From NESS 2011 (The 10th Nordic Environmental Social Science Conference), June 2011.
Video at http://stockholmresilience.org/seminarandevents/otherseminars/ness2011/videoarchive.4.1f74f76413071d337c380005790.html
This document discusses pathways to sustainability from the perspective of the STEPS Centre. It notes the complexity of coupled social-ecological systems and the need to consider multiple narratives and pathways. The pathways approach seeks to understand how governance shapes which narratives dominate and become locked in, excluding alternatives. It advocates opening up discussions to recognize diverse values and goals and consider strategies beyond stability and control. The conference aims to discuss contesting and governing sustainability, framing and narratives, dynamics and transitions, and grounding concepts in diverse issues and contexts to inform Rio Plus 20 and beyond.
Melissa Leach: Dynamic Sustainabilities: Taking complexity and uncertainty se...STEPS Centre
1. The document discusses the challenges of development in complex dynamic systems where there is uncertainty and many interacting social, ecological, technical, and political elements.
2. It argues that traditional technical or managerial solutions premised on stability and control often fail because they do not account for complexity, dynamism, and uncertainty.
3. The document proposes taking a dynamic systems approach that incorporates concepts from complexity science, resilience thinking, and sustainability science to understand different pathways and framings in development challenges over time.
Saurabh Arora - The advantages of uncertainty - toward new principles for coo...STEPS Centre
Workshop on climate change and uncertainty from below and above, Delhi. http://steps-centre.org/2016/blog/climate-change-and-uncertainty-from-above-and-below/
Review of concepts and relationships_Dr. Vishal NarainSaciWATERs
Overview of key project concepts and
relationships around peri-urban, climate
change, adaption, vulnerability and
water security
- Dr. Vishal Narain, MDI
This document provides an overview of an article about Integral Sustainable Development, which aims to provide a comprehensive framework for sustainable development efforts. The article explains that current approaches to sustainable development are fragmented and do not adequately address the complex, interconnected social, environmental and economic challenges faced. Integral Sustainable Development introduces a framework that maps these challenges from an inclusive perspective, considering interior psychological and cultural dynamics as well as exterior behavioral and systemic factors, to help optimize sustainable development initiatives. Part 1 of the article outlines this framework and its advantages over other approaches.
2016.02.25 from constitutionalized environmental rights to contested sustaina...NUI Galway
Dr Su-Ming Khoo, Political Science & Sociology presented this seminar entitled From Constitutionalized Environmental Rights to Contested Sustainable Development and Beyond as part of the 2016 Whitaker Ideas Forum series of seminars representing the Environment, Development, and Sustainability Research Cluster on 25th February 2016.
This document discusses pathways to sustainability from the perspective of the STEPS Centre. It notes the complexity of coupled social-ecological systems and the need to consider multiple narratives and pathways. The pathways approach seeks to understand how governance shapes which narratives dominate and become locked in, excluding alternatives. It advocates opening up discussions to recognize diverse values and goals and consider strategies beyond stability and control. The conference aims to discuss contesting and governing sustainability, framing and narratives, dynamics and transitions, and grounding concepts in diverse issues and contexts to inform Rio Plus 20 and beyond.
Melissa Leach: Dynamic Sustainabilities: Taking complexity and uncertainty se...STEPS Centre
1. The document discusses the challenges of development in complex dynamic systems where there is uncertainty and many interacting social, ecological, technical, and political elements.
2. It argues that traditional technical or managerial solutions premised on stability and control often fail because they do not account for complexity, dynamism, and uncertainty.
3. The document proposes taking a dynamic systems approach that incorporates concepts from complexity science, resilience thinking, and sustainability science to understand different pathways and framings in development challenges over time.
Saurabh Arora - The advantages of uncertainty - toward new principles for coo...STEPS Centre
Workshop on climate change and uncertainty from below and above, Delhi. http://steps-centre.org/2016/blog/climate-change-and-uncertainty-from-above-and-below/
Review of concepts and relationships_Dr. Vishal NarainSaciWATERs
Overview of key project concepts and
relationships around peri-urban, climate
change, adaption, vulnerability and
water security
- Dr. Vishal Narain, MDI
This document provides an overview of an article about Integral Sustainable Development, which aims to provide a comprehensive framework for sustainable development efforts. The article explains that current approaches to sustainable development are fragmented and do not adequately address the complex, interconnected social, environmental and economic challenges faced. Integral Sustainable Development introduces a framework that maps these challenges from an inclusive perspective, considering interior psychological and cultural dynamics as well as exterior behavioral and systemic factors, to help optimize sustainable development initiatives. Part 1 of the article outlines this framework and its advantages over other approaches.
2016.02.25 from constitutionalized environmental rights to contested sustaina...NUI Galway
Dr Su-Ming Khoo, Political Science & Sociology presented this seminar entitled From Constitutionalized Environmental Rights to Contested Sustainable Development and Beyond as part of the 2016 Whitaker Ideas Forum series of seminars representing the Environment, Development, and Sustainability Research Cluster on 25th February 2016.
This document provides an overview of the development of a Resilience in a Changing Climate Framework. It describes an analytical approach to understanding resilience that considers drivers of change, people's assets, and disaster risk management strategies. It also discusses concepts of resilience, including defining resilience as a system's capacity to anticipate, prepare for, respond to, learn from, and recover from shocks and stresses. The framework aims to help development practitioners and policymakers design interventions that promote resilience to climate change impacts. It is being developed through an iterative process informed by literature reviews on topics like disaster risk management, climate adaptation, and social protection programs.
Lecture 2. Adaptive governance and bridging organisations Victor Galaz
This document discusses adaptive governance and the role of bridging organizations at different scales. It provides three case studies:
1) Kristianstads Vattenrike in Sweden restored wetlands and habitats through a bridging organization that connected local actors and networks with regional, national, and international levels of governance.
2) The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority rezoned the Great Barrier Reef, increasing protected areas through bridging state and local actors and balancing ecosystem services.
3) The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources reduced illegal fishing in the Southern Ocean by bridging national governments and non-state actors to collaboratively manage fisheries.
6th International Disaster and Risk Conference IDRC 2016 Integrative Risk Management - Towards Resilient Cities. 28 August - 01 September 2016 in Davos, Switzerland
This document summarizes research on transformations for sustainability. It discusses the concepts of adaptability and transformability in social-ecological systems, and frameworks for understanding and navigating transformations across multiple scales from macro to micro. Case studies are presented on transformations in water management and coastal resource governance. Key aspects of preparing for transformation include identifying thresholds, networks, and overcoming barriers. Navigating transitions involves using windows of opportunity, maintaining flexibility, and fostering cross-scale interactions. Building resilience in new systems requires creating incentives for stewardship and mobilizing networks.
This document discusses different approaches to human ecology and their relation to disasters. It describes three main approaches: ecosystem approach, landscape approach, and perception approach.
The ecosystem approach focuses on interactions between organisms and their environment. It recognizes humans as integral parts of ecosystems. The landscape approach takes a holistic view of natural features, infrastructure, stakeholders, and external forces affecting an area. It facilitates inclusive risk assessment and planning.
The perception approach involves three stages: selection of sensory information, organization of information into patterns based on proximity, similarity, and difference, and interpretation to explain selections and organizations in a way that makes sense, influenced by both internal and external factors.
Aspects of Urban resilience.
