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The universalist ambition of the 17 Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs) and 169 targets as a global plan of action for people, planet, prosperity and peacebuilding deserves analytical scrutiny from multiple angles. While the SDGs are largely heralded as a paradigm shift compared to their predecessor Millennial Development Goals (MDGs), we argue that four fundamental dynamics undermine or severely hamper SDGs as a game changer to address the deep-running sustainability challenges facing the planet.

The COVID-19 pandemic that first swept across the world in 2020 led to disruptions in habits and routines—central themes in social practice approaches to consumption. Teaching was also disrupted: the move to online classes forced the development of new modalities of teaching and learning. As a result, a group of social science instructors in a “sustainable consumption” network came together to engage students in a reflexivity exercise through weekly journal entries at four universities located in Switzerland, Germany, and Ireland. The students were invited to document how their everyday practi- ces were changing, and how these reported changes related to “sustainable wellbeing.” Further, they were encouraged to reflect on how notions of the collective were reima- gined in light of the uncertain sanitary situation. Our analyses show how individual well- being is tied to time and social interactions, which are both structured by spatial arrangements. We also discuss how students situate changes in relation to broader, soci- etal trends, hinting at how “sustainable wellbeing” contrasts with other teleoaffective for- mations such as economic health. We conclude with a discussion around the implications of the journaling method in relation to other participatory processes toward the norma- tive aim of a good life for all.

Combatting the global threats to climate and biodiversity require further efforts in conserving earth's key ecosystems such as tropical forests. Today, worldwide conservation strategies have largely focused on protecting old-growth forests. Yet logged forests are more widespread than old-growth forests and harbour huge amounts of biodiversity and carbon stores, providing many ecosystem services and functions. In Borneo, logged forests support the livelihood of half a million indigenous people. Empowering these communities to manage logged forests can result in ecological, social and economic benefits. This study took place in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, and focused on logged forests. We investigated how community members value ecosystem services (ES) in terms of importance for their lives, and explored factors influencing their valuation. We combined a qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews with a statistical analysis of respondents’ preferences for ES. We present three key findings: 1. Clean water, clean air, regulation of temperature, flood and erosion are the ES ranked as the most important by all community members regardless of their spatial and socio-demographic backgrounds, 2. Prioritization for other ES varied according to members’ age, gender, ethnicity, dependence on forest resources and distance to forest, 3. Community members’ priorities for ES align with the ecological literature that these services are retained by logged forest. Our results emphasize the need to promote people-centred approaches to design sustainable conservation policies of logged forests in Sabah., Environmental Science & Policy, 128, ISSN:1462-9011, ISSN:1873-6416

Complexity is inherent to the policy processes and to more and more domains such as environment or social policy. Complexity produces unexpected and counterintuitive effects, in particular, the phenomenon of policy regimes falling short of expectations while made by refined policies. This paper addresses this phenomenon by investigating the process of policy integration and its nonlinearities in the long run. We consider that the increase in the number of policies unexpectedly impacts the policy coherence within a policy regime. We argue that, depending on the degree of policy interactions, this impact varies in direction and intensity over time, which explains nonlinearities in integration. The impact turns negative when the regime is made of numerous policies, which favors non-coordinated policy interactions. Finally, the negative impact prevents further integration as stated by the Institutional Complexity Trap hypothesis and explains the contemporary paradoxical phenomenon of ineffective policy regimes made of refined policies. Empirically, we draw on a relational analysis of policies in the Swiss flood risk policy regime from 1848 to 2017. We study the co-evolution of the number of policies and of their de facto interlinkages, i.e., the co-regulations of a common issue. Findings support that the Institutional Complexity Trap is a structural and long-term dynamic punctuated by periods of policy learning and policy selection. We identify three main phases in the evolution of the regime: the start (1848–1874), the development (1874–1991), and the Institutional Complexity Trap (since 1991).

