| 1. |
- Andersson, Erik, et al.
(author)
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Urban climate resilience through hybrid infrastructure
- 2022
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In: Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability. - : Elsevier BV. - 1877-3435 .- 1877-3443. ; 55
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Urban infrastructure will require transformative changes to adapt to changing disturbance patterns. We ask what new opportunities hybrid infrastructure—built environments coupled with landscape-scale biophysical structures and processes—offer for building different layers of resilience critical for dealing with increased variation in the frequency, magnitude and different phases of climate-related disturbances. With its more diverse components and different internal logics, hybrid infrastructure opens up alternative and additive ways of building resilience for and through critical infrastructure, by providing a wider range of functions and responses. Second, hybrid infrastructure points toward greater opportunities for ongoing (re)design at the landscape level, where structure and function can be constantly renegotiated and recombined.
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| 2. |
- Augenstein, Karoline, et al.
(author)
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Five priorities to advance transformative transdisciplinary research
- 2024
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In: Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability. - 1877-3435 .- 1877-3443. ; 68
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Research review (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In response to the climate and biodiversity crisis, the number of transdisciplinary research projects in which researchers partner with sustainability initiatives to foster transformative change is increasing globally. To enable and catalyze substantial transformative change, transformative transdisciplinary research (TTDR) is urgently needed to provide knowledge and guidance for actions. We review prominent discussions on TTDR and draw on our experiences from research projects in the Global South and North. Drawing on this, we identify key gaps and stimulate debate on how sustainability researchers can enable and catalyze transformative change by advancing five priority areas: clarify what TTDR is, conduct meaningful people-centric research, unpack how to act at deep leverage points, improve engagement with diverse knowledge systems, and explore potentials and risks of global digitalization for transformative change.
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| 3. |
- Bai, Xuemei, et al.
(author)
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Defining and advancing a systems approach for sustainable cities
- 2016
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In: Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability. - : Elsevier BV. - 1877-3435 .- 1877-3443. ; 23, s. 69-78
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Research review (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The sustainable development of cities is increasingly recognized as crucial to meeting collectively agreed sustainability goals at local, regional and global scales, and more broadly to securing human well-being worldwide. The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) include a goal on cities (Goal 11), with most other goals and targets have urban applications and multi scalar implications for their implementation. Further, the interdependencies - including synergies and trade-offs among the various SDGs are greater in cities, presenting both challenges and opportunities. A systems approach is urgently needed in urban research and policy analysis, but such an approach rarely features in current analysis or urban decision-making for various reasons. This paper explores four questions: why a systems approach is necessary, what defines such an approach, why has this rarely been adopted in practice, and what can be done to promote its use. We argue that a systems approach can reveal unrecognized opportunities to maximize co-benefits and synergies, guide management of inevitable trade-offs, and therefore inform prioritisation and successful solutions. We present four key issues for the effective implementation of the SDGs and the New Urban Agenda, which emerged from UN Habitat III Conference, namely: (a) a radical redesign of the multilateral institutional setup on urban issues; (b) promoting regenerative culture, behaviour, and design; (c) exploring ways to finance a systems approach; and (d) a new and enhanced role for science in sustainable development. The latter issue could be addressed through Future Earth's Urban Knowledge-Action Network, which aims at co-designing and co-producing cutting-edge and actionable knowledge for sustainable cities bringing together researchers and urban decision-makers and practitioners.
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| 4. |
- Bai, Xuemei, et al.
(author)
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Networking urban science, policy and practice for sustainability
- 2019
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In: Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability. - : Elsevier BV. - 1877-3435 .- 1877-3443. ; 39, s. 114-122
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Research review (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Networks are increasingly important for advancing urban science, policy and practice. The complexity that cities present to stakeholders of all kinds demands systems-based and networked approaches to solving sustainability challenges. This article analyses the contemporary rise of global networks of urban science, policy, and practice. We provide an overview of urban science, policy, and practice networks followed by a detailed case study of the emerging Future Earth Urban Knowledge Action Network (Urban KAN), highlighting its vision, initial activities and impacts, and challenges and remaining tasks. Findings from the case study reveal that a network across science, policy and practice can make significant contribution in cutting-edge knowledge generation, global research agenda setting, timely contribution to global policy processes, catalyzing the formation of new national and thematic research-action networks, among others. In contrast, such a network also faces challenges, in terms of attraction and representation of the composition, maintaining initial momentum, turning the science-policy integration and collaboration into reality, and obtaining strong and continued financial and institutional support. We conclude that networks across the boundaries of science-policy-practice are still in their infancy, and deeper collaborations across sector, scale, and networks that enable the implementation of effective new actions will be key indicator in measuring the success of these networks.
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| 5. |
- Barth, Matthias, et al.
(author)
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Transdisciplinary learning as a key leverage for sustainability transformations
- 2023
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In: Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability. - 1877-3435 .- 1877-3443. ; 64
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Learning and transdisciplinary research are widely acknowledged as key components for achieving sustainability; however, the links between these concepts remain vague in the sustainability literature. Recently, emphasis has been given to transdisciplinary learning, highlighting its potential as an approach that contributes to solving real-world problems. To better understand and foster transdisciplinary learning for sustainability transformations, it is relevant to pay attention to two dimensions that define transdisciplinary learning: social interaction (individual learning in a social setting, as a group, or beyond the group), and learning forms (single-, double-, or triple-loop learning). This article introduces a conceptual framework built upon these two dimensions to understand three specific forms of transdisciplinary learning as a) individual competence development, b) experience-based collaboration, and c) societal interaction. This framework helps to clarify the design of learning processes as well as their interactions in transdisciplinary processes to support transformative change.