Presented as part of the Nature Addicts workshop, in the context of Eleusis Cultural Capital of Europe 2021 in Eleusis May 23, 2017
This document summarizes an article that examines the political ecology of conservation and development territories. It defines key concepts like territory, territoriality, and territorialization. Territorialization refers to projects that use territorial strategies to create bounded spaces to control resources and people. The authors analyze how territorialization is a polycentric process with multiple actors involved, in contrast to the state-centric focus in previous literature. They show through case studies how the boundaries of territories are contested. The political ecology approach emphasizes interactions between human and natural factors at multiple scales over time.
Global crises and economic implicationsMartin de Wit
The document summarizes a lecture on understanding the global crises and their implications for economics. It outlines the impacts of the crises such as malnutrition, food riots, and child poverty. It examines various views on the causes including instrumental, structural, moral, and ontological perspectives. It discusses economic theories from mainstream and heterodox schools. It argues responses have missed elements like complexity, learning, and transitions. The conclusions call for a more inclusive economic-ecological theory that accounts for physical limits and innovation within complex, dynamic relationships between nature and humans.
Presented by Kinde Getnet, Nancy Johnson, Jemimah Njuki, Don Peden and Katherine Snyder at the Nile Basin Development Challenge Science and Reflection Workshop, Addis Ababa, 4-6 May 2011.
The document discusses the concept of sustainable rural livelihoods from various perspectives. It examines sustainability from an economic, ecological, and social lens. A sustainable livelihood is one that provides adequate resources and income to meet needs over time while maintaining the environment and social systems. The document outlines factors that determine rural livelihoods like birth, gender, and inheritance. It also discusses livelihood resources, strategies like agriculture intensification, diversification, and migration, and the outcomes of improved livelihood sustainability like increased income, reduced poverty and vulnerability, and protection of natural resources.
This document discusses sustainable development (SD). It provides three key points:
1) SD is defined as "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." It aims to balance environmental preservation, economic growth, and social welfare both currently and for future generations.
2) SD incorporates three pillars - environmental sustainability, economic sustainability, and sociopolitical sustainability. Environmental sustainability focuses on preserving natural resources, economic sustainability on maintaining economic growth, and sociopolitical sustainability on ensuring social equity.
3) Achieving true SD requires addressing market failures like externalities, undervaluation of natural capital, information asymmetry, and businesses prioritizing short-term gains
Towards Sustainability of Open Space’s Planning and Management in Nigeria: Ro...Agboola Paul
This paper critically explores the influencing roles plays by science and technology on evolving a sustainable environment integrated with appropriate open space planning and management. It identified and discussed the strategic imperatives for sustainable development, and recommends the need for the government of developing countries to initiate an effective policy formulation. The significance of the study hinged on efforts geared towards matching up with open space planning and managements in Nigeria as developing countries
Get your quality homework help now and stand out.Our professional writers are committed to excellence. We have trained the best scholars in different fields of study.Contact us now at premiumessays.net and place your order at affordable price done within set deadlines.We always have someone online ready to answer all your queries and take your requests.
The document introduces the concept of "One Resilience", which aims to promote optimal health and wellbeing through the integrated resilience of various security systems like health, food/water, energy, social, environmental, and disaster systems. It argues that emerging pandemic threats and disasters require holistic collaborative efforts beyond just the health sector. One Resilience would involve strategic integration of these interdependent systems to better address common problems through strengthened cross-system dependencies and synergies. Key proposed actions include elaborating the One Resilience framework, instituting measures to reduce pandemic/disaster risks and impacts through whole-of-society and whole-of-government approaches, strategically changing mindsets to eliminate sectoral silos, and
From institutions to governance, Part 2Victor Galaz
This document discusses the relationship between good governance and protecting vital ecosystems. It defines good governance according to the World Bank's indicators and examines how governance matters for outcomes like forest cover change and biodiversity. It then explores various "misfits" like temporal, spatial, thresholds, and cascading dynamics misfits that can occur between social and ecological systems. The document considers whether adaptive governance may help address these challenges and differences between governance, institutions, adaptive management, and adaptive co-management.
Extended Essay on Sustainable DevelopmentDaniel Cox
This document discusses the problems that policymakers in developing countries face when committing to sustainable development. It outlines that sustainable development has no clear definition and leaves actors unclear on key issues. Policymakers are left with dilemmas around issues like sustainability without growth, imposing sustainability requirements, and defining and preserving natural resources. The document suggests policymakers address sustainability through environmental policy, growth and redistribution, and social equity to achieve social, ecological and economic sustainability.
Andy Stirling: From Knowledge Economy to Innovation Democracy: collective act...STEPS Centre
ESRC STEPS Centre's Co-Director Professor Andy Stirling gave a keynote speech to European technology analysts at the European Commission's 'FTA 2014: future oriented technology analysis' conference in Brussels in November 2014.
Prof. Stirling's address is titled 'From Knowledge Economy to Innovation Democracy: collective action in the shaping of scientific and technological futures'
You can watch a video of this address and a short interview with Prof. Stirling at: http://steps-centre.org/2015/blog/stirlinginnovdemo
Presentation given by Lyla Mehta at World Water Week in Stockholm on August 21 2009, based STEPS Centre's projects. For more information see: http://www.steps-centre.org/index.html
This document provides an overview of the development of a Resilience in a Changing Climate Framework. It describes an analytical approach to understanding resilience that considers drivers of change, people's assets, and disaster risk management strategies. It also discusses concepts of resilience, including defining resilience as a system's capacity to anticipate, prepare for, respond to, learn from, and recover from shocks and stresses. The framework aims to help development practitioners and policymakers design interventions that promote resilience to climate change impacts. It is being developed through an iterative process informed by literature reviews on topics like disaster risk management, climate adaptation, and social protection programs.
Lecture 2. Adaptive governance and bridging organisations Victor Galaz
This document discusses adaptive governance and the role of bridging organizations at different scales. It provides three case studies:
1) Kristianstads Vattenrike in Sweden restored wetlands and habitats through a bridging organization that connected local actors and networks with regional, national, and international levels of governance.
2) The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority rezoned the Great Barrier Reef, increasing protected areas through bridging state and local actors and balancing ecosystem services.
3) The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources reduced illegal fishing in the Southern Ocean by bridging national governments and non-state actors to collaboratively manage fisheries.
6th International Disaster and Risk Conference IDRC 2016 Integrative Risk Management - Towards Resilient Cities. 28 August - 01 September 2016 in Davos, Switzerland
This document summarizes research on transformations for sustainability. It discusses the concepts of adaptability and transformability in social-ecological systems, and frameworks for understanding and navigating transformations across multiple scales from macro to micro. Case studies are presented on transformations in water management and coastal resource governance. Key aspects of preparing for transformation include identifying thresholds, networks, and overcoming barriers. Navigating transitions involves using windows of opportunity, maintaining flexibility, and fostering cross-scale interactions. Building resilience in new systems requires creating incentives for stewardship and mobilizing networks.
This document discusses different approaches to human ecology and their relation to disasters. It describes three main approaches: ecosystem approach, landscape approach, and perception approach.
The ecosystem approach focuses on interactions between organisms and their environment. It recognizes humans as integral parts of ecosystems. The landscape approach takes a holistic view of natural features, infrastructure, stakeholders, and external forces affecting an area. It facilitates inclusive risk assessment and planning.
The perception approach involves three stages: selection of sensory information, organization of information into patterns based on proximity, similarity, and difference, and interpretation to explain selections and organizations in a way that makes sense, influenced by both internal and external factors.
Aspects of Urban resilience.