As a salutogenic concept, “consumption corridors” aims to support what is necessary for sustainable wellbeing to be achieved in relation to the Earth system, with a deep consideration for justice and equity. Living in consumption corridors is a representation of everyday life whereby people live within limits, so that all people – now and in the future – can access what is needed to live a good life. In this special issue, a series of scholars and practitioners have come together to further develop the concept, engage with its methodological implications, and relate it to consumption domains and policy implications. We begin by introducing how the concept emerged, in relation to the complexity of grappling with the societal transformations required for achieving more sustainable forms of consumption. We then present the different contributions, which demonstrate the importance of considering both maximum and minimum consumption standards, the relevance of human-need theories, as well as the difference between achieving wellbeing and the means necessary for doing so. We conclude by opening up to areas that merit further deliberation: how to relate consumption corridors to everyday-life dynamics, but also to the critical question of power relations at play in implementing consumption corridors.

After a historical overview of the evolution of satellite imagery production up to the current deluge of data, this article shows how remote sensing can support international policies on the environment and sustainable development, while continuously renewing our vision of planet Earth., Après un survol historique de l'évolution de la production d''images satellitaires jusqu'au déluge de données actuel, cet article montre comment la télédétection peut venir en soutien de politiques internationales portant sur l'environnement et le développement durable, tout en renouvelant continuellement notre vision de la planète Terre., Dao Hy. Télédétection et enjeux environnementaux globaux à l'heure du Big Data. In: Le Globe. Revue genevoise de géographie, tome 161, 2021. Écologie théorique et pratique. pp. 54-71.

The Institutional Collective Action (ICA) framework has contributed to understanding collective action problems in fragmented governance and identified mechanisms for overcoming them. Participation in collaboration is risky––even if it has the potential to make all parties better off. This framework has uniquely shown how collaboration risk and other transaction costs can be overcome to create effective collaborations for addressing complex policy issues. However, after over a decade of use, the framework is due for critical evaluation and articulation of its state of the art and science to better inform future scholarship. For this purpose, this article defines key concepts and formulates assumptions, as well as reviews the empirical contributions and longstanding limitations of the ICA framework. A robust agenda for future research is also outlined. To move forward, we believe ICA research should focus on the foundational core of the ICA framework, maintain flexibility in explanatory models, and expand the scope beyond the collective action problems at the local level.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to changes in everyday lives through restrictions that resulted in lockdown practices in the home, whereby practices were reassessed, changed, renewed, or newly established. Based on a qualitative study of lockdown practices following the first wave of the pandemic in two European cities with high living standards, Oslo and Geneva, we studied how changes in practices led to need (non)satisfaction and (un)sustainable consumption, demonstrating the significance of social interactions in how practices were coordinated. We then highlight the practice elements that favored or impeded need satisfaction, recognizing what material arrangements, skills, and competencies were necessary. Finally, we discuss the “normative accountability” of lockdown practices in discourse, in that the mutual accountability of various practices during the lockdown revealed the need for coordination between people sharing the same space. We find that social interactions are critical toward understanding how the lockdown practices were coordinated in given space-time configurations. Need satisfaction required grappling with social differentiation, as people with strong social relations, generous indoor spaces, and access to outdoor natural environments experienced higher levels of well-being. This situation has implications for policy making in terms of how societies can be reorganized to ensure “sustainable well-being” as a normative aim.

Performance reporting in sunshine regulation is subjected to disclosure biases, because agents may game the regulation or encounter difficulties in complying. These biases limit the appraisal of the impact of sunshine regulation on performance. We investigate the behavioral causes of such disclosure biases by focusing on transaction cost economizing and opportunism. We provide an original methodology to take into account information asymmetries in principal–agent relationships. We focus on water utilities management in France. Our data set includes 795 observations covering water utilities and performance indicators characteristics. It allows for comparisons of revealed and observed performances and identifies different types of disclosure biases. Findings indicate that opportunism is a significant motivation for disclosure biases, while, unexpectedly, transaction costs are not a direct trigger of disclosure biases.

Coherence is pivotal to integrate governance and, presumably, to improve sustainability because of more coordination efficiency. The coherence of governance refers to the clarity and the compatibility of public policies and property rights. The institutional resource regimes framework put forward that integration also depends on the scope of uses regulated (extent). Coherence has been under-investigated in comparison to extent. Notably, there is no common avenue of appraising it. In this paper, we propose a typology of coherence and assess it through an operationalisation in the Swiss water supply sector. It offers methodological tools and theoretical developments contributing to the comparative analysis of these policy studies central aspects. The typology stands on the IRR definition of integration, and we introduce the relation of coherence to extent, which emphasises the impact of polycentricity and transaction costs. To put into practice the typology and assess the different types of coherence, we gathered data from 96 water utility managers in French-speaking Switzerland. Results indicate that extent-related coherence is troublesome while the discrete coherence of each public policy and property right reveal satisfying. Despite an increasing focus on horizontal issues (siloisation, intersectoral), we observe more coherence issues related to vertical aspects of the governance.

