Transformative Emergence
Research Challenges for Enabling Social-ecological Tipping Points Toward Regional Sustainability Transformations
J. David Tàbara (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Global Climate Forum)
Diana Mangalagiu (University of Oxford, NEOMA Business School)
Bohumil Frantal (Palacky University)
Franziska Mey (Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg)
Raphaela Maier (Karl-Franzens-Universitat Graz)
Johan Lilliestam (Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg)
Mauro Sarrica (Sapienza University of Rome)
Antoine Mandel (Ecole d’Economie de Paris)
Jenny Lieu (TU Delft - Organisation & Governance)
Paolo Cottone (Sapienza University of Rome)
Siri Veland (NORCE Norwegian Research Centre AS, NRI Nordlandsforskning)
Amanda Martínez-Reyes (TU Delft - Organisation & Governance)
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Abstract
A crucial task to accelerate global decarbonisation is to understand how to enable fast, equitable, low-carbon transformations in Coal and Carbon Intensive Regions (CCIRs). In this early literature review we underlined the relevance of the boundary concept of social-ecological tipping points (SETPs) and showed that the research and policy usage of SETPs applied to accelerate structural regional sustainability transformations faces three key challenges: (I) integrating theoretical and empirical contributions from diverse social and ecological sciences, together with complexity theory (II) designing open transdisciplinary assessment processes able to represent multiple qualities of systemic change and enable regionally situated transformative capacities, and (III) moving away from one-directional metaphors of social change, or static or homogeneous conceptions of individual agency and single equilibrium in energy transitions; and instead, focus on understanding the conditions and capacities for the emergence of systemic transformations and regenerative processes across multiple levels and forms of agency. We refer to these complex and place-situated processes as learning to enable regional transformative emergence.
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