Presented as part of the Nature Addicts workshop, in the context of Eleusis Cultural Capital of Europe 2021 in Eleusis May 23, 2017
This document summarizes an article that examines the political ecology of conservation and development territories. It defines key concepts like territory, territoriality, and territorialization. Territorialization refers to projects that use territorial strategies to create bounded spaces to control resources and people. The authors analyze how territorialization is a polycentric process with multiple actors involved, in contrast to the state-centric focus in previous literature. They show through case studies how the boundaries of territories are contested. The political ecology approach emphasizes interactions between human and natural factors at multiple scales over time.
Global crises and economic implicationsMartin de Wit
The document summarizes a lecture on understanding the global crises and their implications for economics. It outlines the impacts of the crises such as malnutrition, food riots, and child poverty. It examines various views on the causes including instrumental, structural, moral, and ontological perspectives. It discusses economic theories from mainstream and heterodox schools. It argues responses have missed elements like complexity, learning, and transitions. The conclusions call for a more inclusive economic-ecological theory that accounts for physical limits and innovation within complex, dynamic relationships between nature and humans.
Presented by Kinde Getnet, Nancy Johnson, Jemimah Njuki, Don Peden and Katherine Snyder at the Nile Basin Development Challenge Science and Reflection Workshop, Addis Ababa, 4-6 May 2011.
The document discusses the concept of sustainable rural livelihoods from various perspectives. It examines sustainability from an economic, ecological, and social lens. A sustainable livelihood is one that provides adequate resources and income to meet needs over time while maintaining the environment and social systems. The document outlines factors that determine rural livelihoods like birth, gender, and inheritance. It also discusses livelihood resources, strategies like agriculture intensification, diversification, and migration, and the outcomes of improved livelihood sustainability like increased income, reduced poverty and vulnerability, and protection of natural resources.
This document discusses sustainable development (SD). It provides three key points:
1) SD is defined as "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." It aims to balance environmental preservation, economic growth, and social welfare both currently and for future generations.
2) SD incorporates three pillars - environmental sustainability, economic sustainability, and sociopolitical sustainability. Environmental sustainability focuses on preserving natural resources, economic sustainability on maintaining economic growth, and sociopolitical sustainability on ensuring social equity.
3) Achieving true SD requires addressing market failures like externalities, undervaluation of natural capital, information asymmetry, and businesses prioritizing short-term gains
Towards Sustainability of Open Space’s Planning and Management in Nigeria: Ro...Agboola Paul
This paper critically explores the influencing roles plays by science and technology on evolving a sustainable environment integrated with appropriate open space planning and management. It identified and discussed the strategic imperatives for sustainable development, and recommends the need for the government of developing countries to initiate an effective policy formulation. The significance of the study hinged on efforts geared towards matching up with open space planning and managements in Nigeria as developing countries
Get your quality homework help now and stand out.Our professional writers are committed to excellence. We have trained the best scholars in different fields of study.Contact us now at premiumessays.net and place your order at affordable price done within set deadlines.We always have someone online ready to answer all your queries and take your requests.
The document introduces the concept of "One Resilience", which aims to promote optimal health and wellbeing through the integrated resilience of various security systems like health, food/water, energy, social, environmental, and disaster systems. It argues that emerging pandemic threats and disasters require holistic collaborative efforts beyond just the health sector. One Resilience would involve strategic integration of these interdependent systems to better address common problems through strengthened cross-system dependencies and synergies. Key proposed actions include elaborating the One Resilience framework, instituting measures to reduce pandemic/disaster risks and impacts through whole-of-society and whole-of-government approaches, strategically changing mindsets to eliminate sectoral silos, and
From institutions to governance, Part 2Victor Galaz
This document discusses the relationship between good governance and protecting vital ecosystems. It defines good governance according to the World Bank's indicators and examines how governance matters for outcomes like forest cover change and biodiversity. It then explores various "misfits" like temporal, spatial, thresholds, and cascading dynamics misfits that can occur between social and ecological systems. The document considers whether adaptive governance may help address these challenges and differences between governance, institutions, adaptive management, and adaptive co-management.
Extended Essay on Sustainable DevelopmentDaniel Cox
This document discusses the problems that policymakers in developing countries face when committing to sustainable development. It outlines that sustainable development has no clear definition and leaves actors unclear on key issues. Policymakers are left with dilemmas around issues like sustainability without growth, imposing sustainability requirements, and defining and preserving natural resources. The document suggests policymakers address sustainability through environmental policy, growth and redistribution, and social equity to achieve social, ecological and economic sustainability.
Andy Stirling: From Knowledge Economy to Innovation Democracy: collective act...STEPS Centre
ESRC STEPS Centre's Co-Director Professor Andy Stirling gave a keynote speech to European technology analysts at the European Commission's 'FTA 2014: future oriented technology analysis' conference in Brussels in November 2014.
Prof. Stirling's address is titled 'From Knowledge Economy to Innovation Democracy: collective action in the shaping of scientific and technological futures'
You can watch a video of this address and a short interview with Prof. Stirling at: http://steps-centre.org/2015/blog/stirlinginnovdemo
Presentation given by Lyla Mehta at World Water Week in Stockholm on August 21 2009, based STEPS Centre's projects. For more information see: http://www.steps-centre.org/index.html
The document analyzes water governance in coupled social-ecological systems in Namibia. It discusses how the social-ecological system in the Cuvelai-Etosha Basin has traditionally had a strong coupling between diverse livelihoods and variable natural conditions. However, political and economic changes are causing the system to transition. The concepts of resilience and governance in social-ecological systems are introduced, focusing on maintaining key functions and adapting to change through options and alternatives. Governance structures that foster resilience acknowledge uncertainty, include different knowledge types, and allow for locally developed solutions through polycentric and multilayered structures.
The document summarizes a presentation about understanding social systems transitions and transition management strategies. It discusses analyzing complex social systems, transition dynamics involving fundamental shifts across multiple levels over time, and a transition management approach to influence transitions through visioning, experimentation, and multi-actor governance.
Melissa Leach - Imagining and negotiating pathways in an age of anxiety and i...STEPS Centre
Talk by Melissa Leach, STEPS Director, at the conference ‘Modelling Futures: Understanding risk and uncertainty’ on 28-30 September.
http://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/events/1133
Ways Forward in Efforts to Ameliorate Climate Change EffectsSIANI
This study was presented during the conference “Production and Carbon Dynamics in Sustainable Agricultural and Forest Systems in Africa” held in September, 2010.
This document discusses the core design criteria for sustainable and resilient cities, including sustainability, resilience, liveability, adaptability, and being smart. It advocates for a systems approach and methodology for engineering cities that involves mapping interdependent urban systems, developing alternative solutions, assessing impacts, and conducting futures analysis to create interventions that can adapt to future changes. The document also lists several UK research facilities and programs focused on infrastructure and urban systems.
The document discusses transitions towards sustainable development. It notes that persistent problems like climate change require fundamental changes to societal systems, structures, cultures and practices (transitions). Transition management is presented as an approach to facilitate such transitions through long-term envisioning, multi-actor collaboration, experimentation and focusing on learning and innovation. Examples of transition processes in waste management, energy and other domains are provided.
Mitigation Of What And By What PresentationfinalLn Perch
This document summarizes and critiques current global efforts to address climate change through mitigation and adaptation policies and financing. It finds that approaches have focused more on large-scale actions and economic transfers between countries than micro-level impacts and social dimensions of climate change. Efforts have also prioritized mitigation over adaptation and favored large projects over small-scale and community-based approaches. As a result, the most vulnerable populations have had limited inclusion in policy frameworks and access to climate financing. The document calls for a more socially inclusive and people-centered conceptual framework to achieve a reasonable balance of equity in the global response to climate change.
