This document discusses governance for sustainability from a transitions research perspective. It presents the transitions approach as an integrated way to understand and guide society toward sustainable development. The transitions approach views society as a complex adaptive system undergoing continuous structural changes. Governance for sustainability transitions should focus on facilitating and stimulating open social processes toward sustainability through negotiation of values, exploration of new alternatives, and experimentation and learning, rather than direct control or optimization of existing systems. The key research questions are how to understand transition dynamics and how to influence the pace and direction of ongoing societal changes toward sustainability.
This document summarizes the emerging field of research on sustainability transitions. It conducted a literature review of 540 journal articles in this field. Four main conceptual frameworks for studying sustainability transitions were identified: transition management, strategic niche management, the multi-level perspective on socio-technical transitions, and technological innovation systems. The field is growing rapidly, with increasing publications, conferences, and a new journal. However, further conceptual development is needed to broaden and enrich the research agenda. The special section introduces papers that aim to stimulate new concepts and link the field to other scholarly communities to challenge and advance sustainability transition studies.
A Maturity Model For Integrating Sustainability In Projects And Project Manag...Arlene Smith
This document presents a maturity model for integrating sustainability into projects and project management. The model assesses the level of consideration given to sustainability in terms of resources, processes, business models, and products/services. The model is based on the key concepts of sustainability - integrating economic, environmental and social aspects; integrating short and long-term aspects; and consuming income rather than capital. By using this model, organizations can benchmark their maturity in sustainable practices and monitor their progress over time in translating abstract sustainability concepts into concrete actions.
Designing Long-Term Policy: Rethinking Transition ManagementiBoP Asia
This document provides an overview of transition management, a new approach to long-term policy design for sustainable development. It discusses transition management's focus on reflexive governance, long-term visions, and experimental learning to facilitate socio-technical change. The article reviews experiences with transition management in the Netherlands and identifies three critical issues: 1) the politics of societal learning, 2) contextual embedding of policy design, and 3) dynamics of the design process itself. It argues for viewing policy design as a contested process of social innovation and considers implications for continued development of transition management and democratic politics.
Sustainable Development, relationships, norms, values, and hierarchies, Gradual change, Reduction of natural resources
Food, water and energy shortages, Loss of biodiversity
The pressure of accelerating urbanization and population growth, Climate change and natural disasters
Sustainable development policy: goals, targets and political cyclesNuno Quental
This document summarizes the political milestones related to sustainable development from the 1960s onwards. It identifies goals and targets from political initiatives through a literature review and analysis of indicators related to political will for sustainable development. The document concludes that global sustainability governance followed an intermittent path with peaks in political activity coinciding with decennial Earth Summits, suggesting their major influence in driving more profound societal and political action on sustainability issues. It also finds that sustainability concerns shifted from a focus on pollution control and resource availability to emphasize balanced human development.
This study explores a potential reposition of the triple helix model of university-industry-government relations in terms of micro-level analysis. In this direction, we evaluate the development of helix theory over time, by reviewing the relevant literature divided into three successive phases: the phase of theoretical foundation, the phase of conceptual expansion, and the phase of recent developments and systematic attempts of implementation. In this conceptual study, we estimate that a refocused triple helix model in terms of local development, by placing at the center of analysis the “living organization’s” dynamics in Stra.Tech.Man terms (synthesis of Strategy-Technology-Management), can be a possible direction of analytical enrichment.
This document discusses the evolution of sustainability paradigms from conventional to contemporary to regenerative sustainability. Regenerative sustainability aims to align human actions with principles of thriving living systems to continually increase whole-system health and wellbeing across scales. It integrates consideration of inner sustainability like worldviews with outer sustainability of social and ecological systems. Regenerative sustainability offers a holistic approach based on how living systems function and addresses root causes of unsustainability.
This document summarizes the emerging field of research on sustainability transitions. It conducted a literature review of 540 journal articles in this field. Four main conceptual frameworks for studying sustainability transitions were identified: transition management, strategic niche management, the multi-level perspective on socio-technical transitions, and technological innovation systems. The field is growing rapidly, with increasing publications, conferences, and a new journal. However, further conceptual development is needed to broaden and enrich the research agenda. The special section introduces papers that aim to stimulate new concepts and link the field to other scholarly communities to challenge and advance sustainability transition studies.
A Maturity Model For Integrating Sustainability In Projects And Project Manag...Arlene Smith
This document presents a maturity model for integrating sustainability into projects and project management. The model assesses the level of consideration given to sustainability in terms of resources, processes, business models, and products/services. The model is based on the key concepts of sustainability - integrating economic, environmental and social aspects; integrating short and long-term aspects; and consuming income rather than capital. By using this model, organizations can benchmark their maturity in sustainable practices and monitor their progress over time in translating abstract sustainability concepts into concrete actions.
Designing Long-Term Policy: Rethinking Transition ManagementiBoP Asia
This document provides an overview of transition management, a new approach to long-term policy design for sustainable development. It discusses transition management's focus on reflexive governance, long-term visions, and experimental learning to facilitate socio-technical change. The article reviews experiences with transition management in the Netherlands and identifies three critical issues: 1) the politics of societal learning, 2) contextual embedding of policy design, and 3) dynamics of the design process itself. It argues for viewing policy design as a contested process of social innovation and considers implications for continued development of transition management and democratic politics.
Sustainable Development, relationships, norms, values, and hierarchies, Gradual change, Reduction of natural resources
Food, water and energy shortages, Loss of biodiversity
The pressure of accelerating urbanization and population growth, Climate change and natural disasters
Sustainable development policy: goals, targets and political cyclesNuno Quental
This document summarizes the political milestones related to sustainable development from the 1960s onwards. It identifies goals and targets from political initiatives through a literature review and analysis of indicators related to political will for sustainable development. The document concludes that global sustainability governance followed an intermittent path with peaks in political activity coinciding with decennial Earth Summits, suggesting their major influence in driving more profound societal and political action on sustainability issues. It also finds that sustainability concerns shifted from a focus on pollution control and resource availability to emphasize balanced human development.
