14 results on '"Biggs, Reinette"'
Search Results
2. Social-ecological change: insights from the Southern African Program on Ecosystem Change and Society.
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Biggs, Reinette, Clements, Hayley S., Cumming, Graeme S., Cundill, Georgina, de Vos, Alta, Hamann, Maike, Luvuno, Linda, Roux, Dirk J., Selomane, Odirilwe, Blanchard, Ryan, Cockburn, Jessica, Dziba, Luthando, Esler, Karen J., Fabricius, Christo, Henriksson, Rebecka, Kotschy, Karen, Lindborg, Regina, Masterson, Vanessa A., Nel, Jeanne L., and O'Farrell, Patrick
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ECOSYSTEM services , *SUSTAINABILITY , *ECOSYSTEMS , *WELL-being , *HUMAN services ,DEVELOPING countries - Abstract
Social-ecological systems (SES) research has emerged as an important area of sustainability science, informing and supporting pressing issues of transformation towards more sustainable, just and equitable futures. To date, much SES research has been done in or from the Global North, where the challenges and contexts for supporting sustainability transformations are substantially different from the Global South. This paper synthesises emerging insights on SES dynamics that can inform actions and advance research to support sustainability transformations specifically in the southern African context. The paper draws on work linked to members of the Southern African Program on Ecosystem Change and Society (SAPECS), a leading SES research network in the region, synthesizing key insights with respect to the five core themes of SAPECS: (i) transdisciplinary and engaged research, (ii) ecosystem services and human well-being, (iii) governance institutions and management practices, (iv) spatial relationships and cross-scale connections, and (v) regime shifts, traps and transformations. For each theme, we focus on insights that are particularly novel, interesting or important in the southern African context, and reflect on key research gaps and emerging frontiers for SES research in the region going forward. Such place-based insights are important for understanding the variation in SES dynamics around the world, and are crucial for informing a context-sensitive global agenda to foster sustainability transformations at local to global scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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- 2022
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3. The programme on ecosystem change and society (PECS) – a decade of deepening social-ecological research through a place-based focus.
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Norström, Albert V., Agarwal, Bina, Balvanera, Patricia, Baptiste, Brigitte, Bennett, Elena M., Brondízio, Eduardo, Biggs, Reinette, Campbell, Bruce, Carpenter, Stephen R., Castilla, Juan Carlos, Castro, Antonio J., Cramer, Wolfgang, Cumming, Graeme S., Felipe-Lucia, María, Fischer, Joern, Folke, Carl, DeFries, Ruth, Gelcich, Stefan, Groth, Juliane, and Ifejika Speranza, Chinwe
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SUSTAINABILITY ,ECOSYSTEMS ,SOCIAL dynamics ,SYSTEMS design - Abstract
The Programme on Ecosystem Change and Society (PECS) was established in 2011, and is now one of the major international social-ecological systems (SES) research networks. During this time, SES research has undergone a phase of rapid growth and has grown into an influential branch of sustainability science. In this Perspective, we argue that SES research has also deepened over the past decade, and helped to shed light on key dimensions of SES dynamics (e.g. system feedbacks, aspects of system design, goals and paradigms) that can lead to tangible action for solving the major sustainability challenges of our time. We suggest four ways in which the growth of place-based SES research, fostered by networks such as PECS, has contributed to these developments, namely by: 1) shedding light on transformational change, 2) revealing the social dynamics shaping SES, 3) bringing together diverse types of knowledge, and 4) encouraging reflexive researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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- 2022
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4. Advancing a toolkit of diverse futures approaches for global environmental assessments
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Pereira, Laura, Kuiper, Jan J., Selomane, Odirilwe, Aguiar, Ana Paula D., Asrar, Ghassem R., Bennett, Elena M., Biggs, Reinette, Calvin, Katherine, Hedden, Steve, Hsu, Angel, Jabbour, Jason, King, Nicholas, Köberle, Alexandre C., Lucas, Paul, Nel, Jeanne, Norström, Albert V., Peterson, Garry, Sitas, Nadia, Trisos, Christopher, van Vuuren, Detlef P., Vervoort, Joost, Ward, James, Environmental Governance, Environmental Sciences, Pereira, Laura, Kuiper, Jan J, Selomane, Odirilwe, Aguiar, Ana Paula D, Ward, James, Environmental Governance, and Environmental Sciences
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Earth Observation and Environmental Informatics ,Monitoring ,Evolution ,Computer science ,Information needs ,Context (language use) ,Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law ,models ,GF1-900 ,Behavior and Systematics ,Leverage (negotiation) ,Aardobservatie en omgevingsinformatica ,GE1-350 ,Set (psychology) ,SDGs ,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics ,Nature and Landscape Conservation ,Global environmental assessments ,Policy and Law ,Ecology ,SDG17 partnerships to achieve the Goal < UN sustainable development goals ,scenarios ,Matthias Schröter ,futures ,GF ,Data science ,Toolbox ,Management ,Environmental sciences ,Action (philosophy) ,Human ecology. Anthropogeography ,Automotive Engineering ,Sustainability ,RA ,Futures contract - Abstract