This document provides an overview of the key concepts in sustainability assessment as presented in an introductory module developed by Prof. A. Lapkin of the University of Cambridge. It discusses definitions of sustainability from the 18th century focusing on sustainable forestry and traces the evolution of thinking on sustainability through the industrial revolution and enlightenment period. Key milestones discussed include the 1987 Brundtland Commission report which operationalized sustainable development around meeting needs, investing, technology, and institutions. The document also introduces stakeholders in sustainability assessment.
This document provides an overview of sustainability and sustainable development concepts from their origins in the 18th century through modern definitions and frameworks. It discusses early mentions of sustainability in relation to forestry management. Key periods and thinkers discussed include the Enlightenment, Marx, and the emergence of ideas around a global knowledge sphere. The Brundtland Commission report in 1987 is highlighted for providing an influential operational definition linking development, environment and equality. The document outlines stakeholder groups and goals of sustainability assessment, emphasizing a life cycle approach. Key concepts like footprint, costs, and useful function are also introduced.
Sustainability science aims to integrate knowledge from different disciplines to address complex environmental and social problems, in contrast to traditional science which focuses on individual disciplines. It emphasizes co-producing knowledge with stakeholders, addressing real-world problems, and finding holistic solutions through systems thinking. The document discusses challenges with traditional approaches and how sustainability science facilitates more interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research to better understand human-environment interactions.
Opening speech at the launch of www.buildingmelbourne.com, an initiative to accelerate the transition of Melbourne into the most liveable and sustainable city.
The document discusses the role of individuals and behavior change in meeting climate change targets. It examines two examples - reducing household waste through public engagement in Hampshire, and reducing energy use in public buildings through the Display Energy Cities campaign. Both examples showed that a partnership approach using deliberative public engagement and learning can facilitate behavior changes needed to achieve environmental goals.
Systems Thinking in Practice - an Open University showcasedtr4open
Presentation details the Open University's Systems Thinking in Practice Masters programme along with examples of practice from STiP Alumni as showcased at the UK Public Sector Show April 2013.
Community perspectives on sustainability and resilience within a social ecolo...Alex Webb
Thesis defense presenting results from social science research project examining community knowledge and perspectives related to coupled human and natural systems or social-ecological systems dynamics in St. Thomas, USVI.
Similar to Melissa Leach: Pathways to Sustainability: Environmental social science and justice in a complex, dynamic age (20)
This document outlines a variety of methods that can be used to scope issues broadly, focus on particularities in depth, and link relations and perspectives across contexts. It provides a repertoire of methods that can help appreciate alternative pathways, including interpretive, interactive, and group deliberative styles as well as techniques like critical literature reviews, in-depth case studies, discourse analysis, and participatory approaches.
Coloniality in Transformation: decolonising methods for activist scholarship ...STEPS Centre
Presentation by Andy Stirling to 2021 Transformations to Sustainability conference session on '‘Philosophical Underpinnings’ in decolonizing research methods for transformation towards sustainability', 17th June 2021
Opening up the politics of justification in maths for policy: power and uncer...STEPS Centre
Presentation by Andy Stirling to conference of INET in collaboration with OECD on ‘Forecasting the Future for Sustainable Development: approaches to modelling and the science of prediction’. 16th June 2021
Discussion: The Future of the World is Mobile - Giorgia GiovannettiSTEPS Centre
By Giorgia Giovannetti, University of Firenze and Robert Schuman Centre, EUI. Given at EUI on 10 April 2019.
https://steps-centre.org/event/the-future-of-the-world-is-mobile-what-can-we-learn-from-pastoralists/
Interfacing pastoral movements and modern mobilitiesSTEPS Centre
By Michele Nori, PASTRES (Pastoralism, Uncertainty, Resilience) project. Given at EUI on 10 April 2019.
https://steps-centre.org/event/the-future-of-the-world-is-mobile-what-can-we-learn-from-pastoralists/
Reconceiving migration through the study of pastoral mobilitySTEPS Centre
By Natasha Maru, PASTRES (Pastoralism, Uncertainty, Resilience) project. Given at EUI on 10 April 2019.
https://steps-centre.org/event/the-future-of-the-world-is-mobile-what-can-we-learn-from-pastoralists/
Bringing moral economy into the study of land deals: reflections from MadagascarSTEPS Centre
19 March 2019, Institute of Development Studies
Seminar organised by the Resource Politics and Rural Futures Clusters, in association with the STEPS Centre’s PASTRES project
Speaker: Mathilde Gingembre
https://steps-centre.org/event/steps-seminar-mathilde-gingembre-bringing-moral-economy-into-the-study-of-land-deals-reflections-from-madagascar/
Agency and social-ecological system (SES) pathways: the Transformation Lab in...STEPS Centre
Presentation by J. Mario Siqueiros, February 2019, at a STEPS Seminar at the Institute of Development Studies.
More information: https://steps-centre.org/project/pathways-network/
From controlled transition to caring transformations - StirlingSTEPS Centre
This document discusses the differences between "controlling transitions" and "caring transformations" when addressing issues like climate change. It argues that ideas of control are part of the problem and that controlled transition does not equal real transformation. Caring for transformation instead of control could mean culturing transformation through myriad grassroots actions that challenge power and are driven by solidarity, values and hope rather than singular theories and top-down control. True transformation is shaped by unruly diversity rather than imposed order and expertise.
Systems, change and growth - Huff and BrockSTEPS Centre
Presentation from week 1 of the System Change HIVE that outlines big ideas about the environment and some criticisms of capitalism.
http://systemchangehive.org/
STEPS Annual Lecture 2017: Achim Steiner - Doomed to fail or bound to succeed...STEPS Centre
Achim Steiner, incoming UNDP director, gave the STEPS Annual lecture at the University of Sussex on 15 May 2017. Find out more: https://steps-centre.org/event/steps-annual-lecture-achim-steiner/
Andy Stirling - nexus methods (RGS 2016)STEPS Centre
This document discusses the concept of "nexus thinking" across multiple domains and topics. It makes several key points:
1) Nexus thinking spans across different silos and considers connections between domains like food, water, energy, climate, and development.
2) Framing of nexus issues applies at every level and transcends place, space, and scale. Different framings lead to different understandings and potential solutions.
3) Nexus thinking recognizes the entanglement of objective conditions and subjective actors, and highlights the role of power and politics in knowledge production.
Andy Stirling - STEPS Centre 'Pathways Methods'STEPS Centre
The document outlines the STEPS Centre 'Pathways Methods' for helping appreciate alternative pathways. It summarizes the methods as follows:
1. The methods aim to catalyze more open political space by broadening out discussions beyond incumbent 'pro-innovation' views and opening up consideration of marginalized interests and alternative pathways.
2. The methodology involves engaging actors, exploring narratives, characterizing dynamics, and revealing strategies through a repertoire of participatory and deliberative methods.
3. A case study applying these methods in Kenya found surprising optimism for alternative crops but farmer preference for local maize varieties, showing how the methods can surface plural perspectives on pathways.
This document provides an overview of a presentation given by Andy Stirling on 'Nexus Methods' at the ESRC Methods Festival. It discusses the complex and interconnected nature of issues related to the food-water-energy nexus. It notes that while there are many quantitative and qualitative methods that can be applied to nexus issues, they all involve subjective framings and no single method can capture the full complexity. The presentation advocates a reflexive approach that acknowledges the conditional nature of knowledge and assessment in this domain.