This study explores a potential reposition of the triple helix model of university-industry-government relations in terms of micro-level analysis. In this direction, we evaluate the development of helix theory over time, by reviewing the relevant literature divided into three successive phases: the phase of theoretical foundation, the phase of conceptual expansion, and the phase of recent developments and systematic attempts of implementation. In this conceptual study, we estimate that a refocused triple helix model in terms of local development, by placing at the center of analysis the “living organization’s” dynamics in Stra.Tech.Man terms (synthesis of Strategy-Technology-Management), can be a possible direction of analytical enrichment.
This document discusses the evolution of sustainability paradigms from conventional to contemporary to regenerative sustainability. Regenerative sustainability aims to align human actions with principles of thriving living systems to continually increase whole-system health and wellbeing across scales. It integrates consideration of inner sustainability like worldviews with outer sustainability of social and ecological systems. Regenerative sustainability offers a holistic approach based on how living systems function and addresses root causes of unsustainability.
Squaring the circle? Some thoughts on the idea of sustainable developmentBrancois
The paper reviews how the concept of sustainable development has played out in industrialized countries since 1987. It
examines the theory and practice of sustainable development in the context of three criticisms (it is vague, attracts hypocrites
and fosters delusions), and argues for an approach to sustainability that is integrative, is action-oriented, goes beyond technical
fixes, incorporates a recognition of the social construction of sustainable development, and engages local communities in new
ways. The paper concludes with a description of an approach to sustainability that attempts to incorporate these characteristics.
The following paper tries to explain the various reasons that made sustainability so contested by discussing the circumstances surrounding the emergence of the term and its evolution. It also tries to shed some light on the future of sustainability through employing a study technique borrowed from a well established field of human knowledge.
1. Sustainable development requires transitions to more sustainable systems that incorporate processes of societal, ecological, economic, cultural and technological evolution over the long term.
2. Governance for sustainability transitions should allow societies to self-organize towards sustainability through deliberate and reflexive strategies that promote innovation while securing long-term sustainability values.
3. An operational framework for transition governance includes strategic visioning, experimental tactics at the subsystem level, monitoring and evaluation, and science-policy co-production to guide transitions.
An Adaptive Learning Process for Developing and Applying Sustainability Indicators with Local Communities
`
For more information, Please see websites below:
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Organic Edible Schoolyards & Gardening with Children
http://scribd.com/doc/239851214
`
Double Food Production from your School Garden with Organic Tech
http://scribd.com/doc/239851079
`
Free School Gardening Art Posters
http://scribd.com/doc/239851159`
`
Increase Food Production with Companion Planting in your School Garden
http://scribd.com/doc/239851159
`
Healthy Foods Dramatically Improves Student Academic Success
http://scribd.com/doc/239851348
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City Chickens for your Organic School Garden
http://scribd.com/doc/239850440
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Simple Square Foot Gardening for Schools - Teacher Guide
http://scribd.com/doc/239851110
This thesis analyzes two cases of forest sector innovation in Canada - the Great Bear Rainforest Agreement and the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement. It uses a multi-paradigm approach to gain insight into how civil society groups can advance transformative social change. The research contributes new understanding of the deliberate agency and cross-scale processes involved in systemic change efforts. It analyzes the cases through multiple theoretical lenses and provides a synthesis of key patterns of agency and cross-scale dynamics in transforming unsustainable systems. The thesis findings have implications for responding to complex sustainability challenges through innovative, multi-level responses that span boundaries.
Critical Approaches to the Concept of Sustainable DevelopmentAI Publications
It has been observed that while living in harmony with nature on earth until the industrial revolution, with the industrial production and consumption society formed after the industrial revolution, humanity has started to dominate nature more and the damage caused to nature has increased. Economic growth, contrary to expectations, increasing inequality in the distribution of income, the impoverishment of the broad masses of the natural environment in the emergence of problems such as destruction of natural resources, growth and development of the concept of sustainable development has revealed the new concept. Sustainable development suggests that both economic development can continue and the ecological system can be protected; the contradiction between the environment and development will disappear. The concept of sustainable development has been considered to be able to solve many country problems since its first appearance, and has been applied to many fields such as economics, politics, the environment and social culture. In fact, there are many aspects of the concept of sustainable development that are open to criticism. The aim of this study is to address the criticisms brought to the concept with a collective perspective. For this purpose, the criticisms brought to the concept of sustainable development based on the previous studies conducted on the subject were examined. It is thought that the study will contribute to the literature by eliminating the lack of a critical perspective on sustainable development in this way.
"LIMITS TO GROWTH REVISITED"; White Paper of the 2012 Winter School by the Pa...VolkswagenStiftung
A Winter School on "Limits to Growth Revisited", which was addressed to 60 young researchers of all relevant fields, took place in the week running up to the symposium. Following the event, the participants developed a "White Paper" report which shows their perspectives on the various subjects discussed within the Winter School.
This document summarizes four overlapping approaches to water governance - management, institutions, social-ecological systems, and values - and argues that explicitly considering values and ethics can help address conflicts in water governance. It outlines a values-based approach, noting that values underlie behaviors and governance aims. A case study from New Mexico is used to illustrate how value systems are reflected in water policies and affect governance priorities like environmental flows.
This document summarizes a presentation by René Kemp on environment and sustainable development. It discusses Kemp's background and research interests, which include environmental policy, clean technology, societal transformations, and governance for sustainable development. It also summarizes some of the projects Kemp is involved in, including sustainable mobility, reflexive governance, environmental technology assessment, and transition management. Finally, it provides overviews of some of the key topics and frameworks in Kemp's research, such as the economy-environment relationship, three economic truths about the environment, debates around sustainable development, environment and poverty, and new thinking about how the environment is conceptualized.
This document outlines a flexible framework for exploring discourses of sustainable development. It describes a research methodology that draws on Ulrich Beck's theory of reflexive modernity and risk society to examine sustainable development at both the global and local levels through two case studies. The first case study involves ethnographic research within the United Nations to analyze representations of sustainable development from different nations. The second examines a local carbon reduction project in Plymouth, England using mixed quantitative and qualitative methods. The methodology is informed by debates around realist and constructivist epistemologies of risk. It aims to develop a third perspective that acknowledges both social influences on risk perceptions and underlying responsibilities for actions and social change.