Global Environmental Assessments (GEAs) are in a unique position to influence environmental decision-making in the context of sustainability challenges. To do this effectively, however, new methods are needed to respond to the needs of decision-makers for a more integrated, contextualized and goal-seeking evaluation of different policies, geared for action from global to local. While scenarios are an important tool for GEAs to link short-term decisions and medium and long-term consequences, these current information needs cannot be met only through deductive approaches focused on the global level. In this paper, we argue that a more diverse set of futures tools operating at multiple scales are needed to improve GEA scenario development and analysis to meet the information needs of policymakers and other stakeholders better. Based on the literature, we highlight four challenges that GEAs need to be able to address in order to contribute to global environmental decision-making about the future: 1. anticipate unpredictable future conditions; 2. be relevant at multiple scales, 3. include diverse actors, perspectives and contexts; and 4. leverage the imagination to inspire action. We present a toolbox of future-oriented approaches and methods that can be used to effectively address the four challenges currently faced by GEAs. Refereed/Peer-reviewed
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- 2021
5. Earth stewardship: Shaping a sustainable future through interacting policy and norm shifts.
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Chapin III, F. Stuart, Weber, Elke U., Bennett, Elena M., Biggs, Reinette, van den Bergh, Jeroen, Adger, W. Neil, Crépin, Anne-Sophie, Polasky, Stephen, Folke, Carl, Scheffer, Marten, Segerson, Kathleen, Anderies, John M., Barrett, Scott, Cardenas, Juan-Camilo, Carpenter, Stephen R., Fischer, Joern, Kautsky, Nils, Levin, Simon A., Shogren, Jason F., and Walker, Brian
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SUSTAINABILITY ,SHAPE of the earth ,EARTH currents ,INCENTIVE (Psychology) ,SOCIAL norms - Abstract
Transformation toward a sustainable future requires an earth stewardship approach to shift society from its current goal of increasing material wealth to a vision of sustaining built, natural, human, and social capital—equitably distributed across society, within and among nations. Widespread concern about earth's current trajectory and support for actions that would foster more sustainable pathways suggests potential social tipping points in public demand for an earth stewardship vision. Here, we draw on empirical studies and theory to show that movement toward a stewardship vision can be facilitated by changes in either policy incentives or social norms. Our novel contribution is to point out that both norms and incentives must change and can do so interactively. This can be facilitated through leverage points and complementarities across policy areas, based on values, system design, and agency. Potential catalysts include novel democratic institutions and engagement of non-governmental actors, such as businesses, civic leaders, and social movements as agents for redistribution of power. Because no single intervention will transform the world, a key challenge is to align actions to be synergistic, persistent, and scalable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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- 2022
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6. Food system transformation: Integrating a political–economy and social–ecological approach to regime shifts
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Pereira, Laura M., Drimie, Scott, Maciejewski, Kristi, Tonissen, Patrick Bon, Biggs, Reinette, Environmental Governance, and Environmental Governance
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Conservation of Natural Resources ,Ecological systems ,010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences ,JA ,Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis ,media_common.quotation_subject ,lcsh:Medicine ,HM ,010501 environmental sciences ,Social Environment ,01 natural sciences ,Article ,Food Supply ,12. Responsible consumption ,Transformation ,political–economy ,Social ,11. Sustainability ,Ecological psychology ,Humans ,Innovation ,ComputingMilieux_MISCELLANEOUS ,Global food regimes ,0105 earth and related environmental sciences ,media_common ,2. Zero hunger ,Food security ,Regime shifts ,Conceptualization ,Resilience ,lcsh:R ,Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health ,Agriculture ,Economy ,GF ,Political ,Variety (cybernetics) ,Food systems ,social–ecological systems ,Food ,13. Climate action ,Political economy ,Transparency (graphic) ,Sustainability ,Psychological resilience ,Business - Abstract