European macro-regional strategies (MRS) are established around physical features such as seas, mountain ranges and river basins. They focus on a new type of policy-making area (the ‘macro-regions’) while seeking to design and implement innovative governance approaches. They are therefore considered innovative both in their geographical focus (in the context of EU policies) and in their approach to policy design, adoption and implementation. The present article argues that the analysis of this development can usefully be informed by different theories referring to the notion of ‘functions’, drawn from political science on the one hand, and from geography and planning on the other. On this basis, it applies a multi-disciplinary perspective to the analysis of the role environmental issues have played in the emergence and adoption of macro-regional strategies. This allows for a comprehensive assessment of the role of environmental issues in the adoption of macro-regional strategies, as well as some of their inherent weaknesses.

Social norms have an important role to play in relation to how practices play out, involving shared understandings and expectations around what should or ought to be. Few studies consider emotions from a social practice perspective in relation to energy studies, however. From a socio-anthropological perspective, we set out to uncover how studying emotions methodologically could provide insights into opportunities for reduced or improved energy usage in the home. Based on a three-year research project focused on household energy usage in Western Switzerland (2015–2017), we demonstrate how studying emotions can help to reveal tensions in discourse and practice, which present windows of opportunities for either de-stabilising or re-enforcing existing practices. What we found is that practices compete for people's time, but also for people's emotions: achieving a "feel good" disposition can imply engaging in strategies that involve forms of prioritization, justification or negotiation drawing from different registers, such as a quest for convenience and cleanliness, but also for personal health or safety. In the conclusion, we provide insights on how eliciting emotions through collective action and forms of social learning could lead to opportunities for transformative, socially-embedded change - towards both reduced and improved energy usage.

Close to two thousand environmental human rights defenders have been killed in 57 countries since 2002, with about four losing their lives every week in 2019. Many of these defenders represent Indigenous Peoples and local communities protecting ecosystems from large‐scale environmentally destructive projects. As the positive contributions of Indigenous and local communities to biodiversity conservation become better recognized, so should the losses and risks that they face. Despite major efforts at documenting abuses and protecting defenders, many blind spots and gaps remain. Here, we call for the conservation community to put the protection of defenders at the heart of its strategy to slow down and reverse the current onslaught on the environment. The conservation community can respond in a number of ways including reaching out to its constituencies, working together with the human rights community, and mobilizing its networks, field offices, and presence in remote areas to denounce abuses and counter isolation. In doing so the conservation community can advance the collective agenda bringing together conservation and environment‐related human rights through the Post‐2020 Global Biodiversity Framework.

There is growing recognition that using the properties of nature through nature-based solutions (NBS) can help to provide viable and cost-effective solutions to a wide range of societal challenges, including disaster risk reduction (DRR). However, NBS realization depends critically on the governance framework that enables the NBS policy process. Drawing from three case studies in Nocera Inferiore (Italy), Munich (Germany), and Wolong (China), we identify key governance enablers—the contextual preconditions, policy processes, and institutions—that proved essential for NBS initiation, planning, design, and implementation. In the three cases, interviews confirm the success of the NBS measures and their benefits in terms not only of DRR but of multiple ecological and social–economic co-benefits. Results highlight critical governance enablers of NBS, including: polycentric governance (novel arrangements in the public administration that involved multiple institutional scales and/or sectors), co-design (innovative stakeholder participatory processes that influenced the final NBS), pro-NBS interest and coalition groups (organized pressure groups that advocated for an NBS), and financial incentives (financing community-based implementation and monitoring of NBS). Findings show that the transition to NBS can contribute to multiple global agendas, including DRR, climate change adaptation, and sustainable development.