This document proposes a methodological approach for assessing the sustainability of development cooperation projects that involve built innovations. It begins by discussing the need for sustainability assessments and the lack of agreement on what sustainability means. It then reviews how sustainability is defined in the development sector versus scientific disciplines. The proposed approach uses nine impact categories based on the UN's Sustainable Development Goals to assess projects. It applies the concepts of life cycle assessment and life cycle thinking to evaluate impacts over the full life cycles of the project and its built innovation. The goal is to provide a holistic analysis of both positive and negative social, economic and environmental impacts. The method is intended to be tested on a case study of improved cooking stoves in Bangladesh.
This document discusses sustainability in the construction sector. It begins by defining sustainability and its three pillars - environmental, economic, and social. It then discusses sustainability at various scales from global to local. Sustainable development strategies aim to balance these three pillars through principles like respecting environmental limits and improving quality of life. The construction sector has significant environmental impacts through resource use and pollution, but can also support economic and social sustainability through jobs and infrastructure. Sustainable construction approaches like green building aim to minimize these environmental impacts over the full building lifecycle from construction to demolition.
This document discusses the role that architects can play in achieving sustainable environmental development. It argues that architects have responsibilities both through their professional practice and as citizens of their environment. As professionals, architects can work to integrate sustainability into new and existing built environments through practices like participatory design, multidisciplinary collaboration, and evaluating past projects. As citizens, architects should see themselves as stakeholders in their environment and work to improve sustainability in both their professional and personal capacities. The document suggests architects need to continually expand their knowledge of sustainable design and work to strengthen environmental sustainability through both roles.
This document discusses the role that architects can play in achieving sustainable environmental development. It argues that architects have responsibilities both through their professional practice and as citizens of their environment. As professionals, architects can work to integrate sustainability into new and existing built environments through approaches like participatory design, multidisciplinary collaboration, and evaluating past projects. As citizens, architects should see themselves as stakeholders in their environment and work to improve sustainability in both their professional and personal capacities. The document suggests that architects need continual learning and skill development regarding sustainable strategies to strengthen their ability to create sustainable built environments and communities.
The Schumacher Institute submitted a response to the Labour Party's consultation on developing an industrial strategy. Some key points made in the submission include:
- An industrial strategy should be based on principles of being challenge-led, mission-oriented, and values-driven, with a priority on sustainability.
- Fundamental ecosystem and social challenges like resource depletion, climate change, and inequality must inform the strategy.
- Concepts like the green economy, circular economy, and ideas around a "safe and just operating space" could help address these challenges through economic transformation.
- The strategy and policies should support mission-led businesses, corporate governance reform, localisation, and socio-technical innovation to enable the
This document discusses various concepts of urban resilience policies. It outlines 7 types of resilience policies: 1) disaster resilience, 2) engineering resilience, 3) ecological resilience, 4) socio-ecological resilience, 5) evolutionary resilience, 6) built-in resilience, and 7) climate change resilience. Each concept is defined and the implications of each approach are discussed. The document concludes that urban resilience is complex with many challenges and uncertainties, and that different resilience concepts may be applied depending on the specific urban issue being addressed.
Sustainable development is the greatest challenge of our time. It brings together a number of global problems—pollution and intoxication of the space in which we live; poverty and starvation; climate change; depletion of mineral and organic
resources; ecological devastation; and global inequity
Climate Change Essays. Ashland Community and Technical CollegeDaphne Ballenger
Writing an essay on climate change is a challenging task that requires understanding its scientific, environmental, social, and political dimensions. It involves examining the causes and effects of climate change through research, analyzing its impact on ecosystems and how societies respond to its effects. Finally, it demands synthesizing these various elements into a cohesive narrative that engages readers and inspires reflection on this urgent issue.
Sustainability, characteristics and scientific rootsNuno Quental
This document summarizes the key scientific approaches and principles underlying the concept of sustainability. It identifies three relevant scientific approaches - ecological economics, sustainability transition, and sustainability science. By analyzing these approaches, the document derives four common sustainability principles: 1) acknowledging biophysical limits to economic scale, 2) focusing on societal welfare and development, 3) understanding systems have minimum needs for viability, and 4) recognizing system complexity. It then examines the scientific roots of each principle and discusses how understandings have progressed from static views of limits and impacts to more dynamic, integrated visions.
(10 SheetsSet) European Pastoral Style Retro Love LeCassie Romero
The document outlines a 5-step process for requesting writing assistance from HelpWriting.net:
1. Create an account with a password and email.
2. Complete a 10-minute order form providing instructions, sources, deadline, and sample work.
3. Review bids from writers and select one based on qualifications.
4. Review the completed paper and authorize payment if satisfied.
5. Request revisions until fully satisfied, with a refund option for plagiarized work.
Columbia College Chicago, Chicago Admission, Criteria ApplicationCassie Romero
The document provides instructions for using the HelpWriting.net service to get assistance with writing assignments. It outlines a 5-step process: 1) Create an account and provide contact details. 2) Complete an order form with instructions, sources, and deadline. 3) Review bids from writers and choose one. 4) Review the completed paper and authorize payment. 5) Request revisions until satisfied, with a refund option for plagiarized work. The service aims to match users with qualified writers and ensure satisfaction through revisions.
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Squaring the circle? Some thoughts on the idea of sustainable developmentBrancois
The paper reviews how the concept of sustainable development has played out in industrialized countries since 1987. It
examines the theory and practice of sustainable development in the context of three criticisms (it is vague, attracts hypocrites
and fosters delusions), and argues for an approach to sustainability that is integrative, is action-oriented, goes beyond technical
fixes, incorporates a recognition of the social construction of sustainable development, and engages local communities in new
ways. The paper concludes with a description of an approach to sustainability that attempts to incorporate these characteristics.
The following paper tries to explain the various reasons that made sustainability so contested by discussing the circumstances surrounding the emergence of the term and its evolution. It also tries to shed some light on the future of sustainability through employing a study technique borrowed from a well established field of human knowledge.
1. Sustainable development requires transitions to more sustainable systems that incorporate processes of societal, ecological, economic, cultural and technological evolution over the long term.
2. Governance for sustainability transitions should allow societies to self-organize towards sustainability through deliberate and reflexive strategies that promote innovation while securing long-term sustainability values.
3. An operational framework for transition governance includes strategic visioning, experimental tactics at the subsystem level, monitoring and evaluation, and science-policy co-production to guide transitions.