Sustainably achieving the goal of global food security is one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century. The current food system is failing to meet the needs of people, and at the same time, is having far-reaching impacts on the environment and undermining human well-being in other important ways. It is increasingly apparent that a deep transformation in the way we produce and consume food is needed in order to ensure a more just and sustainable future. This paper uses the concept of regime shifts to understand key drivers and innovations underlying past disruptions in the food system and to explore how they may help us think about desirable future changes and how we might leverage them. We combine two perspectives on regime shifts&mdash, one derived from natural sciences and the other from social sciences&mdash, to propose an interpretation of food regimes that draws on innovation theory. We use this conceptualization to discuss three examples of innovations that we argue helped enable critical regime shifts in the global food system in the past: the Haber-Bosch process of nitrogen fixation, the rise of the supermarket, and the call for more transparency in the food system to reconnect consumers with their food. This paper concludes with an exploration of why this combination of conceptual understandings is important across the Global North/ Global South divide, and proposes a new sustainability regime where transformative change is spearheaded by a variety of social&ndash, ecological innovations.
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- 2020
7. Co‐exploring relational heuristics for sustainability transitions towards more resilient and just Anthropocene futures.
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Preiser, Rika, Biggs, Reinette, Hamann, Maike, Sitas, Nadia, Selomane, Odirilwe, Waddell, Joy, Clements, Hayley, and Hichert, Tanja
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SUSTAINABILITY ,THOUGHT & thinking ,PROBLEM solving ,CHANGE management ,ANTHROPOLOGY ,ECOLOGY ,HUMANITIES ,PSYCHOLOGICAL resilience ,CONSCIOUSNESS - Abstract
In this paper, four relational heuristic responses for exploring new modes of engagement, or patterns of activity, that could enliven humanity's efforts in fostering systemic thinking and action to inform sustainability transitions are offered. Their purpose is to realise more resilient and just Anthropocene futures. These relational heuristics are (1) re‐patterning our theories of change‐making, (2) cultivating a shared future consciousness, (3) creating transformative spaces and (4) engaging in processes of co‐exploration. We argue that these heuristics are better aligned for studying and responding to the systemic and interdependent nature of the real‐world challenges we are currently facing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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- 2021
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8. Learning for transitions: a niche perspective.
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Metelerkamp, Luke, Biggs, Reinette, and Drimie, Scott
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ORGANIC farmers , *KNOWLEDGE transfer , *AGRICULTURAL extension work , *NONFORMAL education , *FRAGMENTED landscapes , *SUSTAINABILITY , *YOUTH development - Abstract
Roughly eight hundred million youth are projected to enter the African job market by 2050. This presents both an opportunity and a challenge for urgently needed sustainability transitions on the continent, because with appropriate training and skills this youth bulge could be instrumental in driving systemic change. By training the youth in new practices and approaches, they could be central to creating new systems and African futures that are more sustainable and just. We focus on the question of where the new skills and competencies needed to underpin such transitions could come from and, in turn, how youth might access these competencies. We investigate these questions by exploring an emerging sustainability niche around organic agriculture in the South African food system. We used a network and power-mapping tool, Net-Map, to map the key knowledge resources used by successful organic farmers, as well as to understand how actor learning networks develop and disseminate new skills and competencies. We found that although a substantial volume of knowledge has been generated and sophisticated informal learning networks exist within the niche we studied, knowledge is highly fragmented. The development and transfer of knowledge is impeded by the absence of teaching capacity and poor institutional alignment at a provincial and national level. Our findings suggest that state-led extension services and formal training institutions are of little help to niche pioneers and instead contribute toward the path-dependency of the current food regime. The substantial implications of these findings underscore the need for further studies to investigate whether similar patterns hold elsewhere on the continent, and for other niches. If they do, our findings imply that addressing the sustainability challenges on the African continent will require creative approaches and new models of learning that are capable of developing and transferring the knowledge and practices emerging in sustainability niches to the 90% of youth in Africa who will not progress to formal tertiary training but will be central to driving potential sustainability transitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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- 2020
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9. Social-ecological resilience and biosphere-based sustainability science.
