Paying attention to scale for just and effective sustainability governance

Abstract As we move into the second half of the 2020s, it is crucial to reflect on our current promotion of sustainability and consider what lessons can be learned for the post‐2030 era. A key consideration in this context is whether the ideal of collaboration, which is seen as essential for just and effective sustainability governance, lives up to its potential. Paying attention to how collaborative efforts to strengthen human–human and/or human–nature relations are scaled can provide nuanced and comprehensive insights into this matter. By analysing current collaborations between the state and Aboriginal peoples in South Australia through the lens of scales as categories of practice, I reveal ongoing restrictions on who has a voice in collaborative decisions, which decisions are made collaboratively, and whose ways of knowing count in these spaces. All these restrictions exist in similar forms elsewhere. My analysis further indicates that overcoming these restrictions requires identifying the right governances for particular contexts and aims, extending collaboration to all aspects of related initiatives, and recognising the validity of multiple co‐existing conceptualisations of sustainability. On this basis, I make the case for moving towards sustainability practices that are diverse across contexts, holistic within them, and embedded in diverse ways of knowing, doing, and being. I conclude with a brief reflection on the value of geographical perspectives for this transition.