ENERGISE is the first large-scale European effort to reduce household energy use through a change initiative that adopted a ‘living lab’ approach informed by social practice theory. Two challenges were introduced to 306 households in eight countries: to lower indoor temperatures and to reduce laundry cycles. This contribution demonstrates the usefulness of a practice-centered design that takes habits and routines as an entry point for understanding how different ‘elements of practices’ can be re-crafted. We discuss how a participatory ‘living lab’ approach that explicitly encouraged deliberation and reflexivity served to sharpen attention on practices as central to change. We discuss how ‘doing laundry’ and ‘keeping warm’, as very different types of practices, responded to the change initiative. For laundry, tangible changes in material arrangements, news skills and sensory competencies, and shifts in what is seen as ‘normal’ proved to be central to reducing wash cycles, including wearing clothes more often, airing them out, using smell to gauge cleanliness, or keeping dirty clothes out of sight. Warming people rather than spaces through added layers and activities, and related shifts in norms around thermal comfort, emerged as crucial steps towards lowering indoor temperatures. Average changes in reported temperatures and wash cycles indicate that reductions are possible, without an emphasis on individuals or technologies as central to change. We end with a discussion on the implications of our approach for energy sufficiency thinking and practice, emphasizing the merits of taking the complexity of everyday life seriously when designing change initiatives. ENERGISE is the first large-scale European effort to reduce household energy use through a change initiative that adopted a ‘living lab’ approach informed by social practice theory. Two challenges were introduced to 306 households in eight countries: to lower indoor temperatures and to reduce laundry cycles. This contribution demonstrates the usefulness of a practice-centered design that takes habits and routines as an entry point for understanding how different ‘elements of practices’ can be re-crafted. We discuss how a participatory ‘living lab’ approach that explicitly encouraged deliberation and reflexivity served to sharpen attention on practices as central to change. We discuss how ‘doing laundry’ and ‘keeping warm’, as very different types of practices, responded to the change initiative. For laundry, tangible changes in material arrangements, news skills and sensory competencies, and shifts in what is seen as ‘normal’ proved to be central to reducing wash cycles, including wearing clothes more often, airing them out, using smell to gauge cleanliness, or keeping dirty clothes out of sight. Warming people rather than spaces through added layers and activities, and related shifts in norms around thermal comfort, emerged as crucial steps towards lowering indoor temperatures. Average changes in reported temperatures and wash cycles indicate that reductions are possible, without an emphasis on individuals or technologies as central to change. We end with a discussion on the implications of our approach for energy sufficiency thinking and practice, emphasizing the merits of taking the complexity of everyday life seriously when designing change initiatives.

International audience; This scoping study aims to explore the relationships between urban green spaces (UGSs) and the onset, remission and recovery of cancer. We followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) extension for scoping reviews (protocol published in 2018). Eligibility criteria for papers were: (1) to be concerned with UGSs, (2) reporting effects of UGSs on cancer-related outcomes including direct or indirect measures, (3) reporting randomized controlled trials, prospective cohort studies, case studies, observational studies, non-comparative studies, (4) in English or French. The search covered primary studies in the published and unpublished (grey) literatures searching by hand and electronic databases (MEDLINE, Green File, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature and ScienceDirect). Among 1703 records screened by two reviewers independently, 29 were included for qualitative synthesis. We classify the cancers concerned and the effects reported i.e., protective effect, risk or without association. The most investigated cancers are bladder, breast and lung cancer. Our study also identified contributing factors and their mediating effects between UGSs and cancer. Even though the strength of the evidence of the associations between UGSs and cancer is still weak due to the low number of studies and their design, results highlight the wide variety of possible mediating factors between the use of green spaces and cancer occurrence, remission and/or prevention. Knowledge gaps and future research perspectives should be oriented to qualitative research on protective factors with an attention to equity in UGS access and use.

Much has been written on hydropolitics, or on the interplays between transboundary water resource issues and politics. This arti- cle builds on recent calls for more research on the role of discourses in shaping hydropolitics. We propose a conceptual framework, inspired by critical discourse analysis, for the systematic investigation of how discursive practices construct and enact actors' power posi- tions in transboundary basin governance. Our framework's added value lies in the typology of discourses we develop – that is, domi- nant, institutionalized, hegemonic and sanctioned – for a more pre- cise analysis of discursive hydropolitics. We formulate a research agenda to operationalize our perspective on discursive hydropolitics and lay the groundwork for future empirical research.