An Adaptive Learning Process for Developing and Applying Sustainability Indicators with Local Communities
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For more information, Please see websites below:
`
Organic Edible Schoolyards & Gardening with Children
http://scribd.com/doc/239851214
`
Double Food Production from your School Garden with Organic Tech
http://scribd.com/doc/239851079
`
Free School Gardening Art Posters
http://scribd.com/doc/239851159`
`
Increase Food Production with Companion Planting in your School Garden
http://scribd.com/doc/239851159
`
Healthy Foods Dramatically Improves Student Academic Success
http://scribd.com/doc/239851348
`
City Chickens for your Organic School Garden
http://scribd.com/doc/239850440
`
Simple Square Foot Gardening for Schools - Teacher Guide
http://scribd.com/doc/239851110
This thesis analyzes two cases of forest sector innovation in Canada - the Great Bear Rainforest Agreement and the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement. It uses a multi-paradigm approach to gain insight into how civil society groups can advance transformative social change. The research contributes new understanding of the deliberate agency and cross-scale processes involved in systemic change efforts. It analyzes the cases through multiple theoretical lenses and provides a synthesis of key patterns of agency and cross-scale dynamics in transforming unsustainable systems. The thesis findings have implications for responding to complex sustainability challenges through innovative, multi-level responses that span boundaries.
Critical Approaches to the Concept of Sustainable DevelopmentAI Publications
It has been observed that while living in harmony with nature on earth until the industrial revolution, with the industrial production and consumption society formed after the industrial revolution, humanity has started to dominate nature more and the damage caused to nature has increased. Economic growth, contrary to expectations, increasing inequality in the distribution of income, the impoverishment of the broad masses of the natural environment in the emergence of problems such as destruction of natural resources, growth and development of the concept of sustainable development has revealed the new concept. Sustainable development suggests that both economic development can continue and the ecological system can be protected; the contradiction between the environment and development will disappear. The concept of sustainable development has been considered to be able to solve many country problems since its first appearance, and has been applied to many fields such as economics, politics, the environment and social culture. In fact, there are many aspects of the concept of sustainable development that are open to criticism. The aim of this study is to address the criticisms brought to the concept with a collective perspective. For this purpose, the criticisms brought to the concept of sustainable development based on the previous studies conducted on the subject were examined. It is thought that the study will contribute to the literature by eliminating the lack of a critical perspective on sustainable development in this way.
"LIMITS TO GROWTH REVISITED"; White Paper of the 2012 Winter School by the Pa...VolkswagenStiftung
A Winter School on "Limits to Growth Revisited", which was addressed to 60 young researchers of all relevant fields, took place in the week running up to the symposium. Following the event, the participants developed a "White Paper" report which shows their perspectives on the various subjects discussed within the Winter School.
This document summarizes four overlapping approaches to water governance - management, institutions, social-ecological systems, and values - and argues that explicitly considering values and ethics can help address conflicts in water governance. It outlines a values-based approach, noting that values underlie behaviors and governance aims. A case study from New Mexico is used to illustrate how value systems are reflected in water policies and affect governance priorities like environmental flows.
This document summarizes a presentation by René Kemp on environment and sustainable development. It discusses Kemp's background and research interests, which include environmental policy, clean technology, societal transformations, and governance for sustainable development. It also summarizes some of the projects Kemp is involved in, including sustainable mobility, reflexive governance, environmental technology assessment, and transition management. Finally, it provides overviews of some of the key topics and frameworks in Kemp's research, such as the economy-environment relationship, three economic truths about the environment, debates around sustainable development, environment and poverty, and new thinking about how the environment is conceptualized.
This document outlines a flexible framework for exploring discourses of sustainable development. It describes a research methodology that draws on Ulrich Beck's theory of reflexive modernity and risk society to examine sustainable development at both the global and local levels through two case studies. The first case study involves ethnographic research within the United Nations to analyze representations of sustainable development from different nations. The second examines a local carbon reduction project in Plymouth, England using mixed quantitative and qualitative methods. The methodology is informed by debates around realist and constructivist epistemologies of risk. It aims to develop a third perspective that acknowledges both social influences on risk perceptions and underlying responsibilities for actions and social change.
This document proposes a methodological approach for assessing the sustainability of development cooperation projects that involve built innovations. It begins by discussing the need for sustainability assessments and the lack of agreement on what sustainability means. It then reviews how sustainability is defined in the development sector versus scientific disciplines. The proposed approach uses nine impact categories based on the UN's Sustainable Development Goals to assess projects. It applies the concepts of life cycle assessment and life cycle thinking to evaluate impacts over the full life cycles of the project and its built innovation. The goal is to provide a holistic analysis of both positive and negative social, economic and environmental impacts. The method is intended to be tested on a case study of improved cooking stoves in Bangladesh.
This document discusses sustainability in the construction sector. It begins by defining sustainability and its three pillars - environmental, economic, and social. It then discusses sustainability at various scales from global to local. Sustainable development strategies aim to balance these three pillars through principles like respecting environmental limits and improving quality of life. The construction sector has significant environmental impacts through resource use and pollution, but can also support economic and social sustainability through jobs and infrastructure. Sustainable construction approaches like green building aim to minimize these environmental impacts over the full building lifecycle from construction to demolition.
This document discusses the role that architects can play in achieving sustainable environmental development. It argues that architects have responsibilities both through their professional practice and as citizens of their environment. As professionals, architects can work to integrate sustainability into new and existing built environments through practices like participatory design, multidisciplinary collaboration, and evaluating past projects. As citizens, architects should see themselves as stakeholders in their environment and work to improve sustainability in both their professional and personal capacities. The document suggests architects need to continually expand their knowledge of sustainable design and work to strengthen environmental sustainability through both roles.
This document discusses the role that architects can play in achieving sustainable environmental development. It argues that architects have responsibilities both through their professional practice and as citizens of their environment. As professionals, architects can work to integrate sustainability into new and existing built environments through approaches like participatory design, multidisciplinary collaboration, and evaluating past projects. As citizens, architects should see themselves as stakeholders in their environment and work to improve sustainability in both their professional and personal capacities. The document suggests that architects need continual learning and skill development regarding sustainable strategies to strengthen their ability to create sustainable built environments and communities.
The Schumacher Institute submitted a response to the Labour Party's consultation on developing an industrial strategy. Some key points made in the submission include:
- An industrial strategy should be based on principles of being challenge-led, mission-oriented, and values-driven, with a priority on sustainability.