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Folke, Carl, Biggs, Reinette, Norström, Albert V., Reyers, Belinda, and Rockström, Johan
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SUSTAINABILITY , *SOCIAL ecology , *SOCIAL sustainability , *HUMAN Development Index , *BIOSPHERE - Abstract
Humanity has emerged as a major force in the operation of the biosphere. The focus is shifting from the environment as externality to the biosphere as precondition for social justice, economic development, and sustainability. In this article, we exemplify the intertwined nature of social-ecological systems and emphasize that they operate within, and as embedded parts of the biosphere and as such coevolve with and depend on it. We regard social-ecological systems as complex adaptive systems and use a social-ecological resilience approach as a lens to address and understand their dynamics. We raise the challenge of stewardship of development in concert with the biosphere for people in diverse contexts and places as critical for long-term sustainability and dignity in human relations. Biosphere stewardship is essential, in the globalized world of interactions with the Earth system, to sustain and enhance our lifesupporting environment for human well-being and future human development on Earth, hence, the need to reconnect development to the biosphere foundation and the need for a biosphere-based sustainability science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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- 2016
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10. Mapping social–ecological systems: Identifying ‘green-loop’ and ‘red-loop’ dynamics based on characteristic bundles of ecosystem service use.
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Hamann, Maike, Biggs, Reinette, and Reyers, Belinda
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SOCIAL ecology ,ECOSYSTEM services ,HOUSEHOLDS ,BIOPHYSICS ,LAND tenure ,CLUSTER analysis (Statistics) - Abstract
We present an approach to identify and map social–ecological systems based on the direct use of ecosystem services by households. This approach builds on the premise that characteristic bundles of ecosystem service use represent integrated expressions of different underlying social–ecological systems. We test the approach in South Africa using national census data on the direct use of six provisioning services (freshwater from a natural source, firewood for cooking, firewood for heating, natural building materials, animal production, and crop production) at two different scales. Based on a cluster analysis, we identify three distinct ecosystem service bundles that represent social–ecological systems characterized by low, medium and high levels of direct ecosystem service use among households. We argue that these correspond to ‘green-loop’, ‘transition’ and ‘red-loop’ systems as defined by Cumming et al. (2014) . When mapped, these systems form coherent spatial units that differ from systems identified by additive combinations of separate social and biophysical datasets, the most common method of mapping social–ecological systems to date. The distribution of the systems we identified is mainly determined by social factors, such as household income, gender of the household head, and land tenure, and only partly determined by the supply of natural resources. An understanding of the location and characteristic resource use dynamics of different social–ecological systems allows for policies to be better targeted at the particular sustainability challenges faced in different areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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- 2015
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11. Ecosystem Stewardship: Sustainability Strategies for a Rapidly Changing Planet
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Clark, William C., Chapin, F. Stuart, Carpenter, Stephen R., Kofinas, Gary P., Folke, Carl, Abel, Nick, Olsson, Per, Smith, D. Mark Stafford, Walker, Brian, Young, Oran R., Berkes, Fikret, Biggs, Reinette, Grove, J. Morgan, Naylor, Rosamond L., Pinkerton, Evelyn, Steffen, Will, and Swanson, Frederick J
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Ecosystem stewardship ,Sustainability ,social-ecological sustainability ,environmental policy ,sustainability science ,climate change - Abstract
Ecosystem stewardship is an action-oriented framework intended to foster social-ecological sustainability of a rapidly changing planet. Recent developments identify three strategies that make optimal use of current understanding in an environment of inevitable uncertainty and abrupt change: reducing the magnitude of, and exposure and sensitivity to, known stresses; focusing on proactive policies that shape change; and avoiding or escaping unsustainable social-ecological traps. All social-ecological systems are vulnerable to recent and projected changes but have sources of adaptive capacity and resilience that can sustain ecosystem services and human well-being through active ecosystem stewardship.