L'étude s'intéresse aux représentations et aux valorisations que les habitants locaux ont du paysage rural dans la commune de Teno, dans le centre-sud du Chili, et aux pratiques qu'ils ont dans et avec le paysage. Il est proposé de construire une compréhension de la ruralité qui intègre trois domaines : les aspects matériels du monde rural, ses représentations et ses imaginaires, et l'expérience locale quotidienne. Cette perspective accorde une valeur centrale aux discours et aux aspirations des habitants concernant le développement local, proposant un renversement de la hiérarchie purement technique et académique dans la production de connaissances et dans la détermination du développement. La méthodologie d'étude est basée sur les " Communautés de relations au paysage " (Ruiz et Domon, 2013) comme outil d'étude des populations rurales, qui détermine des catégories de relations entre les habitants et le paysage. Cet outil se concentre sur l'analyse de l'espace social et paysager rural, sur la base de l'expérience spatiale et sociale que chaque individu a avec le territoire. Cette étude identifie trois Communautés, diverses selon les aspirations que les individus ont par rapport au développement du territoire, et qui sont potentiellement influentes sur de multiples échelles spatiales et sociales : propositions à partir de la localité rurale et extensibles à l'ensemble de la société.

Ce travail identifie et analyse les différents arguments politiques de six projets d'aménagements piétons aux centres-ville de La Chaux-de-Fonds et de Neuchâtel. Plus précisément, ce travail se concentre sur l'analyse des arguments en opposition ou en soutien aux natures vertes et grises et met en exergue les difficultés rencontrées pour modifier la hiérarchie des usages au centre-ville et avance des pistes pour y favoriser l'insertion d'une nature verte, le plus souvent reléguée au second plan. This work identifies and analyses the various political arguments of six pedestrian projects on the city centres of La Chaux-de-Fonds and Neuchâtel. More precisely, this work focuses on the analysis of arguments in opposition or support of green and grey natures and shows the difficulties found in modifying the hierarchy of usages in the city centre and suggests ways forward to favour the insertion of a green nature that is most often pushed into the background.

Leisure practices have implications for belonging. In Metro Manila, a rapidly urbanizing metropolis, leisure is becoming increasingly associated with the most ubiquitous hyper-conditioned environments: privately owned shopping malls. By decontextualizing the built environment from its natural and cultural settings, these malls present a challenge to establishing a sense of belonging within a metropolis. Yet, despite its ubiquity, the mall has not fully displaced outdoor spaces, especially public green spaces, as sites of leisure. What do leisure practices in these two seemingly contrasting environments reveal about belonging in a metropolis? Some answers to these questions are to be found in a socio-material reading of leisure spaces, which reveal how belonging is not only created by actors and social institutions but also by spaces, objects, technologies, infrastructure and the microclimate. On the basis of a qualitative study, our findings demonstrate why public green spaces are more conducive than hyper-conditioned environments for fostering a sense of belonging together and to the metropolis.

Les autorités genevoises semblent avoir franchi un nouveau palier dans leur rapport au récit urbain. D'une part, elles explicitent désormais leur volonté de produire un récit capable de créer un consensus autour d'un projet de territoire. D'autre part, les urbanistes ne détiennent plus le monopole de la production de ce récit urbain. Les élus y participent également.

Der Beitrag richtet einen sozialwissenschaftlichen Blick auf Covid-19 und die Lehren, die sich allenfalls daraus ableiten lassen. In dieser Perspektive sind Schulen unter anderem „zentrale Orte im Kampf für eine gerechtere Gesellschaft“ und es wird deutlich, dass sie „nicht nur an morgen, sondern bereits an übermorgen denken sollten“. (DIPF/Orig.)

