THE TRANSFORMATIONS TO SUSTAINABILITY NEWSLETTER
The transition from 2017 to 2018 has been a busy and exciting one for the Transformations to Sustainability programme. At the end of November, representatives of all three Transformative Knowledge Networks (TKNs) gathered in Buenos Aires, Argentina, for the fourth annual ‘Transformative Knowledge Workshop’. At a stage when they are deep in their field work, the TKNs had decided to focus the meeting on sharing and developing knowledge on the selection and use of methods in co-produced research. Cross-project collaboration on this and on other topics will intensify in 2018 with at least one joint paper under preparation.
On a more personal level, the workshop was memorable for deepening the exchange and relationships among the T2S community, in no little part through the powerful experiences we shared in Buenos Aires. On the opening evening, the participants presented objects that they used in their research or that represented their approach to research with society. The openness and generosity that this exercise elicited was indicative of the spirit that characterized the workshop. The workshop also included a deeply moving 'field trip' to the Museo de la Memoria, the Remembrance and Human Rights Centre of Buenos Aires and former Navy School of Mechanics, which had been a notorious clandestine detention centre during the civic-military dictatorship of the late 1970s and early 1980s. The site was emblematic of the transformations Argentinian society has undergone in the recent past and is still undergoing. In learning about this case of transformation, we touched on some core questions in transformations research: how to deal with the past when the past is ever-present; the need for certainty and, sometimes, uncertainty in social justice and social transformation processes; the global geopolitical and structural economic factors that underlie regional, national and local manifestations of social and environmental injustice; and the role of researchers in processes of transformation. Future contributions to the T2S blog will explore some of the questions raised by the visit.
In the meantime, this newsletter contains a rich and varied round-up of recent contributions from the T2S community, in the form of both academic outputs and personal reflections on diverse issues relating to transformations. 2018 promises to be a busy year, as the projects enter their final phase and the new projects that will be selected in the Belmont Forum–NORFACE programme start up. The major event of the year will be the fifth Transformative Knowledge Workshop, which will be held in conjunction with the World Social Science Forum in Fukuoka, Japan (25–28 September 2018).
Best wishes for 2018 from the T2S team.
|
|
|
|
|
Over the past few months the ACKNOWL-EJ network has coordinated the development and launch of two new Environmental Justice Atlas Featured Maps in collaboration with environmental justice organizations and other academic researchers. The 'Global Gas Lock-in' responds to plans to build a massive web of gas infrastructure in Europe, and the mounting resistance and conflicts resulting from its development, showing sites of resistance in Europe and around the world in places where Europe-destined gas is being exploited and exported. The second recently launched map, Just Transition from Fossil Fuels in Australia, highlights a variety of cases of resistance to fossil fuel extraction and use in Australia, but hones in on coal production. It highlights success stories as well as remaining challenges in efforts for a just transition.
|
|
|
|
Training on participatory video has been held for seven young members of the community that Kalpavriksh is working with as part of an ACKNOWL-EJ case study on transformation in the lives of weavers in Kachchh, Gujarat, India. The community feels comfortable being recorded by familiar members and the workshop participants have started getting involved in discussions. The three-day session was facilitated by a representative of Drishti Media.
|
|
|
|
|
Together with many of Germany’s partner countries in the area of energy and climate policy, the COBENEFITS (Connecting Opportunities and Interests for Sustainability Transformations in the new energy world of renewables) project consortium led by the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies Potsdam (IASS) is carrying out country-specific analyses of the social and economic potentials of an ambitious climate protection programme based on renewable energies. On 25 October 2017, an international policy workshop brought together international partners from countries such as China, India, Kenya, South Africa, Turkey and Vietnam as well as representatives from key ministries in Germany.
|
|
|
|
Following the 2017 International Transdisciplinarity Conference at Leuphana University in Lüneburg, Germany, a new email list has been established for early-career researchers, practitioners, activists, artists and PhD students who are already conducting or are interested in conducting any modes of transdisciplinary research, or who are working on transdisciplinarity. You may be interested in subscribing here.
|
|
|
|
A call for papers for a special issue of Water on 'Transdisciplinarity and Knowledge Co-production: Reflections from Water Governance' is now open.