Suresh Rohilla - Climate change and sanitation, water resourcesSTEPS Centre
Workshop on climate change and uncertainty from below and above, Delhi. http://steps-centre.org/2016/blog/climate-change-and-uncertainty-from-above-and-below/
Suraje Dessai - Uncertainty from above and encounters in the middleSTEPS Centre
Workshop on climate change and uncertainty from below and above, Delhi. http://steps-centre.org/2016/blog/climate-change-and-uncertainty-from-above-and-below/
Sumetee Pahwa Gajjar - Uncertainty from withinSTEPS Centre
Workshop on climate change and uncertainty from below and above, Delhi. http://steps-centre.org/2016/blog/climate-change-and-uncertainty-from-above-and-below/
Shibaji Bose - Voices from below - a Photo Voice exploration in Indian sundar...STEPS Centre
Workshop on climate change and uncertainty from below and above, Delhi. http://steps-centre.org/2016/blog/climate-change-and-uncertainty-from-above-and-below/
Chapter wise All Notes of First year Basic Civil Engineering.pptxDenish Jangid
Chapter wise All Notes of First year Basic Civil Engineering
Syllabus
Chapter-1
Introduction to objective, scope and outcome the subject
Chapter 2
Introduction: Scope and Specialization of Civil Engineering, Role of civil Engineer in Society, Impact of infrastructural development on economy of country.
Chapter 3
Surveying: Object Principles & Types of Surveying; Site Plans, Plans & Maps; Scales & Unit of different Measurements.
Linear Measurements: Instruments used. Linear Measurement by Tape, Ranging out Survey Lines and overcoming Obstructions; Measurements on sloping ground; Tape corrections, conventional symbols. Angular Measurements: Instruments used; Introduction to Compass Surveying, Bearings and Longitude & Latitude of a Line, Introduction to total station.
Levelling: Instrument used Object of levelling, Methods of levelling in brief, and Contour maps.
Chapter 4
Buildings: Selection of site for Buildings, Layout of Building Plan, Types of buildings, Plinth area, carpet area, floor space index, Introduction to building byelaws, concept of sun light & ventilation. Components of Buildings & their functions, Basic concept of R.C.C., Introduction to types of foundation
Chapter 5
Transportation: Introduction to Transportation Engineering; Traffic and Road Safety: Types and Characteristics of Various Modes of Transportation; Various Road Traffic Signs, Causes of Accidents and Road Safety Measures.
Chapter 6
Environmental Engineering: Environmental Pollution, Environmental Acts and Regulations, Functional Concepts of Ecology, Basics of Species, Biodiversity, Ecosystem, Hydrological Cycle; Chemical Cycles: Carbon, Nitrogen & Phosphorus; Energy Flow in Ecosystems.
Water Pollution: Water Quality standards, Introduction to Treatment & Disposal of Waste Water. Reuse and Saving of Water, Rain Water Harvesting. Solid Waste Management: Classification of Solid Waste, Collection, Transportation and Disposal of Solid. Recycling of Solid Waste: Energy Recovery, Sanitary Landfill, On-Site Sanitation. Air & Noise Pollution: Primary and Secondary air pollutants, Harmful effects of Air Pollution, Control of Air Pollution. . Noise Pollution Harmful Effects of noise pollution, control of noise pollution, Global warming & Climate Change, Ozone depletion, Greenhouse effect
Text Books:
1. Palancharmy, Basic Civil Engineering, McGraw Hill publishers.
2. Satheesh Gopi, Basic Civil Engineering, Pearson Publishers.
3. Ketki Rangwala Dalal, Essentials of Civil Engineering, Charotar Publishing House.
4. BCP, Surveying volume 1
বাংলাদেশের অর্থনৈতিক সমীক্ষা ২০২৪ [Bangladesh Economic Review 2024 Bangla.pdf] কম্পিউটার , ট্যাব ও স্মার্ট ফোন ভার্সন সহ সম্পূর্ণ বাংলা ই-বুক বা pdf বই " সুচিপত্র ...বুকমার্ক মেনু 🔖 ও হাইপার লিংক মেনু 📝👆 যুক্ত ..
আমাদের সবার জন্য খুব খুব গুরুত্বপূর্ণ একটি বই ..বিসিএস, ব্যাংক, ইউনিভার্সিটি ভর্তি ও যে কোন প্রতিযোগিতা মূলক পরীক্ষার জন্য এর খুব ইম্পরট্যান্ট একটি বিষয় ...তাছাড়া বাংলাদেশের সাম্প্রতিক যে কোন ডাটা বা তথ্য এই বইতে পাবেন ...
তাই একজন নাগরিক হিসাবে এই তথ্য গুলো আপনার জানা প্রয়োজন ...।
বিসিএস ও ব্যাংক এর লিখিত পরীক্ষা ...+এছাড়া মাধ্যমিক ও উচ্চমাধ্যমিকের স্টুডেন্টদের জন্য অনেক কাজে আসবে ...
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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What sets Denis apart is his comprehensive understanding of Business and Systems Analysis technologies, honed through involvement in all phases of the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC). From meticulous requirements gathering to precise analysis, innovative design, rigorous development, thorough testing, and successful implementation, he has consistently delivered exceptional results.
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Date: May 29, 2024
Tags: Information Security, ISO/IEC 27001, ISO/IEC 42001, Artificial Intelligence, GDPR
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Walmart Business+ and Spark Good for Nonprofits.pdfTechSoup
"Learn about all the ways Walmart supports nonprofit organizations.
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The webinar may also give some examples on how nonprofits can best leverage Walmart Business+.
The event will cover the following::
Walmart Business + (https://business.walmart.com/plus) is a new shopping experience for nonprofits, schools, and local business customers that connects an exclusive online shopping experience to stores. Benefits include free delivery and shipping, a 'Spend Analytics” feature, special discounts, deals and tax-exempt shopping.
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Spark Good (walmart.com/sparkgood) is a charitable platform that enables nonprofits to receive donations directly from customers and associates.
Answers about how you can do more with Walmart!"
Main Java[All of the Base Concepts}.docxadhitya5119
This is part 1 of my Java Learning Journey. This Contains Custom methods, classes, constructors, packages, multithreading , try- catch block, finally block and more.
How to Make a Field Mandatory in Odoo 17Celine George
In Odoo, making a field required can be done through both Python code and XML views. When you set the required attribute to True in Python code, it makes the field required across all views where it's used. Conversely, when you set the required attribute in XML views, it makes the field required only in the context of that particular view.
This presentation includes basic of PCOS their pathology and treatment and also Ayurveda correlation of PCOS and Ayurvedic line of treatment mentioned in classics.
2. Environmental challenges Rapid environmental change Complex dynamics Interlocked crises and ‘perfect storms’? (Beddington 2009) Scientific, policy and public concern – and politicisation ‘A new climate for society’ (and social science)? (Jasanoff 2010)
3. In a (more) unequal world – across multiple (land)scapes Social, economic and political change – mobility and interconnection (at least for some), instabilities New complexion to core development challenges Poverty, inequity, (in)justice Shifting geographies of power and privilege, emergent social hierarchies Shifting governance scapes
4. How might pathways to sustainability – that link environmental integrity with social justice – be conceptualised and built – in a complex, dynamic world?