The Sixaola river basin, shared between Costa Rica and Panama, is generally seen as one of the basins most prone to transboundary water cooperation. In the spotlight of the international community since the 1990s, the Sixaola basin has been framed as a prime example for multi-actor, multi-level, and multisector transboundary water governance, especially with the creation of the Binational Commission for the Sixaola River Basin (CBCRS for its name in Spanish). Still, one key question remains: who (and how) is behind such conceptual framing of the Sixaola basin? In other words, what actors have succeeded in defining the social reality of the Sixaola, and how has this reality affected the water governance? By looking at the discourses' evolution in the Sixaola basin, we aim to deconstruct the power dynamics underlining such discursive struggle. We employ Marteen Hajer's argumentative approach to discourse analysis to identify dominant storylines, practices and discourse coalitions, emphasising the role of international organisations. With this discursive approach, we examine how the Sixaola problem's boundaries (and ideas guiding the solutions to such problem) have changed in the past three decades. Our preliminary results show that international organisations have successfully framed the Sixaola "problematique" as local while infusing it with a constant regional Central American perspective. Moreover, transboundary water governance has focused on sustainable economic practices to prevent biodiversity loss and land/water degradation, but with large banana companies at the margins. Finally, it remains unclear how international organisations have translated their discourses into national policies and regulations, beyond creating and strengthening the CBCRS as a platform for transboundary water cooperation.

2020 is the year of wildfire records. California experienced its three largest fires early in its fire season. The Pantanal, the largest wetland on the planet, burned over 20% of its surface. More than 18 million hectares of forest and bushland burned during the 2019–2020 fire season in Australia, killing 33 people, destroying nearly 2500 homes, and endangering many endemic species. The direct cost of damages is being counted in dozens of billion dollars, but the indirect costs on water‐related ecosystem services and benefits could be equally expensive, with impacts lasting for decades. In Australia, the extreme precipitation (“200 mm day −1 in several location”) that interrupted the catastrophic wildfire season triggered a series of watershed effects from headwaters to areas downstream. The increased runoff and erosion from burned areas disrupted water supplies in several locations. These post‐fire watershed hazards via source water contamination, flash floods, and mudslides can represent substantial, systemic long‐term risks to drinking water production, aquatic life, and socio‐economic activity. Scenarios similar to the recent event in Australia are now predicted to unfold in the Western USA. This is a new reality that societies will have to live with as uncharted fire activity, water crises, and widespread human footprint collide all‐around of the world. Therefore, we advocate for a more proactive approach to wildfire‐watershed risk governance in an effort to advance and protect water security. We also argue that there is no easy solution to reducing this risk and that investments in both green (i.e., natural) and grey (i.e., built) infrastructure will be necessary. Further, we propose strategies to combine modern data analytics with existing tools for use by water and land managers worldwide to leverage several decades worth of data and knowledge on post‐fire hydrology., Wildfires are a source of socio‐hydrological extremes that increasingly threaten water security across the world; this situation may be referred to as wildfire‐watershed risks (WWR). WWR geographically vary and require locally‐adapted governance for efficient disaster risk reduction. A combination of watershed protection, forest restoration (including fire reintroduction), and adaptation of water infrastructures is the answer to reduce water supply vulnerability to wildfires.

This article puts forward the notion of socio-technical resistance with an application to the regulation through performance indicators in the water sector. Governance failures are mainly explained by concentrating on governance design, considering regulation as a set of control mechanisms. We propose an alternative perspective by putting the emphasis on socio-technical resistance to take into account both human and non-human actors in the governance process. We observe the misuse of performance indicators by local actors in urban water systems in Europe to highlight the empirical significance of socio-technical resistance. Results support that socio-technical resistance is frequent and reduces significantly the reliability of the information gathered through performance indicators. Drawing on a new typology of resistance, we show socio-technical resistance is a dynamic combination of cognitive, interpretative, territorial, strategic, technical and structural factors. These results and the proposed notion underline a crucial limitation of public policies and regulation in the process of policy-instruments implementation and compliance. Empirically, it reveals particularly relevant to provide new insights on New public management and performance-based regulation, where measurement are crucial.

Coordinating and integrating different policies and public sector organizations is a major challenge for practitioners and a continuing topic of interest for researchers. This Viewpoint essay argues that research on this topic needs reorientation to provide better insights for practice and theory of policy making, as well as policy implementation. The authors offer four suggestions on how future research could advance: (1) combining existing conceptual and epistemological approaches more systematically; (2) complementing case studies and surveys with large‐N analyses and novel research tools and methods; (3) more systematic analysis of the causal mechanisms in policy coordination and integration; and (4) more thorough study of the real‐world impact of policy coordination and integration.

