Learning for sustainable development in regional networks

University outreach and especially regional cooperation among universities is the main theme of this Special Volume, the foundations of which were created as a result of cooperation among several Higher Educational Institutions and other non-academic partners, and which was developed based upon their willingness to share and extend their experiences beyond the context of their initial community in which they worked. The fourteen articles included in this Special Volume expand upon the theme from a European perspective the specific circumstances and cases they build upon, however, are part of a much broader grouping of 'Regional Centres of Expertise,' (RCEs) that were established under the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development Programme of the United Nations University-IAS in 2003. This concept has received worldwide attention and has been successfully applied in more than 100 cases. The RCEs are acknowledged in different countries of the world, while there are also many other regional sustainability initiatives not included within this framework. The authors of this Special Volume sought to extrapolate generic knowledge associated with overcoming certain types of boundaries (academic, cultural, etc.) and to share their insights with the scientific community for discussion and use to support sustainability changes in academia. The focus of many of the research articles is upon the dynamics of the learning processes that occur between/among different stakeholders. These processes reflect a change in communication practices, which can have impacts upon modes and patterns of knowledge generation and can result in a more systemic transition in education towards sustainability at different levels of academia and of society. The planning team of this Special Volume anticipates that the experiences and theoretical considerations presented in these articles will trigger broader discussions on the roles of scientists and educators as catalytic facilitators in the debates about what type of future societies we are seeking to develop. Key recommendations are made of practical ways to help students, of all ages, to envision and to implement sustainable societal development in cooperative, rational and systematic ways, globally for the short and long-term future of all societies. (C) 2013 Published by Elsevier Ltd.