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Sociological insights are often underutilized in sustainability science. To further strengthen its commitment to interdisciplinary problem-driven, solutions-oriented research, sustainability science can better incorporate fundamental sociological conceptions into its core. We highlight four aspects of sociological thought that we consider crucial for advancing sustainability science research: (1) social construction and critical realism, (2) structure and agency, (3) historical specificity, and (4) collective action. We draw on examples from sociology to support a dynamic understanding of how social relations interact with the bio-geo-physical world. This necessary integration of sociological insights, we argue, is critical to generate comprehensive assessments of the causes and consequences of human-induced environmental change, and tend to be overlooked or oversimplified within the field of sustainability science. Beyond that, it can stimulate the development and implementation of viable solutions to sustainability challenges.

A promising approach for addressing sustainabilityproblems is to recognize the unique conditions of aparticular place, such as problem features and solutioncapabilities, and adopt and adapt solutions developed atother places around the world. Therefore, research andteaching in international networks becomes critical, as itallows for accelerating learning by sharing problemunderstandings, successful solutions, and important contextualconsiderations. This article identifies eight distincttypes of research and teaching collaborations in internationalnetworks that can support such accelerated learning.The four research types are, with increasing intensity ofcollaboration: (1) solution adoption; (2) solution consultation;(3) joint research on different problems; and (4) jointresearch on similar problems. The four teaching types are,with increasing intensity of collaboration: (1) adoptedcourse; (2) course with visiting faculty; (3) joint coursewith traveling faculty; and (4) joint course with travelingstudents. The typology is illustrated by extending existingresearch and teaching projects on urban sustainability inthe International Network of Programs in Sustainability,with partner universities from Europe, North America,Asia, and Africa. The article concludes with challenges andstrategies for extending individual projects into collaborationsin international networks.

An IPCC Special Report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways, in the context of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty

The Open Access version of this book, available at https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781351765633, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license. In the 21st century, Norway, Denmark and Sweden remain the icons of fair societies, with high economic productivity and quality of life. But they are also an enigma in a cultural-evolutionary sense: though by no means following the same socio-economic formula, they are all cases of a "non-hubristic", socially sustainable modernity that puzzles outside observers. Using Nordic welfare states as its laboratory, Sustainable Modernity combines evolutionary and socio-cultural perspectives to illuminate the mainsprings of what the authors call the "well-being society". The main contention is that the Nordic uniqueness is not merely the outcome of one particular set of historical institutional or political arrangements, or sheer historical luck; rather, the high welfare creation inherent in the Nordic model has been predicated on a long and durable tradition of social cooperation, which has interacted with global competitive forces. Hence the socially sustainable Nordic modernity should be approached as an integrated and tightly orchestrated ecosystem based on a complex interplay of cooperative and competitive strategies within and across several domains: normative-cultural, socio-political and redistributive. The key question is: Can the Nordic countries uphold the balance of competition and cooperation and reproduce their resilience in the age of globalization, cultural collisions, the digital economy, the fragmentation of the work/life division, and often intrusive EU regulation? With contributors providing insights from the humanities, the social sciences and evolutionary science, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of political science, sociology, history, institutional economics, Nordic studies and human evolution studies.

Non-technical summaryModern agriculture is associated with numerous environmental predicaments, such as land degradation, water pollution, and greenhouse gas emission. Socio-economically, it is characterized by a treadmill of technological change, increased mechanization, and economic consolidation, while depressing economic returns to farmers. A root cause is the dominance of annual plants cultivated in monocultures. Annual crops require the yearly clearing of vegetation resulting in soil erosion and other forms of ecosystem degradation. Monocultures are susceptible to agricultural pests and weeds. By contrast, perennial polycultures informed by natural ecosystems, promise more sustainable agroecosystems with the potential to also revitalize the economic foundation of farming and hence rural societies.