Special issue editors Gül Özerol and Marcela Brugnach say: "Water governance and management are becoming increasingly complex processes. It is presently widely recognized that we live in an era of governance failures rather than one with a lack of technologies. This calls for integrated, inclusive and context-sensitive approaches in handling water problems. In this Special Issue, we invite submissions that reflect on the mutual interaction between water governance and transdisciplinary water research, including knowledge co-production and co-creation."
The deadline for manuscript submissions is 28 February 2018.
|
|
|
|
|
EXPERT REVIEWERS SOUGHT FOR IPCC
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climage Change (IPCC) is seeking Expert Reviewers for the Second Order Draft of the Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C. The review will take place from 8 January - 25 February 2018. The purpose of the review is to help ensure that the report provides a balanced and comprehensive assessment of the latest scientific findings, and a range of views, expertise and geographical representation is being sought.
Prospective expert reviewers may register online via the IPCC website by 16 February 2018. Additional information on the role of Expert Reviewer is available in Annex 1 of Appendix A to the Principles Governing IPCC Work. An information note explaining the Expert Review is also available.
|
|
|
CALL FOR INPUTS: 2019 GLOBAL SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT REPORT (GSDR)
The GSDR, mandated by the United Nations’ Member States in the outcome document of the 2012 Rio + 20 conference, aims to strengthen the science-policy interface and provide a strong evidence-based instrument to support policymakers in promoting poverty eradication and sustainable development. Following the adoption of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in September 2015, it has become a quadrennial publication, and it will inform the 2019 High Level Political Forum for Sustainable Development (HLPF), the apex body for follow-up and review of the SDGs and the 2030 Agenda. For the first time, the 2019 report is being drafted by an independent group of scientists (IGS), supported by a task team of six UN-system agencies.
As part of its outreach efforts, the IGS is soliciting inputs from a diverse group of scientific and non-scientific communities, from all countries, in the form of publications supported by short abstracts or descriptions of case studies. The IGS is inviting input on 'Transformation pathways' and several other key priorities for science for sustainable development. Contributions are requested by 2 February 2018.
|
|
|
WHAT WE'RE READING
How to avoid glib interdisciplinarity
Authors, reviewers and editors must take the time to respect each others’ expertise and blind spots, according to this recent Nature editorial.
Recognising interdisciplinary expertise
The challenge of embedding interdisciplinarity and related approaches into the academic mainstream is also a focus for a number of thought-provoking blogs from the Integration and Implementation Insights (I2Insights) contributors.
From Grand Challenges to Emancipating Transformations
On our screens: this short video lecture by Andy Stirling focuses on transdisciplinarity, sustainability and 'democratising progress'.
How Do We Get There? The Problem of Action
How can we nurture systemic transformations, asks Paul Raskin in this brief article.
Learning activism: the intellectual life of contemporary social movements by Aziz Choudry
Anna James from the T-LEARNING network says: "Learning activism: the intellectual life of contemporary social movements, by Aziz Choudry, offers a rich contribution to the discussions of social movement learning, the politics of knowledge in the context of challenging deep injustices, and the possibilities of research to support this work. It throws mainstream ideas of education, learning and knowledge production up in the air and reconsiders them in the concrete contexts of social movement activism: collective action concerned with exposing the forces behind the production and reproduction of inequality, injustice and environmental devastation. Working collectively to fight injustice depends critically on taking learning and knowledge seriously. This type of learning and knowledge requires a grounding in historical perspectives, concrete experience, self-reflexivity, spaces for critical dialogue and an attunement to what is emerging from contemporary struggles." Read the full review on the T-LEARNING website.
|
|
|
WHAT WE'RE WRITING
(Re-)designing higher education curricula in times of systemic dysfunction: a responsible research and innovation perspective
Valentina C. Tassone, Catherine O’Mahony, Emma McKenna, Hansje J. Eppink, Arjen E. J. Wals (2017), Higher Education
*
Sustainability Science: Key Issues
Edited by Ariane König, Jerome Ravetz
*
A co-designed, transdisciplinary adaptive management framework for artisanal fisheries of Pehuen Co and Monte Hermoso (Argentina)
Leonardo G. Berninsone, Alice Newton, John Icely (2017), Ocean & Coastal Management
*
What does rights of rivers mean?
