The chapter examines the GVC research that some sociologists pioneered. One of its roots is World Systems (WS) theory, with portrayal of a commodity chain that has an input–output structure that resembles Smith’s woollen-coat example. As the world capitalist system expands, polarisation between the core and periphery worsens. Policy-induced inter-zonal mobility of peripheral countries is not impossible, but WS theorists were pessimistic. GVC researchers then emphasise two core concepts that actually share an awkward co-existence: the governance structure of and upgrading by non-lead firms (from the less-DCs) along a GVC. To infuse optimism by making upgrading seem easy, the obstructive power that lead-firms (often from advanced countries) can wield was downplayed. This appeals to mainstream economists who, as the Washington Consensus lost ground at the turn of the millennium, found it convenient to hijack GVC-research to bring about a return of neoliberal policies on trade and investment. Lately GVC-researchers start admitting upgrading is not automatic. Some offer vague GVC-oriented IP ideas that are supposedly different from traditional IP and do not involve import substitution.

This chapter explains how the oil sector’s citizen mobilization ends up being commandeered by registered lobbyists, who use their manufactured publics to speak to politicians and regulators. Examining the case of the Keystone XL pipeline in Nebraska, the chapter explores how state government developed an array of forums for hearing citizen sentiment about the proposed project. The chapter shows that although pro- pipeline groups attracted a robust base of support, they leveraged their memberships to allow oil lobbyists to speak on behalf of citizens in these new government forums. By claiming to represent a public, pro-pipeline groups’ paid lobbyists were afforded a right to speak in meetings, hearings, and online spaces intended for everyday people. This, the chapter argues, is a main strategic driver behind the formation of many contemporary pro-oil groups.

Global environmental change is on the rise and has detrimental effects for most humans. Violent conflict is also increasing. The environment is almost always a victim of conflict, and conflict activities are always shaped by the environment. Understanding the interactions between the environment and conflict is difficult because of their complexity. This chapter reviews the broad literature on the environment and conflict and introduces the analytical framework that forms the core of this book.

In conflict and conflict-affected areas, the environment can take a backseat to other pressing issues. Whether due to limited capability, capacity, or will, the environment is often neglected during conflict activities, resulting in substantial risks to human health and environmental quality. Understanding how this happens and what can be done is critical to prevention and, where needed, remediation in conflict settings to promote human and environmental flourishing. This chapter explores how and why the environment can become neglected in conflict and what the key implications of this are.

Chapter 8 provides a comprehensive roadmap for enabling a societal shift toward a sustainable and equitable future. Central to the argument is the need to repurpose the “invisible hand”—a metaphor for systemic incentives that currently reinforce unsustainable behaviors—into a helping force that promotes global well-being. The chapter proposes change at both the individual and institutional levels, encouraging citizens to act within their roles—whether as voters, educators, business leaders, artists, or scientists—to nudge society toward a tipping point. The chapter explores innovative governance models such as an autonomous global climate board, and even suggests taxing extreme wealth or implementing a universal basic income to mitigate inequality and systemic stress. Education and science must shift focus toward actionable, hopeful narratives, while business and media must align incentives with public good. Ultimately, the chapter frames global transformation as possible—if society can collectively shift its worldview and reshape the systems guiding human behavior.

For people to effectively share an environment, they usually also must effectively share knowledge about that environment. While seemingly obvious and intuitive, this insight is often overlooked in literature about governing resources as commons. Focusing on the knowledge commons associated with an environmental commons helps to illuminate a host of complex governance dilemmas. This chapter examines the interrelationship between environmental and knowledge commons, weaving together different strands of commons research and practice. Examples discussed include shared pastures, forests, road systems, computer servers, social media platforms, living rooms, and antimicrobial effectiveness/resistance.

In this chapter, we explore the creation of meaning through metaphor. We pay special attention to the expansion of meaning through metaphors establishing connections between semantic domains, explaining one phenomenon in terms of others, while carefully articulating the trade-offs always involved. Metaphors, just as narratives, can travel, sometimes conspicuously without their narratives, sometimes accompanied. They can gain and lose strength, and they can encounter resistance. We then consider the importance of metaphoric understandings of leadership, community, environment and good governance, concepts central to the understanding of sustainability leadership.

It is argued here that the modern school isn’t just about ‘education’ in some abstract, humanist sort of way; rather, schools have an essential role to play in how we govern our society. It is tempting to think that the process of teaching children has always been pretty much the same, and that mass schooling emerged as a result of greater concern for the wellbeing of the young. The evidence paints a somewhat different picture, wherein mass schooling formed a crucial component of a new form of social regulation based upon an increasing focus on individuality, where the school subtly conforms to the requirements of the state and where the disciplinary management of the population is made possible through continual surveillance and the close regulation of space, time and conduct.

Written in February 2025, well after the completion of the monograph, the epilogue reflects on the fall of the Assad regime as a historic rupture while acknowledging the uncertainty of Syria’s post-revolutionary trajectory. While revolutionary ideals have been reaffirmed in historical narratives, their translation into governance, justice, and political inclusion remains unresolved. New actors now compete to define Syria’s future, shaping its ideological and institutional landscape. The chapter highlights how discursive battles over key political concepts – such as democracy, secularism, and governance – mirror a broader crisis of democracy, where increasingly questioned. It argues that the post-Assad moment has not ended Syria’s struggle for meaning but has transformed it into a contest over the principles that will shape the new order. The epilogue concludes that while something undeniably good has happened – the fall of a brutal dictatorship – the revolution’s aspirations remain incomplete. The task ahead is not to declare its success but to create the conditions in which its meaning continues to unfold.

This chapter argues that educators need to have a good grasp of all the various forms of pre-adulthood that we take for granted, such as ‘the child’ and ‘the youth’. These categories are the focus of a range of different disciplines, most of which found their explanatory models in nature itself. As such, the behaviour of children and youth may be deemed to require explanation, but not the very existence of the categories themselves. The issues raised in this chapter concern the degree to which childhood and youth are actually socially constructed categories that serve particular social functions. Of greatest interest here are the ways in which childhood and youth are both artefacts of, and vehicles for, social governance.

In this chapter, we get acquainted with the concepts of leadership, sustainability and governance, concepts we will need to develop our perspective on sustainability leadership. Leadership to move communities in a more sustainable direction will have to go through governance, through the process of collective decision-making that can place communities on a different development path. What amounts to good leadership will depend on the community and its stories about good governance and about leadership itself.

This chapter discusses the role of visions, expectations, and socio-technical imaginaries in shaping sustainability transitions. Imagining futures different from current socio-technical regimes is essential for legitimizing and mobilizing niche technologies and driving system change. More recently, mission-oriented and transformative innovation policies have emphasised envisioning and collective expectations in defining and implementing long-term goals. The chapter introduces the historical development of these concepts within sustainability transition studies, including transition management, strategic niche management, and technological innovation systems. It presents and compares various anticipatory practices and techniques for exploring and shaping transition dynamics. ‘Futuring methods’ such as scenario development, technology foresight, roadmapping, and modelling are not just neutral tools but shape political problems and solutions. The chapter concludes by illustrating the influence of visions, expectations, and imaginaries in the historical evolution of hydrogen futures and highlighting key research trends.