Book chapter 2023

Higher education and sustainable development: A literature analysis and conceptual overview

Higher Education for the Sustainable Development Goals: Bridging the Global North and South
Journal · pp. 39-55
Abstract

In this chapter, the authors employ bibliometric, co-word, and thematic analyses to explore the scientific intersection between higher education (HE) and sustainable development (SD). In particular, the authors analyze a dataset of 215 articles extracted through the Scopus database to understand how the literature debates sustainability and HE. After providing a detailed description of the methodology employed, the authors perform a descriptive and thematic analysis of the dataset. The authors outline general information about the database, the formula applied to search for the results, and the methods used to polish the dataset. The authors then determine the number of publications per year and the number of papers per journal; consider the most used keywords; and build a thematic map based on the co-occurrence network. Lastly, the authors discuss the results and the limitations of our work, providing some indications for future research opportunities. © 2024 by Elia Pizzolitto, Stefano Za and Gianluca Antonucci.

Keywords

Author Keywords

Higher education Sustainability Bibliometric analysis Thematic analysis Sustainable development Economic growth Co-word analysis Higher educational institutions

Index Keywords

Author Affiliations
University of G. d'Annunzio Chieti and Pescara, Chieti, CH, Italy
Funding & Acknowledgements
No funding information
References 10 References
1 Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration Public Policy and Governance, (2016)
2 Beckerman, Wilfred, Economic growth and the environment: Whose growth? whose environment?, World Development, 20, 4, pp. 481-496, (1992)
3 Bonnedahl, Karl Johan, Strongly sustainable development goals: Overcoming distances constraining responsible action, Environmental Science and Policy, 129, pp. 150-158, (2022)
4 Broman, Göran Ingvar, A framework for strategic sustainable development, Journal of Cleaner Production, 140, pp. 17-31, (2017)
5 Campbell, Anne C., Clarifying Mixed Messages: International Scholarship Programmes in the Sustainable Development Agenda, Higher Education Policy, 32, 2, pp. 167-184, (2019)
6 Chatelain-Ponroy, Stéphanie, Adoption of sustainable development reporting by universities: An analysis of French first-time reporters, Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal, 29, 5, pp. 887-918, (2016)
7 Cheng, Joseph Yu Shek, Higher education in Hong Kong - the approach to 1997 and the China factor, Higher Education, 30, 3, pp. 257-271, (1995)
8 Chowdhury, Gobinda G., Building environmentally sustainable information services: A green is research agenda, Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 63, 4, pp. 633-647, (2012)
9 Cobo, Manuel J., An approach for detecting, quantifying, and visualizing the evolution of a research field: A practical application to the Fuzzy Sets Theory field, Journal of Informetrics, 5, 1, pp. 146-166, (2011)
10 Cotton, Debby R.E., Revolutions and second-best solutions: Education for sustainable development in higher education, Studies in Higher Education, 34, 7, pp. 719-733, (2009)
Quick Actions
Full Text via DOI
Citation Metrics
0
Times Cited (Scopus)

References 10
Document Identifiers