International audience; In this special issue of the Journal of Environment and Development, we present results from the research project Globalisation Informed by Sustainable Development (GLOBIS), 2009–2014, funded by the European Union Framework Programme 7. Starting from and focusing on international policies on agriculture, energy, innovation, migration, and transport at both European Union and global levels, the dual aim of the project was to critically analyze interactions between the three major processes and discourses of globalization, development, and sustainability while also identifying and commenting on synergies and conflicts between them.

It is a complex task to find optimal protective clothing to prevent the spread of Ebola virus disease (Martin-Moreno et al., 2014; Ryschon, 2014). The fear of getting infected is an obstacle for recruiting healthcare workers. In addition, the current design of protective clothing might curtail their working capacity severely in the hot and humid climate of West Africa and, in addition, paradoxically increase the risk of infection. Emergency work in full protective clothing including respiratory mask may lead to extreme heat stress in the hot climates resulting in shortened work time, dehydration, reduced professional judgement, and exhaustion. This increases risk of infection of health stuff (WHO, 2014). In Monrovia, Liberia, daytime maximum temperatures in the end of the year often reach 30–31°C, and the temperatures will be higher January to May, the hot season (Kjellstrom et al., 2014; http://climatechip.org/). In order to manage this heat stress, the workers need breaks (Kjellstrom et al., 2009). This leads to a frequent need to remove the protective gear, which involves an increased risk of infection. The multiple steps to remove the suit can take up to 30min (Kitamura, 2014). The modified Predicted Heat Strain (ISO 7933, 2004) model was used to indicate the expected work times (Fig. 1). The estimation was made based on the following assumptions. Standard man was chosen for the model calculations. Medium heavy activity (300W) was taken as the average work rate. The core temperature limit to cease such emergency work was set to 38.5°C. Three clothing types with different moisture permeability (i m) were selected for comparison: an impermeable outer layer (i m = 0.00), a semipermeable outer layer (i m = 0.07), and a relatively tight but still permeable outer layer (i m = 0.20). The basic clothing insulation in all cases was theoretically taken as 1 clo (0.155 m2K W−1) for comparative purposes. In all air temperature conditions, the other environmental factors were kept constant. Ambient water vapour pressure was set to 3.0 kPa, air velocity/body motion was 1 m s−1, and there was assumed no radiation effect present (work indoors or in shade). 1 Continuous work times for a work rate of 300W at different air temperatures before reaching a core temperature limit at 38.5°C in clothing with different moisture permeability (i m). The chosen work load in impermeable and semipermeable clothing allows 40min or shorter exposure during the hottest periods (Fig. 1) until the core temperature exceeds the suggested safe limit for occupational exposure. Higher core temperature is associated with decreased mental performance and increased misjudgement and mistakes (O’Neal and Bishop, 2010). Maximizing the moisture permeability and minimizing the clothing layers worn beneath the protective gear, provided that it should be resistant to penetration by body fluids, is a simple way of preventing heat stress and increasing the time spent inside the gear. However, dehydration and water intake must also be considered during extended exposures. A heat stress management program including rehydration should be an essential part of the overall health and safety program in any case. A desirable addition would be personal cooling used inside the protective clothing, such as cooling vests with ice or phase change materials (PCMs; Gao, 2014) or filtered ventilated coveralls (Kuklane et al., 2012). This may prolong working time to about 2h and reduce the number of gear changes per day. With 2-h work time in protective gear, the number of required personnel could be halved with possible decrease in contaminated waste. The final choice of the cooling method depends on specific air temperature and humidity. Increasing air temperature and, especially, humidity do reduce the effectiveness of air cooling and increase the benefits of PCM products. The use of PCMs requires freezers or cool areas for solidification after use. Cooling vests with ice are the cheapest and electricity for freezers is required. Power is one of the basic resources to provide healthcare and to cope with epidemics. Otherwise, the other types of PCM, e.g. Glauber’s salt or organic hydrocarbons/wax, with melting/solidifying temperature at about 28°C are available. For workers’ recovery after heat exposure, a room with air temperature below 27°C is recommended. The room or connected facilities could be used for PCM solidification storage. If still unavailable, then the melted PCM can be solidified in a relatively cooler water bath (using underground/well water, etc.), in an underground cave or in a cooler area during night. The higher the melting temperatures are, the less effective cooling is. However, if the temperature gradient is about 6°C or greater, the PCM can still provide a cooling effect. Considering cooling effect in ventilated garments, the provided air flow should be above 100 l min−1. There are filtered fan systems available on the market that manage the flows up to and above 200 l min−1 with the battery power lasting at least 5–8h (recharging takes about 2h). Ventilated systems (positive pressure suits) may allow even drinking water in the suit and that may prolong the work time even more. Table 1 gives a rough cost comparison of the present and a possible future protective clothing system based on 1-day (8-h) shift. It takes into account only the equipment cost. Estimation is based on the work time predictions given in Fig. 1 for the hottest work periods, i.e. 30min for the impermeable set and 2h for the new system that prolongs work period by higher permeability or by use of a cooling device. In both cases, similar final core temperatures are expected to limit the exposure. Also, it is expected that both sets take 30min for dressing, 30min for undressing, and require 30min for recovery between the work periods. As it can be seen the equipment cost of a new, theoretically even a 10 times more expensive solution is almost 3 times higher for a day. Table 1. Comparison of the equipment cost of the present and a possible, 10 times more expensive protective clothing system based on 1-day (8-h) shift. Assumed work time is 30min for present and 2h for the new system. In both cases, expected donning, doffing, ... Simultaneously, there are also other benefits with an actively cooling clothing system. The personnel need to cover one workstation is halved. The personnel have even extra time (about 30min) between the shifts to help with any other tasks or for additional recovery. Due to fewer times of dressing–undressing (16 + 16 times 30min versus 4 + 4 times 30min for present respective new system), there is also less need for assistance and disinfection during these periods. There will be less contaminated waste or fewer amounts of products to be cleaned. The new systems are meant to be reusable (extra costs for decontamination procedures have to be considered) compared to present, supposedly disposable systems, and already 2.5 times reuse will even up the equipment costs at the estimated prices. Infection risks are diminished due to the reduced need for undressing and cleaning procedures. In conclusion, reducing the risk of infection among the front-line healthcare workers and allowing a doubling of their work capacity could be a critical factor to successfully contain the epidemic. Considering that this epidemic is not the last, and with warmer climate both the epidemics are expected becoming more frequent, and conditions to fight them more severe (IPCC, 2013), then the testing and evaluation for selection of the optimal equipment is required long before missions are set out.