5. A timely moment? UNCED 1992 a landmark for environmental policy and politics (Convention processes, Agenda 21) – and environmental social science ‘Rio Plus 20 Earth Summit’ – social science ideas, concepts, agendas, engagements? ‘green economy’, ‘institutional framework for sustainable development’
7. Contradictions Growing recognition of complexity and dynamism – intercoupled social, ecological, technological systems; non-linear, cross-scale dynamics; uncertainties Growing recognition of diverse knowledges and ways of knowing, values, perspectives, priorities Growing search for technical-managerial solutions premised on a far more static, consensual view of the world – solvable problems, achievable stability, controllable risks ……A mismatch - cycles of ‘failure’ as dynamics undermine assumptions of stability; emerging backlashes from nature, politics; mires of disagreement; those who are already vulnerable and marginal often lose out
8. Sustainability A contested term with a history From 1712 forestry usage to wider currency in the 1980s Linking of environmental questions to mainstream issues of economy and development: ‘Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’ (Brundtland 1987) Vibrant, committed debate at and around Rio 1992: economics and political science, broad and narrow, strong and weak, top-down and community-defined…. Technical meanings co-constructed with different visions for how sustainability should be achieved Through 1990s, growth in planning approaches, frameworks, measurement indicators, audit systems, evaluation protocols – managerialism and bureaucratisation Discrediting of ‘sustainability’? (empty rhetoric, failure of managerialism, conservatism, inadequacy of institutional and policy machinery) Yet sustainability is the ‘keyword’ for Rio plus 20 amidst complex environment-development challenges – more of the same?
9. Towards a normative, politicised perspective on sustainability Beyond generalised, colloquial notions (maintenance of system properties in a general sense) Beyond broad and static normative connotations of Brundtland – focused on notions of (poor people’s) ‘needs’ and environmental ‘limits’ To address specified qualities of human wellbeing, social equity and environmental integrity – as they relate to dynamic environments Normative concern with those properties that assist reductions in poverty and social injustice – as defined by/for particular people, contexts and settings Multiple, contested sustainabilities to be defined and deliberated for particular issues and groups E.g. African seed systems amidst climate-change related drought – sustainability in relation to national food security? Livelihoods of dryland farmers? Women’s or men’s crop varieties and control? Sustainability as a discursive resource to facilitate argument and action about diverse pathways to different futures
10. A systems perspective environment System: Social, institutional, ecological and technological elements interacting In dynamic ways ‘system’
16. - Notions of relevant experienceFramings: Different ways of understanding or representing a system and its relevant environment
17. Narratives Framings often become part of narratives – underlying storylines Produced by people and institutions Beginning – a system, framed Imaginary - futures desired or feared (what ideas, possibilities, values, goals?) Middle – a set of envisaged actions Construction of publics – who will act, who will change their behaviour, respond End – catastrophe averted, outcome achieved, ‘sustainability’ enhanced
19. Narrative examples Energy and climate: ‘The challenges of dealing with climate change and energy security can only be dealt with through large scale, centralized systems like carbon capture and new nuclear build’ ‘Appropriate reductions in carbon emissions are achievable by small scale, distributed innovations in technology, institutions and user behaviour, such as in smart grids, efficient use and micro-generation’. Food (e.g. East Africa): ‘Growing food deficits require massive boosts to agricultural productivity – modern plant breeding and genetic engineering can deliver solutions which need to be rolled out at scale’ ‘Food insecurities are diverse and shaped by ecological, market, social and institutional contexts, requiring socio-technical solutions in which farmer knowledge and local innovations have central roles to play’
20. Water (e.g. dryland India): ‘Major water scarcities are developing and undermining economic development; therefore the construction of large dams and investment in the infrastructure for water delivery must take place’ ‘Water scarcities are often human induced by the greed and mismanagement of elites; for farmers and pastoralists maintaining livelihoods amidst uncertainties must be central, and can draw on local knowledge and historically-embedded practices’
21. Strategies and dynamics style of action control respond shock (transient disruption) STABILITY RESILIENCE temporality of change stress (enduring shift) DURABILITY ROBUSTNESS
22. Dealing with water resources in dryland India: Strategies and dynamics style of action control respond shock (transient disruption) STABILITY RESILIENCE Adaptive responses and interventions geared to floods and droughts (e.g. crop mixes, mobility, water harvesting) ; local knowledge, culturally-embedded practices Control of short-term supply variability through dams, pumps and pipes temporality of change Response to long-term shifts in water supply and use (e.g. changes in land use, agricultural practices, livelihoods); variegated, flexible institutional and engineering arrangements Engineering solutions geared to long-term shifts in rainfall and hydrology (e.g. margins, reduced water levels) stress (enduring shift) DURABILITY ROBUSTNESS
23. style of action control respond STABILITY RESILIENCE STABILITY RESILIENCE temporality of change SUSTAINABILITY stress (enduring shift) DURABILITY ROBUSTNESS DURABILITY ROBUSTNESS
24. Pathways For any issue, we might identify an array of narratives For each narrative, we might ask: Who are the actors? How is the system and goals for change framed? Which dynamic properties and strategies for dealing with them are prioritised? Some narratives justify and become interlocked with powerful pathways – particular directions in which systems change over time Alternative narratives, hidden narratives, exclusions…. Constructing pathways to sustainability requires recognition and deliberation amongst multiple narratives and possible pathways
25. Governance Narratives and pathways co-constructed with governance Intersections of power, politics and institutions, including power-knowledge Shape which come to dominate, and which remain marginalised Often leads to ‘lock-in’ to particular powerful narrative and associated pathway, to the exclusion of others
26. Governance and pathways to sustainability From government to networked, multi-levelled governance Participatory governance Governance in practice Politics of nature and technology Political cultures and contexts Politics of knowledge Governmentalities (environmentalities) Important to understand how ‘lock-in’ happens… and how it might be averted
27. The politics of ‘closing down’ Towards singular narratives and pathways Towards stability-focused interventions style of action control response shock (transient disruption) STABILITY RESILIENCE POWER DYNAMICS temporality of change stress (enduring shift) DURABILITY ROBUSTNESS
28. Governance pressures towards stability-focused interventions Incumbent institutions tend to favour strategies which preserve the status quo – and uphold political interests Deeply rooted ideas about equilibrium Institutionalisation of routine responses Financial and economic backing Professional, disciplinary and cognitive pressures Media and popular knowledge Disciplining and transformation of subjectivities
29. From closing down to opening up Meeting sustainability challenges will require: Moving beyond singular views of ‘the problem’ and ‘progress’, to recognise multiple possible goals and values and their contestation; Moving beyond stability/control to embrace strategies that respond to ongoing change, with respect to sustaining the flows and benefits valued by particular groups Challenge dominant narratives/pathways; highlight alternatives
30. Climate change, drought and maize in Kenya Understanding and challenging ‘lock in’ to the dominant pathway – breeding and commercialization of drought-tolerant maize, geared to ‘resilience in the seed’, towards farm and national food security goals Opening up to alternative pathways – especially for ‘low potential’ areas (e.g. Sakai), geared to resilience of farming livelihoods
31. Multiple pathways – in and out of maize Local maize varieties predominate and are highly valued Important but under-recognised role of seed selectors In future – some farmers want drought tolerant maize varieties But many farmers are trying to move out of maize and into other crops – dryland staples and horticultural crops
32. Multiple pathways –in and out of maize Low Maize High Maize 1 – Alternative dryland staples for subsistence 3 – local improvement of local maize Low- External Input High- External Input 2 – Alternative dryland staples for market 5 – Assisted seed multiplication of maize 4 – Assisted seed multiplication of alternative dryland staples 6 – Individual high-value crop commercialization 8 – Commercial delivery of new DT maize varieties 7 – Group-based high-value crop commercialization 9 – Public delivery of new DT maize varieties
33. Towards a politics for sustainability Governance approaches: Deliberative, Reflexive Designs – roles for new appraisal tools and methods Political engagement – influencing policy processes and effecting policy change; citizen mobilisation, network and alliance-building shaping information and communication flows in a multi-media knowledge landscape Reflexive research engagements in which we take our positionality seriously May involve antagonistic confrontation and challenge as well as consensus-building
35. Areas for discussion – and further worktowards Rio plus 20 and beyond Contesting and governing sustainabilities: multi-level, deliberative, adaptive, and movement-based approaches – and beyond Framing and narratives: ensuring practical connections with questions of justice, material political economy and ecology Dynamics and sustainability: navigating complexities, transitions and transformations, natural science engagements Addressing ‘big picture’ environmental concerns and analysis without doing violence to the richness and diversity of people’s experiences Grounding concepts and approaches in diverse issues and contexts: Climate change, water, agriculture, forests, fisheries, urban and peri-urban environments
I will start with a basic problem of mismatch. This is NOT between ‘business as usual’ capitalist economic growth and development vs. aspirations to ‘greenness’ and sustainability – and to that extent this talk is preaching to the already converted that the latter is important – but between environmental ‘business as usual’ and emergent understandings of the world. For while there is a growing recognition of complexity and dynamism – intercoupled social, ecological, technological systems; non-linear, cross-scale dynamics; uncertaintiesGrowing recognition of diverse knowledges and ways of knowing, values, perspectives, prioritiesWe also see in many quarters a growing search for technical-managerial solutions premised on a far more static, consensual view of the world – solvable problems, achievable stability, controllable risks……A mismatch - cycles of ‘failure’ as dynamics undermine assumptions of stability; emerging backlashes from nature, politics; mires of disagreement; those who are already vulnerable and marginal often lose out What are building blocks and emphases of pathways approach in addressing these contradictions?