- Fundamental ecosystem and social challenges like resource depletion, climate change, and inequality must inform the strategy.
- Concepts like the green economy, circular economy, and ideas around a "safe and just operating space" could help address these challenges through economic transformation.
- The strategy and policies should support mission-led businesses, corporate governance reform, localisation, and socio-technical innovation to enable the
This document discusses various concepts of urban resilience policies. It outlines 7 types of resilience policies: 1) disaster resilience, 2) engineering resilience, 3) ecological resilience, 4) socio-ecological resilience, 5) evolutionary resilience, 6) built-in resilience, and 7) climate change resilience. Each concept is defined and the implications of each approach are discussed. The document concludes that urban resilience is complex with many challenges and uncertainties, and that different resilience concepts may be applied depending on the specific urban issue being addressed.
Sustainable development is the greatest challenge of our time. It brings together a number of global problems—pollution and intoxication of the space in which we live; poverty and starvation; climate change; depletion of mineral and organic
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This document summarizes the key scientific approaches and principles underlying the concept of sustainability. It identifies three relevant scientific approaches - ecological economics, sustainability transition, and sustainability science. By analyzing these approaches, the document derives four common sustainability principles: 1) acknowledging biophysical limits to economic scale, 2) focusing on societal welfare and development, 3) understanding systems have minimum needs for viability, and 4) recognizing system complexity. It then examines the scientific roots of each principle and discusses how understandings have progressed from static views of limits and impacts to more dynamic, integrated visions.
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Info Terpopuler Structure Introduction. Online assignment writing service.Cassie Romero
The document discusses three options for Excello Telecommunications to report earnings to meet estimates for 2010. The first option would be to transfer products to an off-site Excello warehouse until January, violating GAAP. The second option transfers products to the customer by December 31 but allows return in January, also violating GAAP. The third offers a discount to transfer products by December 31. The first two options are deemed unethical as they do not comply with accounting standards.
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Macroeconomics- Movie Location
This will be used as part of your Personal Professional Portfolio once graded.
Objective:
Prepare a presentation or a paper using research, basic comparative analysis, data organization and application of economic information. You will make an informed assessment of an economic climate outside of the United States to accomplish an entertainment industry objective.
Exploiting Artificial Intelligence for Empowering Researchers and Faculty, In...Dr. Vinod Kumar Kanvaria
Exploiting Artificial Intelligence for Empowering Researchers and Faculty,
International FDP on Fundamentals of Research in Social Sciences
at Integral University, Lucknow, 06.06.2024
By Dr. Vinod Kumar Kanvaria
ISO/IEC 27001, ISO/IEC 42001, and GDPR: Best Practices for Implementation and...PECB
Denis is a dynamic and results-driven Chief Information Officer (CIO) with a distinguished career spanning information systems analysis and technical project management. With a proven track record of spearheading the design and delivery of cutting-edge Information Management solutions, he has consistently elevated business operations, streamlined reporting functions, and maximized process efficiency.
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Date: May 29, 2024
Tags: Information Security, ISO/IEC 27001, ISO/IEC 42001, Artificial Intelligence, GDPR
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Let’s explore the intersection of technology and equity in the final session of our DEI series. Discover how AI tools, like ChatGPT, can be used to support and enhance your nonprofit's DEI initiatives. Participants will gain insights into practical AI applications and get tips for leveraging technology to advance their DEI goals.
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This Gasta posits a strategic approach to integrating AI into HEIs to prepare staff, students and the curriculum for an evolving world and workplace. We will highlight the advantages of working with these technologies beyond the realm of teaching, learning and assessment by considering prompt engineering skills, industry impact, curriculum changes, and the need for staff upskilling. In contrast, not engaging strategically with Generative AI poses risks, including falling behind peers, missed opportunities and failing to ensure our graduates remain employable. The rapid evolution of AI technologies necessitates a proactive and strategic approach if we are to remain relevant.
A workshop hosted by the South African Journal of Science aimed at postgraduate students and early career researchers with little or no experience in writing and publishing journal articles.
Film vocab for eal 3 students: Australia the movie
A Transition Research Perspective On Governance For Sustainability
1. See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/226482740
A Transition Research Perspective on Governance for Sustainability
Chapter · June 2011
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-19202-9_7
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A transition research perspective on governance for sustainability
Abstract
In this paper we present the transition approach as an integrated perspective to
understand and possibly orient our society towards sustainable development.
Transition management is based upon complex adaptive system thinking and seeks
to deal with ongoing changes in society in an evolutionary manner so as to influence
these ongoing changes in terms of speed and direction: towards sustainability. Since
the concept of sustainability is inherently normative, subjective and ambiguous, we
argue that (unlike some more traditional approaches to sustainable development) we
should focus on an open facilitation and stimulation of social processes towards
sustainability. Transition perspective poses novel challenges for research: there are
no unequivocal answers, nor is it clear how these processes should be governed. We
thus end this paper by formulating the basic research questions central to the search
for governance for sustainability.
1. Introduction
Over the last decade, sustainable development has become a central concept guiding scientific
debates and policies related to complex and persistent problems (Jansen, 2003; Meadowcroft,
2000; Scott and Gough, 2004). Sustainable development aims to ensure economic welfare, social
equality and ecologic quality across society, generations and into the future. It is commonly
associated with those types of social problems that demand a fundamental restructuring of
dominant paradigms, institutions and practices. In such a context, conventional forms of planning
and policy but also traditional conceptions of knowledge and the role of scientists are being
challenged (Bolin, 2000; Flyvbjerg, 2001; Kates et al., 2001). Over the last decade, new research
and policy fields have emerged adopting more integrated perspectives and concepts, such as
transition and resilience approaches that are explicitly based on complexity and uncertainty. In
the transition perspective, our society is composed of complex adaptive systems in which
individuals and organizations self-organize within the limits set by physical, institutional and
informal structures, leading to the emergence of novel structures.
The transitions approach distinguishes different phases of change as result of the interaction
between changes at different levels. For example the fundamental changes that are now required
in our fossil energy supply, our ill-adapted water management, our individual and fossil based
industry or our waste-production and management. Historical transitions such as energy supply or
mobility transitions were semi-autonomous societal processes; since the vast majority was not
steered in a collective way but emerged as a societal outcome. In our current era, the need to deal
with immanent transitions so that they lead to more sustainable directions and explorations into
the possibility of deliberative steering (or deliberate power streaming) of such societal processes
yielded a new process-oriented approach, the transition management approach.