Semi-arid areas, defined as those areas of the world where water is an important limitation for plant growth, have become the subject of increased interest due to the impacts of current global changes and sustainability of human lifestyles. While many ground-based reports of declining vegetation productivity have been published over the last decades, a number of recent publications have shown a nuanced and, for some regions, positive picture. With this background, the paper provides an analysis of trends in vegetation greenness of semi-arid areas using AVHRR GIMMS from 1981 to 2007. The vegetation index dataset is used as a proxy for vegetation productivity and trends are analyzed for characterization of changes in semi-arid vegetation greenness. Calculated vegetation trends are analyzed with gridded data on potential climatic constraints to plant growth to explore possible causes of the observed changes. An analysis of changes in the seasonal variation of vegetation greenness and climatic drivers is conducted for selected regions to further understand the causes of observed inter-annual vegetation changes in semi-arid areas across the globe. It is concluded that semi-arid areas, across the globe, on average experience an increase in greenness (0.015 NDVI units over the period of analysis). Further it is observed that increases in greenness are found both in semi-arid areas where precipitation is the dominating limiting factor for plant production (0.019 NDVI units) and in semi-arid areas where air temperature is the primarily growth constraint (0.013 NDVI units). Finally, in the analysis of changes in the intra-annual variation of greenness it is found that seemingly similar increases in greenness over the study period may have widely different explanations. This implies that current generalizations, claiming that land degradation is ongoing in semi-arid areas worldwide, are not supported by the satellite based analysis of vegetation greenness. Fil: Fensholt, Rasmus. Universidad de Copenhagen; Dinamarca Fil: Langanke, Tobias. Universidad de Copenhagen; Dinamarca Fil: Rasmussen, Kjeld. Universidad de Copenhagen; Dinamarca Fil: Reenberg, Anette. Universidad de Copenhagen; Dinamarca Fil: Prince, Stephen D.. University of Maryland; Estados Unidos Fil: Tucker, Compton. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Goddart Institute for Space Studies; Estados Unidos Fil: Scholes, Robert J.. Council for Scientific and Industrial Research; Sudáfrica Fil: Bao Le, Quang. Universitaet Bonn; Alemania. ETH Zurich; Suiza Fil: Bondeau, Alberte. Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research; Alemania. Institut Méditerranéen de Biodiversité et d; Francia Fil: Eastman, Ron. Clark University; Estados Unidos Fil: Epstein, Howard. University of Virginia; Estados Unidos Fil: Gaughan, Andrea E.. University of Florida; Estados Unidos Fil: Hellden, Ulf. Lund University; Suecia Fil: Mbow, Cheikh. Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar; Senegal Fil: Olsson, Lennart. Lund University; Suecia Fil: Paruelo, José. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Fisiológicas y Ecológicas Vinculadas a la Agricultura. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía. Instituto de Investigaciones Fisiológicas y Ecológicas Vinculadas a la Agricultura; Argentina Fil: Schweitzer, Christian. Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research; Alemania Fil: Seaquist, Jonathan. Lund University; Suecia Fil: Wessels, Konrad. Council for Scientific and Industrial Research; Sudáfrica