The planetary boundaries concept has profoundly changed the vocabulary and representation of global environmental issues. We bring a critical social science perspective to this framework through the notion of societal boundaries and aim to provide a more nuanced understanding of the social nature of thresholds. We start by highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of planetary boundaries from a social science perspective. We then focus on capitalist societies as a heuristic for discussing the expansionary dynamics, power relations, and lock-ins of modern societies that impel highly unsustainable societal relations with nature. While formulating societal boundaries implies a controversial process ‒ based on normative judgments, ethical concerns, and socio-political struggles ‒ it has the potential to offer guidelines for a just, social-ecological transformation. Collective autonomy and the politics of self-limitation are key elements of societal boundaries and are linked to important proposals and pluriverse experiences to integrate well-being and boundaries. The role of the state and propositions for radical alternative approaches to well-being have particular importance. We conclude with reflections on social freedom, defined as the right not to live at others’ expense. Toward the aim of defining boundaries through transdisciplinary and democratic processes, we seek to open a dialogue on these issues.

Why do some commodities flow fast when others stop? This paper aims to propose an alternative theoretical framework – the flow regime framework – to analyse trade flows without resorting to hierarchies and binaries that appear in the existing trends of economic geography. This view is supported by a case study of trade flows in the Central African Copperbelt.

This paper examines the employee perceptions of remote working during the COVID 19 pandemic, focusing particularly but not exclusively on the rapid developments in cybersecurity for remote organisations and workers. Data was gathered from seven interviewees and forty-seven survey respondents who worked for the International Telecommunication Union under various contracts and in various positions at the time of the study. Studying the attitudes and experiences of remote workers uncovered that flexibility and time-saving efficiencies are the most valued benefits of remote working, while the lack of social interaction is seen as the worst feature of pandemic teleworking. An observed association between younger age and a reported decrease in motivation at work calls for further academic enquiry. While studied teleworkers did not experience cyberattacks in unprecedented volume, interview enquiry confirmed that cyberattacks adapted to the vulnerabilities of teleworking and intensified during the pandemic. Swift adaptations and increased employee cyber-protection likely prevented further damage in the time of the Coronavirus cyber crisis but did not eliminate cyberattacks. The remaining cybersecurity vulnerabilities, especially in personal device usage, signal an inexpungible threat to organisational and personal safety, resilience and efficiency.

This MSc thesis is based on work and research carried out by the author during an internship at the Geneva Water Hub. The Geneva Water Hub works to enable water to be used as an instrument of peace. Two main projects are presented in this thesis: (1) The Water Diplomat media data project, and (2) hydropolitical and hydrodiplomatic research on the Syria-Turkey Friendship Dam. The Water Diplomat project documents the development, construction, and analysis of a database of hydrodiplomacy media, contributing to the Geneva Water Hub's Global Observatory on Water and Peace. The research study of the Syria-Turkey Friendship Dam aims to understand the (hydro)political and (hydro)diplomatic variables that can lead to the establishment of so-called “friendship dams” and to begin to understand what purpose such dams play in the context of transboundary water cooperation. This work aims to be a first steppingstone towards a conceptual understanding of “friendship dams”.

Transitioning to cleaner modes of electricity production requires a major uptake of renewable technologies, including solar photovoltaic (PV). However, the uptake has been spatially uneven within countries and requires more exploration. We analyse the spatial pattern of solar PV growth in Switzerland (76′587 PV projects) by quantifying the features of socio-technical regimes at a subnational level. We combine the multi-level perspective (MLP) framework with the literature on solar PV adoption to select 36 quantitative indicators at the level of 2′212 municipalities. Using principal component analysis and cluster analysis, each municipality’s socio-technical regime is quantitatively assessed and municipalities with similar regime features are clustered together. We find nine clusters of municipalities with different socio-technical regimes and different rates of solar PV uptake. Specifically, solar PV uptake is greater in clusters with more prevalent techno-scientific knowledge and market dimensions of the MLP, in particular agricultural activities, higher education institutions, and innovation activities. Within each cluster, we identify extreme outliers (i.e. municipalities where solar PV is growing much faster) and further analyse them through a comprehensive Internet search. Our results suggest that, given the same national policy, different local actors, such as local authorities, energy companies, and devoted citizens, can accelerate PV uptake using various strategies based on local specificities. Building on these findings, we suggest that knowledge of regime configurations may provide additional tools to create context-specific strategies and more decentralized transformative policies to foster solar PV uptake.

