

Towards a relational paradigm in sustainability research, practice, and education

A Relational Approach to Sustainability:

Rethinking How We See, Know, and Act

Introduction

In an era of mounting climate crises, biodiversity loss, and deepening social inequalities, traditional ways of tackling sustainability issues often fall short. Many existing approaches focus on technological fixes or isolated interventions. However, a growing movement in research, practice, and education argues that true sustainability requires us to rethink how we see the world: not as a collection of separate parts, but as a dynamic web of relationships. This document reimagines sustainability through a relational lens, integrating ideas from systems thinking, indigenous knowledge, and contemporary relational philosophies.

Body

Seeing: A Relational Ontology

A relational ontology begins with the belief that things do not exist in isolation. Trees are not just trees; they are forests, habitats, carbon sinks, and cultural symbols. Rivers are not simply water channels but lifelines for communities, ecosystems, and entire regional climates. In a relational worldview, everything exists because of its connections to everything else. This stands in contrast to mechanistic views, which treat nature as a collection of separate resources to be extracted or managed.

Knowing: A Relational Epistemology

Traditional science often claims to produce objective knowledge that is detached from the observer. A relational approach challenges this, recognizing that knowledge is always produced within networks of people, places, and non-human actors. Indigenous knowledge systems have long embraced this view, integrating empirical observation with relational and spiritual understanding of the land. A relational epistemology calls for multiple ways of knowing, inviting dialogue between scientific, local, and traditional forms of knowledge.

Acting: A Relational Ethics

Ethics in a relational paradigm extend beyond human interests. It asks us to consider the well-being of animals, plants, ecosystems, and future generations as part of our moral community. Policies, research agendas, and educational programs must be designed with this broader ethical horizon in mind. This means shifting from resource extraction and exploitation to stewardship, care, and co-flourishing with non-human ecosystems of nature.

Conclusion

A relational paradigm reframes sustainability from a technical fix to a cultural transformation. It calls us to redesign how we see the world, how we generate knowledge, and how we live responsibly within it. By embedding relationships at the heart of our thinking and action, we can move towards a more resilient, just, and life-sustaining future.

Bibliography

• Capra, Fritjof. The Systems View of Life: A Unifying Vision. Cambridge University Press, 2014.

• Ingold, Tim. Being Alive: Essays on Movement, Knowledge and Description. Routledge, 2011.

• Latour, Bruno. We Have Never Been Modern. Harvard University Press, 1993.

• Maturana, Humberto and Francisco Varela. The Tree of Knowledge: The Biological Roots of Human Understanding. Shambhala, 1992.

• Shiva, Vandana. Staying Alive: Women, Ecology and Development. Zed Books, 1988.

• SpringerLink article: Escobar, Arturo et al. "Towards a relational paradigm in sustainability research, practice and education." Ambio (2020).

EPILOGUE

Threads of Relational Becoming
by R.E. Slater & ChatGPT

Within self and community, flows

a cosmic, natural weave wherein
co-operative threads blend

soil to sky and earth to man.

Once living kin to rivers and forests,

birds and beast, rain and fire,

fled Eden's nurturing lands

of promising, nourishing futures.

Circles of stewarding care are

learning to listen deeper than

we speak or act, variegated pulses

of life surging towards blended belonging.

Measured in co-operative acts of

co-flourishing choices, feeding many

not the few; tending relationships

like well-planted gardens sharing

harvest wild amid systems wide.

Attentive practices breathe

unmet allures of becoming,

renewing vagabond spirits

freed to be more when together.

R.E. Slater

July 6, 2025

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