Transitions can take decades to materialize and are highly uncertain in terms of future
development, possibilities for change and the level of intervention possible in such dynamic
processes. Though it is clear that ongoing processes of change need to be oriented towards more
sustainable system’s states, the often blurred vision of what exactly is sustainable makes the
pathways towards a sustainable system state highly uncertain. In this complex context, not only
the translation of sustainability in a specific context needs to be coordinated with the
sustainability values, but also actors involved need to re-evaluate their roles and practices
(Loorbach, 2007). We argue in this paper that transition research offers a new approach to seek
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understanding of sustainability transitions in society as well as to derive a mode of governance1
that takes into account the multi-faceted nature of sustainability and the co-evolutionary processes
of societal transitions.
In our effort to present what transitions thinking can offer to sustainable development research,
we first elaborate on existing propositions of sustainability and sustainable development (section
2). Sustainability research gave rise to a number of research streams among them transitions’
research (Section 3). Transitions’ approach takes into account the intrinsic characteristics of the
societal system (e.g. complexity, interdependence, actor-networks) and perceives continuous
structural changes in culture, structures and practices as an answer to persistent problems.
Following transitions’ thinking, we will draw process-oriented propositions for sustainability
transitions that give rise to research propositions for governance of transitions (Section 4).
2. Sustainability and sustainable development: Existing propositions
Since the late 1980’s, many countries have committed themselves to sustainable development but
are struggling with how to do this. Following the Brundtland report Our Common Future
(WCED, 1987), sustainable development came to be defined as redirection of social development
in ways that combine prosperity, environmental protection with social cohesion. In this report,
sustainable development was defined as a development that meets the needs of the current
generation, without compromising the needs of future generations (WCED, 1987). This definition
is normative since future generations should have the same possibilities, subjective since it
requires an assessment of what these future needs are, and also ambiguous since these future
needs are determined by cultural, ecological and economic developments that can be weighted in
more than one way (Martens and Rotmans, 2002; UN, 1997).
At the international level there is a consensus on the need for sustainable development and key
areas in which the next decade significant progress needs to be made: poverty, hunger, health,
education, life expectancy, environmental sustainability and global partnerships (UN, 2005). The
approach to sustainable development adopted by the UN is to realize overall consensus while
allowing for a variation of strategies and solutions to be chosen by individual countries, regions
and actors at different levels (UN, 2005). This means that in practice different countries have
taken up different strategies to cope with the challenge of achieving sustainable development. A
lot of countries opted for sustainability councils and the development of sustainability indicators
(see Mulder, 2006, pp.148-165). In this context, sustainable development has been represented as
the intersection of economic, social and environmental agendas and the need to integrate
(predominantly) environmental concerns into regular policies.
We can derive some basic characteristics that are attributed to the concept of sustainable
development that occur in almost all definitions and scientific writings (Rotmans, 1994; Rotmans
et.al., 2001). The first is that sustainability is intergenerational. This means that a long-time
horizon, at least one or two generations (25-50 years), has to be considered. The second
characteristic is the importance of scale. Sustainability occurs at different levels; local or regional
sustainability does not necessarily mean national or global sustainability and vice versa.
Sustainability analysis thus requires a multitude of scale levels. The third common characteristic
is that sustainability related to multiple domains. Sustainability encompasses a certain context-
1
We perceive governance as meta-level pattern of societal interactions (intended and unintended) or as
Kooiman (1993, p.2) notes, governance to be interactive as “the pattern that emerge from the governing
activities of social, political and administrative actors” that “focuses on the interactions taking place
between governing actors within social-political situations.” (Kooiman, 2003, p.7).
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specific balance between ecological, economic and socio-cultural values and stakes (Kates et. al.,
2001; Pezzoli, 1997).
Sustainable development is therefore a normative orientation that provides a frame of reference to
discuss and direct differences in perception, ambition and understanding between actors in light
of desired changes in society. After the initial optimism during the 1990’s about win-win
opportunities, it is increasingly understood that there are tradeoffs between different values and
interests in any type of development (at least in the short term) and that each development tosses
up new problems for society. The rationale behind these is that alternatives for development can
only be called sustainable when they are (co-)developed, implemented and formulated by societal
actors (Clark, 2003).
What we suggest is that sustainable development should be considered as a continuous process in
which societal values and interests are represented, negotiated and balanced. At the same time,
new alternatives and visions need to be explored and experimented with. Sustainable
development is a multi-dimensional, dynamic and plural concept that neither can be translated
into the narrow terms of static optimization nor is conducive to strategies based on direct control
(Loorbach, 2004; Rammel et. al., 2004). This is a distinctive characteristic of sustainable
development as a new type of development process vis-à-vis economic development: the goal of
sustainability exists but its target level changes over time due to its redefinition by every
generation (Mulder, 2006, p.74). As Meadowcroft (1997, p.37) phrases this perspective: “Each
generation must take up the challenge anew, determining in what directions their development
objectives lie, what constitutes the boundaries of the environmentally possible and the
environmentally desirable, and what their understanding of the requirements of social justice is”.
Arguably, sustainable development as a broad notion of an integrative and balanced, yet flexible
societal development should be used as guiding principle for future-oriented actions. This means
that the challenge of sustainable development can be formulated in terms of the quality and the
characteristics of a continuous governance process that enables representation of various
perspectives, values and interest and creates space for experimentation, innovation and learning.
Understanding which dynamics play what type of role and how they can be anticipated, adapted
to and influenced is the central aim of the transitions approach,
3. Transitions approach for sustainability
The focus of the current paper is on sustainability transitions or transitions to sustainability that
concern the continuous process of fundamental change that reorient and restructure a societal
system towards a sustainable system state that satisfies sustainability values. In line with this and
as already indicated in the introduction, the transitions approach implies an integrative concept of
sustainability, which is capable of incorporating multiple domains, levels of scale and spans a
long-term.
