Beyond social-ecological traps: fostering transformations towards sustainability

Abstract

This Special Feature is motivated by the rigorous, and growing, theoretical and empirical body of literature on socialecological traps. Building on the foundational literature, which describes the context in many of the places where we work, we now look forward and ask how we can better understand and enable the breaking and escaping of social-ecological traps. In this Special Feature we focus on this frontier in the field and use the trap metaphor as a unifying framework for collating empirically derived insights on overcoming challenges across diverse geographies, sectors, and social-ecological contexts. We requested contributions to this feature that, as well as possible under each context, explore tangible pathways for disrupting social-ecological traps. Thematic relevance and clear contribution to social-ecological scholarship was emphasized in the invited contributions, but authors were not constrained by methodological approach, context, geographical location, or sector. Our ambition with this editorial is to synthesize the novel insights these papers highlight and situate their contributions within the relevant literature.

Escaping social–ecological traps through ecological restoration and socioeconomic development in China's Loess Plateau

“…Herein we found two related studies that examined the evolution of LP's social-ecological system over a long period, which can be compared with our results. For example, Wu et al (2020) analysed the evolution of the LP's social-ecological system over a millennium using Understanding the feedback loop of system elements and identifying key trap factors are important for developing effective management strategies to avoid and escape traps (Eriksson et al, 2021;Hanh & Boonstra, 2018;Long & Lake, 2018). Our study shows that during the first period , the reinforcing feedback loop of a rapidly growing population pressure in rural areas, the lack of alternative livelihoods, the overdependence on agriculture and severe soil erosion locked the LP's rural social-ecological system into an undesirable development trajectory.…”

“…Third, escaping social-ecological traps is difficult, and incremental change is not sufficient to transform the system towards sustainability (Stockholm Resilience Centre, 2012). Recent studies have focused on identifying pathways to disrupt trap processes, for example, through revitalizing indigenous knowledge and stewardship and fostering comanagement (Eriksson et al, 2021). By addressing these challenges and building on existing research, social-ecological traps can be better understood and controlled, promoting positive social and environmental outcomes.…”

Critical social science perspectives on transformations to sustainability

“…Scrutiny of how social and ecological ‘feedbacks’ can reinforce one another to ‘lock’ a system into an undesirable state places attention on the value of ‘disruption’ for producing greater environmental sustainability and human wellbeing, highlighting the importance of women’s empowerment, of co-management, and of indigenous knowledge [ 36 • , 37 ]. This is seen in the application of ‘Transformation-Labs (T-Labs)’, a methodology for generating innovative approaches to transforming social-ecological systems [ 21 •• , 38 •• , 39 •• ].…”

Ever Changing Times: Sustainability Transformations of Galician Small-Scale Fisheries

“…When used in the fisheries and marine SES literature, the concept of transformation entails profound changes in the structures, processes, rules and (social) norms that produce radical changes reconfigurations in social, political, economic, and/or ecological aspects of marine SES (Westley et al, 2011;O'Brien, 2012;Blythe et al, 2017;Villasante et al, 2017). This includes breaking the self-reinforcing interactions of a SES that produce undesired outcomes and let the system navigate new trajectories and feedbacks that can foster desirable directions (Olsson et al, 2017;Eriksson et al, 2021).…”