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| 6. |
- Bennett, Elena M., et al.
(author)
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Linking biodiversity, ecosystem services, and human well-being : three challenges for designing research for sustainability
- 2015
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In: Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability. - : Elsevier BV. - 1877-3435 .- 1877-3443. ; 14, s. 76-85
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Ecosystem services have become a mainstream concept for the expression of values assigned by people to various functions of ecosystems. Even though the introduction of the concept has initiated a vast amount of research, progress in using this knowledge for sustainable resource use remains insufficient. We see a need to broaden the scope of research to answer three key questions that we believe will improve incorporation of ecosystem service research into decision-making for the sustainable use of natural resources to improve human well-being: (i) how are ecosystem services co-produced by social–ecological systems, (ii) who benefits from the provision of ecosystem services, and (iii) what are the best practices for the governance of ecosystem services? Here, we present these key questions, the rationale behind them, and their related scientific challenges in a globally coordinated research programme aimed towards improving sustainable ecosystem management. These questions will frame the activities of ecoSERVICES, formerly a DIVERSITAS project and now a project of Future Earth, in its role as a platform to foster global coordination of multidisciplinary sustainability science through the lens of ecosystem services.
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| 7. |
- Biermann, F., et al.
(author)
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The Earth System Governance Project as a network organization : a critical assessment after ten years
- 2019
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In: Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability. - : Elsevier BV. - 1877-3435 .- 1877-3443. ; 39, s. 17-23
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Research review (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The social sciences have engaged since the late 1980s in international collaborative programmes to study questions of sustainability and global change. This article offers an in-depth analysis of the largest long-standing social-science network in this field: the Earth System Governance Project. Originating as a core project of the former International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change, the Earth System Governance Project has matured into a global, self-sustaining research network, with annual conferences, numerous taskforces, research centers, regional research fellow meetings, three book series, an open access flagship journal, and a lively presence in social media. The article critically reviews the experiences of the Earth System Governance network and its integration and interactions with other programmes over the last decade.
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| 8. |
- Biermann, Frank, et al.
(author)
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Transforming governance and institutions for global sustainability : key insights from the Earth System Governance Project
- 2012
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In: Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability. - : Elsevier BV. - 1877-3435 .- 1877-3443. ; 4:1, s. 51-60
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The current institutional framework for sustainable development is by far not strong enough to bring about the swift transformative progress that is needed. This article contends that incrementalism-the main approach since the 1972 Stockholm Conference-will not suffice to bring about societal change at the level and speed needed to mitigate and adapt to earth system transformation. Instead, the article argues that transformative structural change in global governance is needed, and that the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro must turn into a major stepping stone for a much stronger institutional framework for sustainable development. The article details core areas where urgent action is required. The article is based on an extensive social science assessment conducted by 32 members of the lead faculty, scientific steering committee, and other affiliates of the Earth System Governance Project. This Project is a ten-year research initiative under the auspices of the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP), which is sponsored by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the International Social Science Council (ISSC), and the United Nations University (UNU).
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| 9. |
- Blasiak, Robert, et al.
(author)
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The Ocean Decade as an instrument of peace
- 2023
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In: Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability. - 1877-3435 .- 1877-3443. ; 64
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development 2021-2030 (the 'Ocean Decade') is poised to stimulate new cooperation for ocean science, but makes no mention of conflict or peace. We contend that this is a missed opportunity, and use an environmental peacebuilding typology to review how ocean science has historically contributed to peace. Such considerations are timely in the context of an increasingly complex and multidimensional ocean risk landscape, due among other things to unprecedented growth in the extent and intensity of ocean uses, and increasing conflict potential as the ocean becomes a more crowded and coveted place. We conclude by proposing the Ocean Decade Implementation Plan be appended to include an eighth intended outcome: 'A Peaceful Ocean'.
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| 10. |
- Bliesemann de Guevara, Berit, 1976-, et al.
(author)
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The global-capitalist elephant in the room : how resilient peacebuilding hinders substantive transformation and undermines long-term peace prospects
- 2023
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In: Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability. - : Elsevier. - 1877-3435 .- 1877-3443. ; 62
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This article reviews critical responses to recent academic debates on resilience and peacebuilding, with a focus on approaches that question the underlying logics of resilient peacebuilding in fundamental ways. It argues that, while resilience in peacebuilding lends agency and new policy direction to peacebuilding actors, enabling them to uphold the image of active global governance, this also helps to legitimize the existence and reproduction of dominant global-capitalist structures and practices that undermine long-term peacebuilding and give rise to risks of conflict and environmental disasters in the first place. We argue that this process hinders transformation away from an infinite growth economy by focusing on imminent systemic risks and solutions while ignoring potential normative–theoretical and practical–experiential alternatives to the global-capitalist frameworks at the heart of the problem.
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