Challenges for Social-Ecological Transformations: Contributions from Social and Political Ecology

Christoph Görg, Ulrich Brand, Helmut Haberl, Diana Hummel, Thomas Jahn and Stefan Liehr
Additional contact information
Christoph Görg: Institute of Social Ecology, 1070 Vienna, Alpen-Adria Universitaet Klagenfurt, 9020 Klagenfurt, Austria
Ulrich Brand: Department of Political Science, University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria
Helmut Haberl: Institute of Social Ecology, 1070 Vienna, Alpen-Adria Universitaet Klagenfurt, 9020 Klagenfurt, Austria
Diana Hummel: ISOE—Institute for Social-Ecological Research, 60486 Frankfurt/M., Germany
Thomas Jahn: ISOE—Institute for Social-Ecological Research, 60486 Frankfurt/M., Germany
Stefan Liehr: ISOE—Institute for Social-Ecological Research, 60486 Frankfurt/M., Germany

Sustainability, 2017, vol. 9, issue 7, 1-21

Abstract: Transformation has become a major topic of sustainability research. This opens up new perspectives, but at the same time, runs the danger to convert into a new critical orthodoxy which narrows down analytical perspectives. Most research is committed towards a political-strategic approach towards transformation. This focus, however, clashes with ongoing transformation processes towards un-sustainability. The paper presents cornerstones of an integrative approach to social-ecological transformations (SET), which builds upon empirical work and conceptual considerations from Social Ecology and Political Ecology. We argue that a critical understanding of the challenges for societal transformations can be advanced by focusing on the interdependencies between societies and the natural environment. This starting point provides a more realistic understanding of the societal and biophysical constraints of sustainability transformations by emphasising the crisis-driven and contested character of the appropriation of nature and the power relations involved. Moreover, it pursues a transdisciplinary mode of research, decisive for adequately understanding any strategy for transformations towards sustainability. Such a conceptual approach of SET is supposed to better integrate the analytical, normative and political-strategic dimension of transformation research. We use the examples of global land use patterns, neo-extractivism in Latin America and the global water crisis to clarify our approach.

Keywords: social-ecological transformation; societal relations to nature; social ecology; political ecology; land use; resource-extractivism; water crisis; transdisciplinarity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (27)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/7/1045/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/7/1045/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:9:y:2017:i:7:p:1045-:d:102599

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().