Shrishtee Bajpai, World Rainforest Movement
*
The Search For Radical Alternatives Key Elements and Principles
Kalpavriksh
*
Becoming homo sapiens sapiens: Cultural transformation in the Anthropocene
Carol L. Berzonsky, and Susanne C. Moser (2017), Anthropocene
If you’d like a copy, please contact us and we’ll put you in touch with the authors.
*
“We need the environmental humanities because we need new narratives to understand the present and imagine alternative futures”
Marco Armiero
*
The Social Effects of Global Trade
Joy Murray, Arunima Malik, Arne Geschke
This new book, which relates to the T2S seed grant project 'Social Footprints Laboratory: Enabling analysis of the social consequences of global trade', suggests that the social consequences of trade can be made visible in the same way environmental consequences are. The book provides suggestions for a standardisation of methods and a common framework for analysis.
*
Can ecological distribution conflicts turn into forces for sustainability?
Arnim Scheidel, Leah Temper, Federico de Maria, Joan Martinez-Alier, Sustainability Science
The introductory paper of a forthcoming special issue on the EJATLAS.
*
Linking well-being with cultural revitalization for greater cognitive justice in conservation: lessons from Venezuela in Canaima National Park
Iokiñe Rodríguez, Ecology and Society
*
“Democracy happens where the people are”: Social conflict, deliberation and youth perspectives in post-Gezi Turkey
Ethemcan Turhan, Southeastern Europe
*
Alternative Futures: India Unshackled
Editors Ashish Kothari, K.J. Joy
A new collection of 35 essays on India's future by a diverse set of authors, including several members of the T2S community.
|
|
|
FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
The British Academy, a member of the ISSC, has launched a visiting fellowship scheme that will enable approximately 60 academics from around the world to be based at a university or research institution of their choice in the United Kingdom (UK) for a period of up to 6 months. The scheme is open to academics based in any country outside the UK, active at any career stage and in any discipline within the humanities and the social sciences. Apply by 31 January 2018.
|
|
|
STAY CONNECTED
International Forum on Women and Sustainable Development in Africa
8 – 10 March 2018
Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania
More information will be released in January
Td Escuela de Primavera 2018
19 – 24 March 2018
Xalapa, Mexico
Apply by 30 January 2018
Seedbeds of transformation: The role of science with society and the SDGs in Africa
9 – 11 May 2018
Port Elizabeth, South Africa
A collaborative, transdisciplinary space for people with diverse perspectives to explore transformations and the SDGs in Africa - call for session proposals closes 5 February
Engaging (with) Power: International Conference of the Popular Education Network (PEN)
26 - 28 June 2018
Nr. Cape Town, South Africa
PEN 2018 invites university-based teachers, researchers, students and activists particularly from Africa and other countries in the Global South, who share a common interest in popular education. Short proposals invited by 30 January 2018.
World Social Science Forum 2018: Security and Equality for Sustainable Futures
25 – 28 September 2018
Fukuoka, Japan
Call for paper abstracts expected soon
Summer School on Pathways to Sustainability
14 – 25 May 2018
Applications are invited for the next annual STEPS Summer School on Pathways to Sustainability.
Apply online by 5pm GMT on 28 January
|
|
|
Contributions to this newsletter are welcome at transformations@worldsocialscience.org.
|
|
|
The Transformations to Sustainability Programme is coordinated by the ISSC and funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida).
|
|
|
|
|