3.1 Foundations of transitions thinking
In the early 1990s complex systems theory was introduced, focusing on the co-evolutionary
development of systems. The establishment of the Santa Fé institute in New Mexico in the US in
1984 functioned as incubator for a new research movement, which laid the basis for complex
adaptive systems theory (Holland, 1995; Kauffman, 1995). Although the theory is far from
mature, it has attracted a great deal of attention and has many applications in diverse research
fields: in biology (Kauffman, 1995), economics (Arthur et.al., 1997), ecology (Gunderson and
Holling, 2002) and public administration (Kickert, 1991; Teisman, 1992). The basic idea is that
complex interactions between different elements can be understood in a systemic sense: through
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their interaction, elements within a system co-evolve with each-other and with their environment,
new structures and novelties emerge and new configurations appear through self-organization.
The basic mechanisms that drive change in complex adaptive systems are co-evolution,
emergence and self-organization. Societal systems can be considered as complex adaptive
systems. Societal sectors consist of numerous interlinked elements (e.g. actors and institutions),
there is a high degree of uncertainty about their interactions and feedback and they have an open
and nested character in terms of different levels of organisation. From this perspective, typical
complex system behaviour can be recognized, as for example emerging structures, co-evolving
(policy) domains and self-organizing processes can be observed. One of the possible patterns
distinguished is that of transition: a system in a relatively stable equilibrium is (suddenly) going
into a phase of rapid change through a process in which self-organisation and co-evolution play
an important role before a new equilibrium is found.
3.2 Transitions perspective on systems innovation
History has witnessed numerous transitions in economy, agriculture, mobility, and energy, but
also in areas such as education, health care, and social structure (Geels, 2004; Rotmans et. al,
2001). Transitions are processes of ‘degradation’ and ‘breakdown’ as well as of ‘build up’ and
‘innovation’ (Gunderson and Holling, 2002) or of ‘creative destruction’ (Schumpeter, 1934) of
societal structures. The central assumption is that societal structures go through long periods of
relative stability and optimization that are followed by relatively short periods of structural
change. These changes can be analyzed in terms of multi-level (distinguishing between dominant
structures/regimes, upcoming innovations/niches and landscape development (Geels, 2004)) and
multi-phase frameworks (in terms of predevelopment, take-off, acceleration and stabilization
(Rotmans, 1994)).
3.3 Transitions perspective on systems’ sustainability
Historically, transitions have been primarily driven by changes in social subsystems that initiated
large-scale changes such as demographic growth, technological innovation or economic
expansion. In a sense, these historical transitions (such as those part of the industrialization era,
the post-war emergence of mobility, intensive agriculture or fossil energy systems), were also
partly driven by the promise of solving societal problems such as poverty, inequality, education
and so on. Such transitions however produced, in dealing with certain issues, their own problems
in turn. While individuals might now have availability of cheap energy and mobility, it has co-
produced for example pollution, resources’ exploitation and congestion. In that sense, the
transitions leading to our current modern society have had as side-effect the current
environmental problems. The challenge in dealing with modern problems is to find new ways in
dealing with them in a more anticipatory and exploratory manner.
The transition perspective is that while complex processes of change are occurring, we need to try
to better understand their dynamics and try to influence their pace and direction. Combined with
the basic notion that sustainability is ambiguous, uncertain and contested, this means that the only
way to ‘enable’ sustainable development is through process conditions under which sustainability
is discussed, negotiated and explored in light of the major changes that are undoubtedly
necessary.
A process-philosophy of sustainable development seems very useful in order to accommodate
concrete action and implementation and allow for plurality in both actor’s and objectives and for
flexibility of the outcome. Linked to the need to achieve fundamental change implies that to
accommodate and facilitate frontrunners in society to work collectively to transform social
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systems towards sustainability in the long-term, but to compete over best solutions and
conflicting values on the short-term. Such an approach raises discussion issues about democratic
legitimacy, accountability and control (Hendriks and Grin, 2007; Shove and Walker, 2007), but at
the same time questions the legitimacy of the existing dominant institutions since they are not
able to include uncertain future processes and/or to create the level of social innovation needed
for transitions.
Dominant (policy and research) approaches predominantly seek to improve existing systems,
leading to gradual improvement. Opposing this, transitions’ thinking suggests that a sustainable
development process requires a fundamental shift of a societal system. Instead of incremental
changes that aim at preserving existing functioning, transition thinking focuses on radical changes
or “transformation of both (…) systems and social structures and practices” (after Meadowcroft,
1997, p.430). It is concluded that apart from a co-evolving target of sustainability that a society
needs to form, process conditions2
are essential in creating space and paving the ground for a
societal transition to sustainability.
4. Governance for sustainability transitions
Sustainable development as a societal objective is a continuous intergenerational, multi-scale
(global and local) and multi-domain process of seeking a balance between social, economic,
ecological and cultural values. As such, sustainable development requires a governance mode that
promotes those societal processes that guard sustainability values. Transitions’ thinking offers a
ground for process-oriented propositions for a transition to sustainability.
4.1. Starting process-propositions of sustainability transitions
The transition approach focuses on understanding societal dynamics that underlie transitions. The
knowledge of those dynamics is translated into process-oriented propositions that comprise the
headlines of transitions’ approach (see Loorbach, 2007).
Proposition 1: Sustainability transitions are long-term processes of fundamental societal change
that incorporate processes of societal, ecological, economic, cultural and technological evolution.
Proposition 2: Enabling societal processes of change (transitions) implies an integrated
understanding of the dynamics of change and deliberate and reflexive strategies so as to allow for
self-orientation of society towards a sustainable development pathway.
Proposition 3: Innovation and sustainable development are interlinked: to develop sustainably
means to continuously innovate and redefine existing culture, structures and practices in an
evolutionary manner. More specifically, a focus on sustainability could trigger innovations that
comply with sustainability values as well as that these innovations can be the stimuli for initiation
of multi-domain processes for societal transitions to sustainability.
Proposition 4: Sustainability transitions are continuous open-ended processes of societal
innovation. Governance for sustainability transitions has thus to secure sustainability values such
as long-term orientation and intergenerational justice.
2
Process-oriented conditions or process-oriented propositions relate to the process design towards
restructuring the societal system. Process-oriented propositions are not concerned with the definition of
targets, or goals but with the design or the framing of the actions that will take place over the course of a
transition.
