Introduction

This issue of Arjé focuses on the contradictions in the dominant sustainability paradigm, using pineapple production in Costa Rica as an example. It seeks to respond to the implications of a weak concept of sostenibilidad by bringing together contributions that address the sustainability paradoxes from an interdisciplinary perspective, but also explore new environmental practices that, like the IPBES framework (Díaz et al., 2015), incorporate local knowledge and other epistemologies. The aim is to question the economic foundations of sustainability thinking and to outline alternative approaches, i.e. the contributions not only strive to uncover contradictions and aporias, but also try to formulate future perspectives and propose solutions. The authors are members of the Universidad Técnica Nacional and the University of Osnabrück and are collaborating within the framework of the DAAD-funded project “Transformative Research and Capacity Building in the Education Sector to Protect Livelihoods and Biodiversity in Costa Rica”. As the complex and all-encompassing interrelationships that dominate the sustainability paradigm require a holistic understanding, the articles in this issue will take a multidisciplinary approach that crosses sectoral boundaries, combining different perspectives from the social, environmental, political, cultural and literary sciences on how national pineapple production contradicts the country’s sustainable reputation.