The first building block is a way of thinking about sustainability.This is a term with a history, moving from its first use in an environmental context in 1712 to until the 1980swhen ‘sustainability’ came into much wider currency. With the birth of the contemporary environmental movement in the late 1960s and 70s, and debates about the ‘Limits to Growth’ (Meadows, 1972), environmentalists were keen to show how environmental issues could be linked to mainstream questions of development. The commission chaired by GroBrundtland, became the focal point for this debate in the mid-1980s, culminating in the landmark report ‘Our Common Future’ in 1987 (Brundtland, 1987). This offered the now classic modern definition of sustainable development: From the 1980s there was an explosion of academic debate about these issues, as the terms were projected onto the centre stage of policy debates globally, particularly in the run-up to Rio in 1992. By the 1990s, then, we had multiple versions of sustainability: broad and narrow, strong and weak, and more. Different technical meanings were constructed alongside different visions of how the wider project of sustainable development should be conceived. Each competed with each other in a vibrant, if confusing, debate. But how would all this intense debate translate into practical policy and action on the ground? The 1990s saw an exponential growth in planning approaches, analysis frameworks, measurement indicators, audit systems and evaluation protocols which were to help governments, businesses, communities and individuals make sustainability real. But the simplistic managerialism of many initiatives labelled ‘sustainable development’ left much to be desired , and meanwhile many Rio targets went unmet. This has led to a discrediting of sustainability in many quarters. It is now the keyword for Rio plus 20; will this be more of the same?
I suggest no – there are clear opportunities to insert it into research, policy discourse and practice in new ways. But this will require ‘sustainability’ to shed its managerial pretensions and be recognised as a political term.This in turn requires more concrete clarification of what is meant by sustainability. beyond colloquial usage in which ‘sustainability’ simply refers to being ‘capable of being maintained at a certain rate or level’ - inherently conservative and not dynamic. But also beyond the usage in the post-Brundtland, post Agenda 21 debates on sustainability, where the usage is normative, referring to a broadly identifiable, but often poorly specified, set of social, environmental and economic values. We go further, to distinguish amongst normative views of sustainability, recognizing that there are multiple sustainabilities which need to be defined quite precisely for particular issues and groups, relating to the particular properties, flows of goods and services, and goals that they value. Thus – and to introduce an example I will pick up later – amidst CC related drought, is sustainability of farming and seed systems to be defined in relation to national food security? Livelihoods of dryland farmers? Or gender justice – related to women’s and men’s crop varieties and control? Rhetorical appeals to sustainability can be, and often are, used to obscure complex or contested interpretations and interests around such particular versions of sustainability. Digging beneath such rhetoric, and uncovering particular interpretations and their links with particular goals and interests, is a key task. In this way sustainability becomes a contested, discursive resource – that facilitates argument about diverse pathways to different futures. This brings sustainability firmly into the realm of the political, where debates around ‘justice’, ‘democracy’ and ‘citizenship’ have been for centuries.
But central to the pathways approach is the addition of a reflexive dimension, drawing on methodological constructivism in the social sciences. That is to recognise that there are multiple ways of understanding and representing a system; and that all analysis of a system involves framing.Framing involves not just choices about which elements to highlight, and how to bound the system, at what scale, but also subjective and value judgements. Such framings are produced by particular actors – whether different local people, scientific, policy or business actors, and co-constituted with their particular institutional, political and life settings.
Let us look briefly at some stylised examples.In the case of energy – there are different narratives around how to move to a low carbon economy; from government departments, electicity utilities, regulators and asosciated professionals one often hears the first bounding the system nationally, with the goal of delivering centralised energy to passive consumers; while from govt environment departments, renewable energy producers and certain NGOs among others one hears the second, adopting a more local framing, with a diversity of distributed options linking producers with more active consumers.Or in the case of food in East Africa, seed companies, certain plan biotechnology firms and funders and government departments often frame the system and goals at a national scale, focused on crop productivity increases – vs. an alternative narrative, associated with certain farmers, NGOs, agricultural researchers and social scientists, emphasises diverse context-specific responses towards sustainable farming livelihoods
Or a water example – drawing on with apologies for stylisation Lyla Mehta’s rich work in dryland Gujarat - where narratives not only frame the system and goals differently, but allot culpability for ‘the problem’ in contrasting ways – certain politicians, engineers and elites stressing ‘nature’ or perhaps aggregate population, in contrast with the alternative narratives of dryland farmers and pastoralists, certain researchers and NGOs who stress the manufacture of scarcity by greedy elites – in contrasting ways.Of course in practice, narratives are often much more varied and diverse, and complicated – and often implicit, tacit, buried – but digging them out and unpacking them is itself a revealing exercise.How do different narratives prioritise and approach the inherent dynamics of the systems they address?
As in these examples, narratives about actions aiming to promote sustainability involve assumptions about the nature, or ‘temporalities’, of changes – are these seen as short-term shocks or long-term stresses? And the styles of actions that are envisaged. Is the aim to control the causes or drivers of change, or to respond to them? - reflecting the distinction between more conventional control-oriented management and responsive, adaptive management.Thus we might ask, within any given narrative: are intervention strategies aimed at exercising control in order to resist shocks (stability)? Or is there an acknowledgement that there may be limits to control, and thus that interventions should resist shocks in a more responsive fashion (resilience)? In other circumstances, the system may be subject to important stresses, driving long run-shifts. In this case, interventions might attempt to control the potential changes – aiming at durability. Alternatively, embracing both the limits to control and an openness to enduring shifts would suggest strategies aimed at robustness. These are important practical distinctions that are often elided or ignored in existing analysis for policy-making on sustainability.
