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Connecting the discussions on resilience and governance of social-ecological systems (SESs) with the sociological analysis of social controversies, we explore a major red tide crisis on Chiloe Island, southern Chile, in 2016. Theoretically, we argue that controversies not only are methodological devices for the observation of the complex relations between nature and society in moments of crisis, but also are materially embedded in the SES dynamics and can work for or against systemic resilience. Empirically, we show that Chiloe's SES is an unstable regime prone to sudden shifts and identify the configuration of different lock-in mechanisms expressed in the reproduction of structural fragilities over the last three decades. From the examination of the social controversies on the 2016 red tide crisis, we draw several lessons. First, there is a complex interplay of visible and hidden fragilities of Chiloe's SES that, while being ignored or their resolution postponed to the future, materialize in the daily experience of inhabitants as a series of historical disappointments. Second, the unfolding of Chiloe's social-ecological crises involves epistemic disputes not only over concrete events but also on the very construction of the SES as a social-natural reality. In turn, this creates conditions for the emergence of strategic alignments between local, national, and transnational actors and shows the extent to which the socio-political articulation of knowledge may contribute to either improve or block the governance of the SES. Third, the social resources that came to light with the controversies reveal pathways for improving the governance regime of Chiloe Island's SES. This dimension highlights the normative relevance of commitments to recognize multiple scales of knowledge and articulate a plurality of actors in a nonhierarchical logic of cooperation.

Energy poverty is a crucial concept in current global energy policy, both for the importance of securing equitable access to high-quality energy services to all human populations and to advance toward a just energy transition to a decarbonized economy. Nonetheless, one of the limitations of this concept due to its focus at the household scale, it has tended to omit relevant energy conditions at a territorial scale, which can also be a dimension of significant deprivation (e.g., transportation, schools, hospitals, public services, industrial uses among others.). On the other hand, energy services are highly dependent on context: on the geographic, ecological, technical, economic, and sociocultural conditions. This context-dependency determines the range of energy and technological alternatives available in a territory. Hence, a conceptual framework is required to better understand the starting point to a just energy transition, capable of integrating the complexity of socio-techno-ecological systems. To fill this gap, we present a framework based on the concept of Territorial Energy Vulnerability (TEV), defined as the propensity of a territory to not guarantee equitable access—in quantity and quality—to resilient energy services that allow the sustainable human and economic development of its population. That is a greater probability of inequity in access to energy services or a significant impacts derived from socio-natural risks that make it incapable of guaranteeing a sustainable and resilient provision of these services. Built on state-of-the-art conceptualizations of risk, we develop an indicator-based framework on vulnerability understood as the combination of sensitivity and resilience characteristics of socio-techno-ecological systems. Sensitivity relates to economic, demographic, infrastructure, technology, culture, and knowledge characteristics of socio-techno-ecological components. Meanwhile, resilience is presented in a three-dimensional framework based on flexibility, register, and self-transformation capacity of socio-techno-ecological systems. An application of this framework is developed using three case studies: Arica, Los Andes and Coyhaique, all Chilean cities with diverse ecological, technical, economic, and sociocultural conditions that shape territorial vulnerability. Using this framework as a diagnostic tool, the development of a just energy transition could adapt existing concepts of energy poverty and decarbonization pathways into context-specific guidelines and policies.

 We advance six analytical distinctions and a methodological pipeline to streamline resilience in urban climate risk assessment  Our framework promotes integrated and interdisciplinary efforts towards climatesensitive urban risk assessment and planning  Polycentric governance is required to balance autonomy and coherence across the systems constituting urban Systems-of-Systems

This paper analyzes the use of "participatory futures" within the context of energy transition, paying special attention to the case of Chile's long-term energy policy. Our main aim is to question the role of "participation" in such a context and particularly, to decouple the operative function of participation from its normative function. Structurally, we argue that the construction of a joint vision of desired energy futures must be understood as a deliberate attempt at governing the energy transition by way of governing the expectations of the actors and systems involved in it. Participatory approaches can promote the co-construction of such energy futures in the form of a boundary-object, able to resonate with and provide a common reference to the actors participating in its creation. On the other hand, participatory approaches can also be a way to make transitions more democratic, subjecting it to a broader influence and control from the citizenship. These two functions of "participation" are always potentially at odds with one another. Democratizing the transition, in fact, would require producing plural, dynamical imaginaries that are responsive and accountable to the public. On the contrary, the need to make transitions governable may close-up such imaginaries and narrow-down the participatory efforts to foster their normalization and acceptability on the part of the most influential actors in the self-government of the transition. To refine and exemplify our proposal, we perform a qualitative, exploratory case study of Chile's E2050 energy policy. Our findings show that "participation" may indeed have been used in the case to align partially conflicting expectations around a collectively-defined boundary object which may then act as a form of contextual, anticipatory and polycentric governance of the transition. However, from a democratic perspective, E2050 appears as a tokenization of the public in support of a pre-eminently technical and monolithic vision enacted by the Energy Ministry and the Consultative Committee. Within this context, the actual influence of the public on the policy and the possibility for political contestation are much more questionable.

Over the last few decades climate change has been gaining importance in international scientific and political debates. However, the social sciences, especially in Latin America, have only lately become interested in the subject and their approach is still vague. Scientific understanding of global environmental change and the process of designing public policies to face them are characterized by their complexity as well as by epistemic and normative uncertainties. This makes it necessary to problematize the way in which research efforts understand 'the social' of climate change. How do 'the climate' and 'the social' interpenetrate as scientific objects? What does the resulting field look like? Is the combination capable of promoting reflexivity and collaboration on the issue, or does it merely become dispersed with diffuse boundaries? Our paper seeks to answer these and other related questions using Chile as a case study and examining peer-reviewed scientific research on the topic.

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