Epistemic Stratification of Sustainability in Higher Education: A Finnish Case Study on Adverse Synergies Generated by Institutional Topography

Universities represent a transformative force in the sustainability transition—as innovators, sites of legitimisation, and network nodes, to mention only a few roles. Yet, despite numerous declarations and governance frameworks emphasising sustainability, universities still lack reflexive capacity when evaluating decision-making carried out in its name. Applying perspectives from geographies of knowledge allows for the elucidation of multiple layers through which sustainability is understood in higher education, geographically stratifying where within institutions decisions are made, according to which local logics, and reflecting on the systemic consequences. The results show that universities must recognise which institutional structures constrain their reflexivity and which aspects of sustainability remain insufficiently examined. Specifically, the studied Finnish universities’ institutional understandings of sustainability differed depending on where within the university an individual was located. Furthermore, the stratified analysis demonstrates how these local logics are rational, reasonable, and defensible within their own contexts—indeed, often desirable, as they enable administrators to administrate, managers to manage, and researchers to conduct research. However, the ontological and normative horizons of institutional sustainability may then become distorted through rationales for institutional practices securing resources for research and education. For example, the strategic promotion of a marketable higher education institution, under the guise of climate change, renders carbon neutrality part of a singular topography within the global economy of higher education. The original contribution of this study lies in demonstrating the importance of understanding sustainability as a contested category within higher education institutions—one that is shaped by both globally and locally dominant epistemic structures. These conditions are not neutral; they shape how sustainability is defined, enacted, and made possible within specific institutional contexts.