Rain-fed agriculture is practiced on approximately 80 percent of global agricultural land area (Wani et al. 2009). It accounts for about 70 percent of the global staple foods production (Cooper et al. 2009). This is the main mode of production favored by poor farmers in the developing world and other economically deprived societies (Wani et al. 2009). The contribution to global food supply from rain-fed agriculture is forecasted to decline from 65 percent at present to 48 percent in 2030 (Bruinsma 2003). The decline of precipitation forecast for some regions of the African savanna may affect agricultural production in different ways. During the already dry months, the decline of precipitation is likely to reduce the resilience of some plants (Vanacker et al. 2005). This is especially true for many ecosystems in Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly grass and shrub savannahs, which are shown to be highly sensitive to short-term availability of water due to climate variability (Vanacker et al. 2005). While the ranges of species may shift as a result of changing climate, this shift may probably not be in cohesive and intact units and are likely to become more fragmented (Channell and Lomolino 2000). This stimulates interest in understanding the effects of climate change on the potential for rain-fed agriculture for particular regions where this practice has important economic and social implications. While observed and measured data increasingly support predictions of a warmer world in the next 50 100 years, the impact of rising temperatures on rainfall distribution patterns in the semi-arid tropics of Africa remain far less certain (Cooper et al. 2009). African countries are particularly vulnerable to climate change because of their dependence on rain-fed agriculture, low economic power, low levels of human and physical capital, and poor infrastructure (Nelson 2009). The negative effects of climate change on agricultural production are especially pronounced in Sub-Saharan Africa because of the significant contribution of the agricultural sector to the GDP, export earnings, and employment (Fan et al. 2009). Cameroon, like many countries in sub-Saharan Africa has a high share of total poverty in the rural sector and a high share of GDP growth originating in agriculture (De Janvry 2009). Less than 1 percent of total agricultural land area in Cameroon is equipped for irrigation

Science assessments indicate that human activities are moving several of Earth's sub-systems outside the range of natural variability typical for the previous 500,000 years ( 1 , 2 ). Human societies must now change course and steer away from critical tipping points in the Earth system that might lead to rapid and irreversible change ( 3 ). This requires fundamental reorientation and restructuring of national and international institutions toward more effective Earth system governance and planetary stewardship.