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- 2010
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12. Seeding Change by Visioning Good Anthropocenes.
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Pereira, Laura M., Bennett, Elena, Biggs, Reinette (Oonsie), Mangnus, Astrid, Norström, Albert V., Peterson, Garry, Raudsepp-Hearne, Ciara, Sellberg, My, and Vervoort, Joost
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ADULT education workshops ,GLOBAL environmental change ,ROLEPLAYING games ,SUSTAINABILITY - Abstract
PHOTO (COLOR): Artwork capturing the Seeds Visioning process from southern Africa in 2016 Seeds of alternative good futures occur in many places around the world and we can use these to help us think more creatively about pathways to more desirable futures in the Anthropocene. This new scenario approach has been used in intergovernmental processes such as the UN Environment's Global Environment Outlook (GEO) and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). SOGA would like to build a seeds network to mobilize collective action and explore how the seeds could be scaled up in different ways to achieve transformative change, in particular those that can help in achieving an integrated set of SDGs. [Extracted from the article]
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- 2019
13. Harnessing Insights from Social-Ecological Systems Research for Monitoring Sustainable Development.
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Selomane, Odirilwe, Reyers, Belinda, Biggs, Reinette, and Hamann, Maike
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The United Nations' Agenda 2030 marks significant progress towards sustainable development by making explicit the intention to integrate previously separate social, economic and environmental agendas. Despite this intention, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which were adopted to implement the agenda, are fragmented in their formulation and largely sectoral. We contend that while the design of the SDG monitoring is based on a systems approach, it still misses most of the dynamics and complexity relevant to sustainability outcomes. We propose that insights from the study of social-ecological systems offer a more integrated approach to the implementation of Agenda 2030, particularly the monitoring of progress towards sustainable development outcomes. Using five key features highlighted by the study of social-ecological systems (SESs) relevant to sustainable development: (1) social-ecological feedbacks, (2) resilience, (3) heterogeneity, (4) nonlinearity, and (5) cross-scale dynamics. We analyze the current set of SDG indicators based on these features to explore current progress in making them operational. Our analysis finds that 59% of the indicators account for heterogeneity, 33% for cross-scale dynamics, 23% for nonlinearities, and 18% and 17%, respectively, for social-ecological feedbacks and resilience. Our findings suggest limited use of complex SES science in the current design of SDG monitoring, but combining our findings with recent studies of methods to operationalize SES features suggests future directions for sustainable development monitoring for the current as well as post 2030 set of indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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- 2019
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14. Synchronous failure: the emerging causal architecture of global crisis.
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Homer-Dixon, Thomas, Walker, Brian, Biggs, Reinette, Crépin, Anne-Sophie, Folke, Carl, Lambin, Eric F., Peterson, Garry D., Rockström, Johan, Scheffer, Marten, Steffen, Will, and Troell, Max
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BUSHMEAT hunting , *ECOSYSTEM management , *SUSTAINABILITY , *ENERGY shortages ,TROPICAL climate - Abstract
Recent global crises reveal an emerging pattern of causation that could increasingly characterize the birth and progress of future global crises. A conceptual framework identifies this pattern's deep causes, intermediate processes, and ultimate outcomes. The framework shows how multiple stresses can interact within a single social-ecological system to cause a shift in that system's behavior, how simultaneous shifts of this kind in several largely discrete social-ecological systems can interact to cause a far larger intersystemic crisis, and how such a larger crisis can then rapidly propagate across multiple system boundaries to the global scale. Case studies of the 2008-2009 financial-energy and food-energy crises illustrate the framework. Suggestions are offered for future research to explore further the framework's propositions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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- 2015
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