Unpacking them is important, because these properties suggest very different strategies. Thus in the case of dealing with water shortages in dryland India, one can see different narratives clustering around these different properties and associated strategies:Thus short-term shocks have been responded to through engineering systems with an emphasis on water control through dams, pipes and pumps. The definition of sustainability therefore is centred on the maintenance of stability of supply. However increasingly, water supply engineers and managers are having to confront long-term secular shifts in rainfall and hydrological patterns as a result of climate change. Again, control-oriented strategies are linking engineering solutions to long-term predictions of climate-related stresses – for instance building dam infrastructures with margins to accommodate extra water or to operate with less – for durability. In many instances, though, the tractability of the drivers affecting water supply and hydrology is understood to be limited, requiring more response-oriented strategies geared to resilience in the face of droughts or floods. These might include building on local understandings, techniques and technologies – such as tank systems, water harvesting and so on, or strategies for pastoral mobility or inter-annual shifts in crop mixes. Water engineering for resilience requires inbuilt flexibility, and an ability to manage flows in a responsive and adaptive manner. Strategies to ensure robustness of water supply for users would need to respond to long term changes in water supply and its use – for instance through longer-term shifts in land use, in agricultural practices, in crop types and varieties, and in the overall dependence on rain-fed agriculture in people’s livelihood portfolios. This is a live area of debate and experimentation in India and beyond.
These four properties may therefore be seen as individually necessary and collectively sufficient elements of sustainability. ‘Sustainable solutions’ are thus those that offer stability, durability, resilience and robustness in specified qualities of human well-being, social equity and environmental quality. Yet the relative emphasis on each of these dynamic properties of sustainability will also depend on how the system is framed (its structures, elements and relationships), and on the associated policy goals and objectives. Analysis for sustainability thus involves more than just a technical assessment of the dynamic properties of stability, durability, resilience and robustness. We must ask: What is the system? What are its purposes, functions and meanings? What is to be sustained and for whom? Resilience or robustness of what exactly? Who is to define each of these things and how? All such aspects are inevitably contested.
Closing down in two senses: towards singular narratives and pathwaysAnd towards a focus on stability, whereby ‘the problem’ and possible solutions come to be seen in terms of controlling shocks to maintain a stable situation – leaving other properties are left unaddressed or underplayed. We see this in many of our cases.
A range of institutional and political-economic pressures is involved in encouraging such ‘drift’. Perhaps most fundamentally, power dynamics inevitably encourage and enable incumbent institutions to pursue strategies that maintain the status quo. A focus on planned equilibrium, emphasising stability, relates to deeply-rooted styles of thinking and cultural about ‘balance’ in human-nature relations as a normal and desirable state. Yet it is the ways in which ideas and discourses about stability and equilibrium become cemented into bureaucratic, administrative and institutional practices and routines that make them so ‘sticky’. Such ideas in turn can acquire powerful political-economic backing – as in the Indian case where planned equilibrium is supported by the dam-building industrialists, politicians and the particular elite farmers who stand to benefit from such water control-oriented approaches. As Mehta (2005) describes vividly for the Kutch area, these processes interplay powerfully with popular knowledge and subjectification amongst residents who have embraced the litany of a water scarce region that will be ‘saved’ by a dam as a means of expressing their sense of the area’s political marginalisation.
There are multiple alternative pathways which differ in a number of ways; relative reliance on maize and low or high input – but also in their value, feasibility and implications for socially-differentiated farmers, in relation to criteria that are important to them.Opening-up means making explicit such alternatives, who they might work for any why, and to expose and debate these – in this project’s case through a variety of means, from deliberative fora to appraisal methods to the use of video to expose those in power to farmers’ realities.
Thus in thinking about and acting on opening-up, we have been experimenting with governance approaches, drawing insights from various approaches to deliberative and reflexive governanceWe have had a major stream of work on designs, exploring roles for new appraisal tools and methods – such as participatory MCM that has been used to good effect with farmers and policy actors in the Kenya maize caseBut a politics for sustainability also involves practical political engagement: two areas we have particularly focused on include influencing policy processes , within a conception of these as non-linear and involving discourses, actors and interests;And addressing scope for citizen action and engagement of various kinds in different contexts – and how micro-movements may link through networks into broader pushes for change.And – relating to our communications work – contributing to the shaping of information and communication flows in a multi-media knowledge landscape.Part of this opening-up is also reflexivity amongst ourselves as researchers on our own positionality and the ways in which our knowledge-making might engage progressively with political processes, recognising that this may involve confrontation as well as consensus
So this brings me to a final, but large and very relevant, question for us and for this conference – what kinds of knowledge-making are important, and who are they for? How should environmental social science orientate itself amidst wider practices of knowledge making and communication in society? Here I draw on a schema proposed by sociologist Michael Burawoy in 2005, which recognises four distinct types of knowledge-making – which he calls sociology, and for our purposes we might term environmental social science - which would answer these questions in very different ways.One type of knowledge is for instrumental purposes, whether to inform and solve puzzles for academic audiences (professionalized knowledge-making) or to solve problems for policy-makers, practitioners or groups of activists (policy knowledge-making). In recent years there has been much discussion about how to engage research more effectively with this policy dimension, transferring instrumental knowledge from professional academic settings to those in which it might have influence and generate IMPACT – the buzzword of the moment in the cash-strapped UK community and beyond. These include considerable investments in information services, as well as approaches for ‘getting research into use’. Yet such approaches often fail to problematize questions of framing and wider challenges of subjectivity and reflexivity in knowledge-making and translation. They often slip into the trap of assuming a linear relationship between research and intervention whereby ‘evidence’ is all that is needed to inform and change policy, or indeed guide activist movements. Yet as our pathways approach emphasises, reflexivity and dialogue about goals and values needs to be central to all processes of knowledge-making. This points to the importance of reflexive knowledge-making which engages critically with the foundations and directions of academic research (critical knowledge-making), and articulates with the wider public sphere (public knowledge-making). A new environmental social science – and a new science for sustainability – needs, I suggest, to encompass all of these, and to be able to move nimbly amongst them.Seen in this way, knowledge-making and communication becomes integral to wider conceptions of society and democracy; and a politics of and for sustainability is necessarily a politics of knowledge, in which our own research, engagements and communications are deeply implicated.
We are continuing to develop, elaborate and take forward elements of the pathways approach in the Centre’s conceptual and project work, and in Phase II, for which we have an exciting programme planned. Some of the STEPS Centre’s ongoing interests and tensions are reflected in the conference themes, and the papers we have received promise many exciting and challenging contributions to take these themes further – whether around:Contesting and governing sustainabilities – and the potentials of various approachesFraming and narratives: ensuring practical connections with questions of justice, material political economy and ecologyDynamics and sustainability: navigating complexities, transitions and transformations, natural science engagements An ongoing tension that many of us face – certainly I do – is in marrying the big picture imperatives that ‘global greenness’ now demands with diversity of context, so that both have weight – without doing violence to the richness of human experience – something that recurs in our work on local vs. globalised narratives and that we will hear from Arun on tomorrow, put in a rather different and challenging way.I have offered only an outline sketch of some ways of thinking about these themes, which clearly play out very differently in particular, nuanced, real settings. So I am delighted that we have such a hugely rich set of panels that will ground pathways and other approaches in relation to a diversity of issues and places.