The current institutional framework for sustainable development is by far not strong enough to bring about the swift transformative progress that is needed. This article contends that incrementalism-the main approach since the 1972 Stockholm Conference-will not suffice to bring about societal change at the level and speed needed to mitigate and adapt to earth system transformation. Instead, the article argues that transformative structural change in global governance is needed, and that the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro must turn into a major stepping stone for a much stronger institutional framework for sustainable development. The article details core areas where urgent action is required. The article is based on an extensive social science assessment conducted by 32 members of the lead faculty, scientific steering committee, and other affiliates of the Earth System Governance Project. This Project is a ten-year research initiative under the auspices of the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP), which is sponsored by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the International Social Science Council (ISSC), and the United Nations University (UNU). © 2012.

Agricultural systems continuously evolve and are forced to change as a result of a range of global and local driving forces. Agricultural technologies and agricultural, environmental and rural development policies are increasingly designed to contribute to the sustainability of agricultural systems and to enhance contributions of agricultural systems to sustainable development at large. The effectiveness and efficiency of such policies and technological developments in realizing desired contributions could be greatly enhanced if the quality of their ex-ante assessments were improved. Four key challenges and requirements to make research tools more useful for integrated assessment in the European Union were defined in interactions between scientists and the European Commission (EC), i.e., overcoming the gap between micro–macro level analysis, the bias in integrated assessments towards either economic or environmental issues, the poor re-use of models and hindrances in technical linkage of models. Tools for integrated assessment must have multi-scale capabilities and preferably be generic and flexible such that they can deal with a broad variety of policy questions. At the same time, to be useful for scientists, the framework must facilitate state-of-the-art science both on aspects of the agricultural systems and on integration. This paper presents the rationale, design and illustration of a component-based framework for agricultural systems (SEAMLESS Integrated Framework) to assess, ex-ante, agricultural and agri-environmental policies and technologies across a range of scales, from field–farm to region and European Union, as well as some global interactions. We have opted for a framework to link individual model and data components and a software infrastructure that allows a flexible (re-)use and linkage of components. The paper outlines the software infrastructure, indicators and model and data components. The illustrative example assesses effects of a trade liberalisation proposal on EU’s agriculture and indicates how SEAMLESS addresses the four identified challenges for integrated assessment tools, i.e., linking micro and macro analysis, assessing economic, environmental, social and institutional indicators, (re-)using standalone model components for field, farm and market analysis and their conceptual and technical linkage.

Estimating the rate of soil carbon sequestration in degraded semiarid agroecosystems is of great interest due to the beneficial effects on soil properties, soil fertility, and the potential atmospheric CO2 mitigation. One of several applied methodologies, biogeochemical modeling, offers possibilities to distribute estimates of soil organic carbon (SOC) over regions, estimate the effects of changes in climate and ecosystem management on SOC, and quantify changes of soil properties over time or space. In this study, the sensitivity of the Century model was assessed in regards to uncertainties for soil texture, natural fire return periods, grazing intensities, and climate. The study area was situated in central Sudan and dominated by subsistence agroecosystems. Uncertainties in the modeling of historical SOC levels, prior to known human interactions, can be reflected in the estimation of the current or future SOC levels, as some soil processes take many years to occur. The relationship between these differences in historical and current SOC levels was calculated. Soil texture, derived from a number of different sources, had the greatest impact on modeled SOC. Overall, data uncertainties for the five parameters tested resulted in SOC variations of up to 160 g C/m2 (1.6 t C/ha) for the estimation of the current level (year 2002), which corresponds to a difference of approximately 80% of the average current level.

