Analogies for Sustainable Development/Analogies from A-Z

Note that the inclusion of an analogy in this Wikiversity Learning Project does not mean it is "true" or "solid" in a scientific sense. Indeed, some of the entries listed below are offered as a for tool critiquing the nature of narrative and analogy in sustainability discourse precisely because they break down easily upon inspection and yet may be commonly employed to further a particular viewpoint. Analogies are tools for thinking, please use the entries and resources below to help you explore deeper into the complexities of the sustainability topics you care about.


 * Adaptive flexibility as musical instrument
 * Adaptive flexibility as grass in the wind
 * All learning as transfer of learning
 * Biomimicry as analogy
 * Brain as collective action
 * Brain as common pool resource
 * Brain as Computer, Brain as Internet
 * Brain as dual mode camera
 * Brain as evolutionary ecosystem
 * Brain as garden
 * Brain as moral tongue
 * Brain as onion
 * Cancer
 * Capitalism as a Dialectic of Dynamism and Decency
 * Children as scientists
 * Cities as organs
 * Cities as (super)organisms
 * Concepts as species
 * Cooperation as sitting in the same boat
 * Corruption as cancer
 * Earth as organism (Gaia hypothesis)
 * Ecosystem as organism
 * Elephant and the Rider
 * Evolutionary process as Immune system
 * Evolutionary process as Innovation
 * Evolutionary process as Learning
 * Global Village
 * Health as homeostasis
 * Homeostasis as mental health
 * Homeostasis as group design principles
 * Homo economicus
 * Homo evolutis
 * Homo politicus
 * Human society as organism
 * Human society as beehive
 * Humans as cancer
 * Insect agriculture as human agriculture
 * Innovation as emergent property
 * Knowledge as bricks
 * Knowledge transfer as transfer of learning in the collective brain
 * Major transitions as a boat race
 * Maps as analogies
 * Multilevel selection as fans on a billiard table
 * Networked Complexity
 * Neural networks as telephone wires
 * Neural networks as road networks
 * Organism as multi-cellular society
 * Parable of the Commons
 * Parable of the New Pastures
 * Sacred circling & moral magnetism
 * Scientific disciplines and theories as islands in an Ivory Archipelago
 * Scientific disciplines and theories as languages
 * Schools as organs
 * Schools as superorganisms
 * Selection as winnowing
 * Selfish Gene
 * Social learning as collective brain
 * Social Learning as a Jazz Band
 * Social Learning as bees
 * Social Genome
 * Species of thought
 * System 1- System 2
 * Transfer of learning as evolutionary information processing
 * Tribalism as politics, as football teams
 * Universities as organs
 * Universities as superorganisms
 * Wikipedia as collective brain
 * Working memory as holding things in your hand
 * 90% Chimp, 10% Bee, 100% Human