Tipping Toward Sustainability: Emerging Pathways of Transformation

Abstract

This article explores the links between agency, institutions, and innovation in navigating shifts and largescale transformations toward global sustainability. Our central question is whether social and technical innovations can reverse the trends that are challenging critical thresholds and creating tipping points in the earth system, and if not, what conditions are necessary to escape the current lock-in. Large-scale transformations in information technology, nano-and biotechnology, and new energy systems have the potential to significantly improve our lives; but if, in framing them, our globalized society fails to consider the capacity of the biosphere, there is a risk that unsustainable development pathways may be reinforced. Current institutional arrangements, including the lack of incentives for the private sector to innovate for sustainability, and the lags inherent in the path dependent nature of innovation, contribute to lock-in, as does our incapacity to easily grasp the interactions implicit in complex problems, referred to here as the ingenuity gap. Nonetheless, promising social and technical innovations with potential to change unsustainable trajectories need to be nurtured and connected to broad institutional resources and responses. In parallel, institutional entrepreneurs can work to reduce the resilience of dominant institutional systems and position viable shadow alternatives and niche regimes.

Science with Society in the Anthropocene

“…Scientific knowledge from both the natural and social sciences is necessary but not sufficient when it comes to addressing complex human-environmental problems and fostering sustainable transformations of current systems (Westley et al 2011). When dealing with sustainable transformations, science increasingly is and will continue to be involved in the challenge of dealing with normative and value-related issues such as social justice (Funtowicz and Ravetz 2001).…”

Societal transformation in response to global environmental change: A review of emerging concepts

“…Modern societies have engaged in increasingly disruptive modes of interaction with the biophysical environment, and this is widely perceived as not simply a side effect, but a characterizing trait of modern societies (Jackson 2009). There is, therefore, a growing consensus not only that 'business as usual' is not an option (e.g., Jackson 2009), but also that given the pace and magnitude of GEC, a fundamental, radical, and possibly rapid change toward sustainability is needed (Nelson 2009;Westley et al 2011;DeFries et al 2012;ISSC 2012;Shove et al 2012).…”

Efficient and resilient governance of social–ecological systems

“…New institutions are needed to improve the resilience of complex social-ecological systems (Folke et al 2002;Folke et al 2011;Westley et al 2011). These new institutions should be flexible and open, utilizing multilevel governance to allow greater adaptive capacity (Folke et al 2002;Erickson 2014).…”

“…Effective institutions must be able to adapt to system shifts occurring with varying periodicity and duration, by utilizing broad and flexible governance frameworks (Folke et al 2002). Finally, new institutions should fuse private and public sector involvements, as well as top-down and bottom-up managements, to create dynamic learning networks that capitalize on the natural adaptive capacity of local groups (Westley et al 2011).…”

“…Furthermore, even the Pacific Northwest remains plagued by the prevalent dynamic whereby conservation in one area may be met with increased extractive activity in another (Westley et al 2011), due to a relative resource imbalance. California's massive water projects and hunger for hydroelectric energy from as far north as British Columbia exhibit this dynamic, while its critical regional role in national food production and economic output highlight the complexity of global socioeconomic networks.…”