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Leveraging capacity for transformative sustainability science: a theory of change from the Future Earth Pathways Initiative
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- Gilles Marciniak, Davnah Urbach, Flurina Schneider, Cornelia Krug, Ariane de Bremond, Mark Stafford-Smith, Odirilwe Selomane, Rebecca Fenn, Natalie Chong, Sandrine Paillard
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- Journal:
- Global Sustainability / Volume 7 / 2024
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 25 April 2024, e21
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- Article
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- Open access
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Non-technical summary
To address increasingly pressing social–environmental challenges, the transformative strand of sustainability science seeks to move beyond a descriptive-analytical stance in order to explore and contribute to the implementation of radical alternatives to dominant and unsustainable paradigms, norms, and values. However, in many cases, academia is not currently structured to support and reward inter-/trans-disciplinary and transformative endeavors. This paper introduces a theory of change for the Future Earth Pathways Initiative, and similar initiatives, to help leverage the capacity of sustainability scientists to engage in transformative research.
Technical summaryThe increasing body of descriptive-analytical knowledge produced by sustainability science over the last two decades has largely failed to trigger the transformation of policies, norms, and behaviors it was aiming to inform. The emergent transformative strand of sustainability science is a proactive alternative approach seeking to play an active role in processes of societal change by developing knowledge about options, solutions, and pathways, and by participating in their implementation. In principle, scientists can enhance their contribution to more sustainable futures by engaging in transformative research. However, a lack of skills and competencies, relatively unmatured transformative methods and concepts, and an institutional landscape still geared toward disciplinary and descriptive-analytical research, still hinders the sustainability science community from engaging more widely in transformative research. In this paper, the Future Earth Pathways Initiative introduces a theory of change (ToC) for increasing the capacity of sustainability scientists to engage in this type of research. This ToC ultimately aims to build a growing community of practitioners engaged in transformative research, to advance concepts, methods, and paradigms to foster ‘fit-for-purpose transformative research’, and to shape institutions to nurture transformative research-friendly contexts.
Social media summaryWhat would a theory of change for leveraging the transformative capacity of sustainability science look like?
9 - Elements for a foresight debate on food sustainability
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- By Tévécia Ronzon, Sandrine Paillard, Philippe Chemineau, Christine Aubry, Nicolas Bricas, Paul Colonna, Catherine Esnouf, Stéphane Fournier, Hervé Guyomard, Pascale Hébel, Jean Hirschler, Claudine Joly, Céline Laisney, Bernard Maire, Jean-Louis Lambert, Sophie Le Perchec, Charles Pernin, Jean-Luc Pujol, Barbara Redlingshöfer, Vincent Réquillart, Marie Russel, Bruno Vindel
- Edited by Catherine Esnouf, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), Paris, Marie Russel, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), Paris, Nicolas Bricas, Centre de Co-opération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (CIRAD), Paris
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- Book:
- Food System Sustainability
- Published online:
- 05 April 2013
- Print publication:
- 25 April 2013, pp 176-197
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Summary
Regional and global food systems are constantly evolving, thus the contextual elements presented in Chapter 1 are likely to evolve, and food systems will be transformed. Because it is impossible to predict the food systems of tomorrow, we have adopted a foresight approach in order to try and understand possible future changes. Our approach, which is presented in the first part of this chapter, has therefore mainly been based on identifying the main drivers of the transformation of food systems. This work was the fruit of collective discussions by a multidisciplinary group made up of some 15 experts. The plurality of their views and their areas of competence allowed them to analyse the potential impacts of the different evolutions identified relative to the sustainability of food systems in terms of their nutritional, economic, social, cultural, environmental and territorial dimensions. This step of the analysis also enabled us to highlight a certain number of points at issue, which are presented in the second part of the chapter; this does not end with a presentation of different scenarios (as might have been expected), but concludes with the three transversal messages arising from debate by this workshop: issues linked to inequalities of access to food, territorial dynamics and the governance of food systems.
Food systems evolving under the effects of various factors
Through the identification of factors underlying the transformation of food systems, it appears clearly that some trends have already been identified (see, in particular, Chapter 1 on the context and the challenges of food systems, and the retrospective analysis described in Chapter 2). Nevertheless, these trends involve a certain number of questions and uncertainties, notably regarding the nature and degree of their potential effects. These uncertainties thus open the way to contrasting scenarios for food systems throughout the world (see Figure 9.1).