Cooking over open fire with solid fuels results in incomplete combustion and indoor air pollution (IAP) causing respiratory and other diseases leading to nearly two million premature deaths per year. In urban areas, IAP interacts with outdoor pollutants in toxic chemical mixtures affecting also other citizens and damaging regional air quality in terms of 'brown clouds'. Deaths result mainly in women, children and infants, who are directly exposed to smoke in unventilated kitchens, thus reflecting differentiated and unequal impacts across population groups. Despite the heavy health burden and discomfort, IAP has only recently been recognised as associated with neglected diseases. In search of synergies between adaptation and mitigation, we seek gender sensitive social innovations to halt smoke, soot and early death while reducing deforestation and carbon emissions. Using transition arenas as a participatory method for experiments and social learning we engaged with local entrepreneurs and peasant farmers in sub-Saharan Africa to initiate co-production of efficient flue-piped stoves that save energy, labour and lives. Findings indicate that successful design, production and adoption of improved cooking stoves is possible, but the structural challenges of poverty, inequality and distrust may inhibit further diffusion and more profound processes of social learning. Insights from local studies must therefore be contextualised into broader understandings, as attempted here, while local adoption must be combined with wider initiatives and government policies into complex micro-to-macro solutions that provide forceful effects against IAP and its drivers.

It is urgent in science and society to address climate change and other sustainability challenges such as biodiversity loss, deforestation, depletion of marine fish stocks, global ill-health, land degradation, land use change and water scarcity. Sustainability science (SS) is an attempt to bridge the natural and social sciences for seeking creative solutions to these complex challenges. In this article, we propose a research agenda that advances the methodological and theoretical understanding of what SS can be, how it can be pursued and what it can contribute. The key focus is on knowledge structuring. For that purpose, we designed a generic research platform organised as a three-dimensional matrix comprising three components: core themes (scientific understanding, sustainability goals, sustainability pathways); cross-cutting critical and problem-solving approaches; and any combination of the sustainability challenges above. As an example, we insert four sustainability challenges into the matrix (biodiversity loss, climate change, land use changes, water scarcity). Based on the matrix with the four challenges, we discuss three issues for advancing theory and methodology in SS: how new synergies across natural and social sciences can be created; how integrated theories for understanding and responding to complex sustainability issues can be developed; and how theories and concepts in economics, gender studies, geography, political science and sociology can be applied in SS. The generic research platform serves to structure and create new knowledge in SS and is a tool for exploring any set of sustainability challenges. The combined critical and problem-solving approach is essential.

Udgivelsesdato: 1985-null

International audience; The word “biorefinery” was coined to describe an industrial process of cracking biomass resembling the industrial cracking of fossil carbon (Kamm and Kamm, 2005). But it can also be seen as an "Intermediary Object" (Vinck 2009) socially constructed by macroactors in European projects such as "Star-Colibri", with a view to developing a particular vision of the transition towards the use of renewable resources. Narrative approaches are mobilized by sociologists to describe the complexity of systemic change in a multilevel perspective (Grin, Rotmans and Schot, 2010). Narratives have also been used in Economics and Management of Technologies since the works of David (1985) to Dumez and Jeunemaitre (2005), to identify and describe various potential technological trajectories. We used a similar (analysis, cognitive process, method, procedure.) in the course of an interdisciplinary approach involving economists chemists and biochemists. Our "narrative approach" aims at highlighting the diversity of technological expectations. In the dominant vision of the biorefinery, large-scale units crack the biomass into a limited number (top 10 chemical intermediates) of standardized "small molecules", easily purified and introduced into the traditional petrochemical processes. Production of liquid fuels ("bio"-fuels) would enable economic operators to reach this large scale, while chemicals with high added value should ensure their economic balance (Bozell, Petersen 2010). However, other technical routes are worth considering: For example the intrinsic complexity and self-organization properties of biomass materials can be used as a way to introducing principles of green chemistry in processes operating more systematically on the macromolecular level ("one pot", whole plant, "reactive extrusion", modified starches, photochemistry and so on ..). They minimize fractionation steps and thus the use of energy or water. They can also entail smaller scale chemical units, which would not need to be stitched to the existing network of large-scale commodities production (of "bio"fuels,) and would be better rooted in local production areas. The discussion on the transition must therefore integrate the diversity of possible technical (ways) (routes) and examine how institutional policies support either of these solutions.