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4.2 Towards governance for sustainability transitions: Transition guidelines and research
questions
Research on transition dynamics and transition management resulted in a number of starting
transition process guidelines that are related to the above propositions. Given the complexity of
phenomena as societal transitions, the below listed process guidelines are not set in stone but can
and will evolve due to scientific debate and practical implementation. This approach is
fundamentally different from a (more) descriptive and analytical scientific approach that would
primarily focus on understanding these processes and describing them. The questions formulated
below are in line with this based upon recent theoretical debates and empirical insights around
transition management. An additional remark is that future research on sustainable development
will require a focus on new modes of governance for promoting sustainability transitions.
Proposition 1: Sustainability transitions are long-term processes of fundamental and radical
societal change that incorporate processes of societal, ecological, economic, cultural and
technological evolution.
Transition process-guidelines:
(a) The dynamics of the system create feasible and non-feasible means for governance.
This implies that substance and process are inseparable. Process management on its own
is not sufficient – insight into how the system works is an essential precondition for
effective management. Systems-thinking (in terms of more than one domain (multi-
domain) and different actors (multi-actor) at different scale levels (multi-level); analyzing
how developments in one domain or level interact with developments in other domains or
levels) is necessary to be able to take into account such possible means and leavers for
intervention.
(b) Learning-by-doing and doing-by-learning. Social learning is a pivotal aspect of
societal transition processes, aimed at ‘reframing’, changing the perspective of actors
involved. Social learning as the combined outcome of learning-by-doing and doing-by-
learning actions stimulates the development of visions, pathways and experiments that
form a new context as well as pave the ground for the reorientation of the societal system.
Research questions:
- Which are the prevailing patterns of societal transitions in the form of multi-domain
processes of change/evolution?
- Can we distinguish different types of transitions related to sustainability issues and
what does that mean in terms of societal dynamics?
- Is it possible to understand ongoing transitions in which we all are part and if so, are
we able to influence these?
Proposition 2: Enabling societal processes of change (transitions) implies an integrated
understanding of the dynamics of change and deliberate and reflexive strategies so as to allow
for self-orientation of society towards a sustainable development pathway.
Transition process-guidelines:
(a) Radical change in incremental steps. Radical, structural change is needed to erode the
existing structure of a system and ultimately dismantle it. Immediate radical change,
however, would lead to maximal resistance from the deep structure, that cannot adjust to
a too fast, radical change. Abrupt forcing of the system would disrupt the system and
would create a backlash in the system because of its resilience. Incremental change
allows the system to adjust to the new circumstances and to build up new structures that
align to the new configuration. Radical change in incremental steps thus implies that the
system heads for a new direction towards new attractors, but in small steps.
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(b) Objectives should be flexible and adjustable at the system level. The complexity of
the system is at odds with the formulation of specific objectives. With flexible evolving
objectives one is in a better position to react to changes from inside and outside the
system. While being directed the structure and order of the system are also changing, and
so the objectives set should change too.
Research questions:
- How can we better understand complex evolutions in society to make better use of
complex system dynamics?
- Which are the means for governance that can deliberately promote societal transitions
while allowing self-organization and self-orientation of the societal system?
Proposition 3: Innovation and sustainable development are interlinked.
Transition process-guidelines:
(a) Creating space for niches in transition arenas and transition experiments. A niche is
a new structure, a small core of agents that emerges within the system and is seen as the
incumbent for innovation. An emergent structure is formed around niches to stimulate the
further development of these niches and the emergence of niche-regimes.
(b) A focus on frontrunners. In this context we mean with frontrunners agents with
peculiar competencies and qualities: creative minds, strategists and visionaries.
Frontrunners are able to generate dissipative structures in complex systems and are active
at different levels and domains.
(c) Guided variation and selection. Diversity is required to avoid rigidity within the
system. Rigidity here means reduced diversity due to selection mechanisms which means
that the system cannot respond flexibly to changes in its environment. Rather than
selecting innovative options in a too early stage options are kept open in order to learn
about the pros and cons of available options before making a selection. Collective choices
are made “along the way” on the basis of learning experiences at different levels.
Research questions:
- Which modes of governance can promote innovation while securing sustainability
values in multiple domains?
- Which are means for governance that can create space for innovation that complies
with sustainability values apart from regulation and institutionalization of innovation
systems?
- Which are means for governance that can anticipate multiple visions and values of
sustainability while facilitating the adaptation of innovation?
Proposition 4: Sustainability transition is a continuous open-ended process of societal
innovation. Governance for sustainability transitions has thus to secure sustainability values such
as long-term orientation and intergenerational justice
Transition process-guidelines:
(a) Long-term thinking as a framework for shaping short-term policy in the context of
persistent societal problems. Processes of back- and fore-casting: the setting of short-
term goals based on long-term goals and the reflection on future developments through
the use of scenarios.
(b) Anticipation and adaptation. Anticipating future trends and developments, taking
account of weak signals and seeds of change acting as the harbingers of the future, is a
key element of a pro-active, long-term strategy as transition management. This future
9. Paper for: Sustainable Development: A challenge for European research
28-29 May 2009, Brussels, Belgium
8
orientation is accompanied by a strategy of adaptation, which means adjusting while the
structure of the system is changing.
Research questions:
- How can governance deal with the tension between promoting continuous innovation
while at the same time needing to offer social stability and institutional structure?
- Which are the means for governance that incorporate long-term orientation and its
uncertainties?
- Which are the means for governance that ensure reflexivity and adaptability in face
of long-term processes of transitions to sustainability?
5. Reflection and discussion
This paper sketched the outlines of the transition perspective on sustainability and the
consequences that are drawn from this perspective in terms of the contours of governance for
sustainability transitions. The transition approach and transition management focus on
understanding and promoting societal processes and thus on integrating theoretical with empirical
knowledge. We have argued that a process-based approach to sustainability and the integration
with the transition perspective has implications for the role of research and knowledge: transitions
are uncertain processes that cannot be predicted or fully analyzed. Hence, we argue that certain
key patterns and dynamics can be understood and used to reflect upon the possibilities for
accelerating and orienting these transitions.
The research needed in understanding and in dealing with transitions is of an inter- and trans-
disciplinary nature. Consequently, the research questions formulated cannot be answered in a
traditional way: the empirical object (transitions) is continuously on the move. Transition
research poses a challenge to the scientific community at large: the complex sustainability
problems require the involvement of scientists who step over the boundaries of their scientific
disciplines so as to develop new insights, to transfer new knowledge and in general to become
part of the collective societal search process we call sustainable development.
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