What factors enable social-ecological transformative potential? The role of learning practices, empowerment, and networking

Ecology and Society: a journal of integrative science for resilience and sustainability

article

Aaron J. Tuckey¹  Zuzana V. Harmáčková¹  Garry D. Peterson¹  Albert V. Norström¹  Michele-Lee Moore¹  Per Olsson¹  David P. M. Lam⁵  Amanda Jiménez-Aceituno¹ 

[1] Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University;Global Change Research Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences;Global Resilience Partnership, Stockholm University;Department of Geography and Centre for Global Studies, University of Victoria;Social-Ecological Systems Institute, Leuphana University Lüneburg

关键词: local initiatives;    qualitative comparative analysis (QCA);    The Seeds of Good Anthropocenes;    transformative potential;   

DOI  :  10.5751/ES-14163-280227

学科分类：生物科学（综合）

来源: Resilience Alliance Publications

【 摘 要 】

Achieving sustainability in the Anthropocene requires radical changes to how human societies operate. The Seeds of Good Anthropocenes (SOGA) project has identified a diverse set of existing initiatives, called “seeds,” that have the potential to catalyze transformations toward more sustainable pathways. However, the empirical investigation of factors and conditions that enable successful sustainability transformations across multiple cases has been scarce. Building on a review of existing theoretical and empirical research, we developed a theoretical framework for assessing three features identified as important to transformative potential of innovative social-ecological initiatives: (1) learning practices, (2) empowerment, and (3) networking. We applied this framework to a set of African-led and Africa-related initiatives that we selected from the SOGA database that were divided into initiatives with more or less transformative potential. We coded the presence or absence of features relating to the theoretical framework using secondary data, and then compared the initiatives using qualitative comparative analysis (QCA). This analysis revealed that of the three features tested, Networking emerged as the most important feature for transformative potential when compared amongst cases. By developing and testing a framework for the comparison of cases we provide a basis for future comparative work to further identify and test properties of cases that enable transformation.

【 授权许可】

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