Le présent mémoire propose une réflexion sur notre façon actuelle de construire les villes et leur projection dans l'avenir. Étant donné les caractéristiques de notre époque marquée par une obsolescence rapide, il est plus probable que nos constructions finissent par devenir des débris qui nous gêneront plutôt que des ruines que nous admirerons. Est-il possible d'anticiper ces espaces obsolescents futurs et d'ainsi éviter les débris ? Est-il possible d'avoir un regard prospectif, c'est-à-dire un regard qui anticipe des alternatives ? La recherche est portée sur le territoire d'Estación Central à Santiago du Chili où l'obsolescence rapide se présente sous la forme de grandes tours résidentielles qui, avant leurs 10 ans, ont été déclarées illégales en termes de réglementations. Les tours sont critiquées en raison de leur densité excessive et de l'impact négatif qu'elles ont eu sur le territoire. Leur avenir est incertain car, bien qu'elles devraient être démolies, l'expérience montre que cela ne se produira pas. Quelles sont les alternatives à cette situation ? Ce mémoire commence par une immersion dans les concepts de ruine, débris et prospective. A partir de ces derniers, on construit une méthodologie qui cherche à décrire le passé, à comprendre le présent et à explorer des alternatives pour l'avenir de ces tours. Des alternatives au-delà de la démolition et de la construction à partir de zéro, des alternatives qui retardent l'obsolescence.

Conflict over new dams and reservoirs is well-studied, but less is known about controversies over the reoperation of existing water infrastructure. This paper presents two cases of reoperation that have been embroiled in conflict: the Gross Reservoir Expansion Project in Colorado, United States, and the Yesa Reservoir Regrowth project in Aragon and Navarra, Spain. A historical analysis of each of the cases relies on process tracing, reaching back to their construction in the 1950s up to present day, and a cross-case comparison distills findings on the causes of historical and contemporary conflict. The paper adds empirical evidence to the phenomenon of path dependency, and argues that a transition of the dominant mechanism of institutional reproduction occurs in the cases—from power to legitimacy—which in turn informs us about the historical and present-day conflicts. We find that through the contemporary reoperation, water service providers are experiencing a legitimacy crisis related to the quickly-evolving values of water users, and their access to competing sources of knowledge and expertise.

Este artículo propone que los eslóganes neoliberales son poderosos, aunque ambiguos, vehículos de simplicidad, polarización y moralidad. En base a documentación sobre el Perú, particularmente sobre las tensiones y confrontaciones antes, durante y después del llamado Baguazo, se propone que los eslóganes neoliberales han sido instrumentales para generar, en lugar de simplemente acompañar, las contradicciones que moldean y continúan afectando los conflictos sociales y ambientales en la Amazonía peruana. Desde esta perspectiva, los eslóganes no son simplemente “formas” cuidadosamente elaboradas, sino que tienen una importancia social que merece atención etnográfica y teorización antropológica.

Reservoir reoperation is analysed from the perspective of institutions (rules) governing water resources. A new definition is provided, going beyond ‘modifying dam operations' found in the literature to instead focus on changes to the allocation of water stored and released from a reservoir. Through interviews and archival research, we assess 32 large reservoirs in the US state of Colorado. Using tools from institutional analysis, we find that reoperation is often the result of institutional ‘crafting' by reservoir managers and water users, that property rights strongly influence outcomes, and that well-designed policy can promote water sharing in otherwise rigid institutional settings.

This article provides insights from a survey of education programs for sustainable mountain development (ESMD) and comments on the findings from the perspective of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's.(UNESCO) Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) for 2030 framework. Twenty-eight programs implemented by universities, research institutes, and nonprofit organizations (NPOs) are analyzed in terms of program structure, curriculum, and student needs and trajectories. Three-quarters of the programs are based in Europe and North America, the remainder in Central and East Asia and Australia. The programs fall into 6 categories, ranging from traditional university courses to summer schools, university collaborations, distance education, NPO-run skills-focused schools, and research facilities or observatories. Curriculum development toward ESMD has seen considerable progress, even if single-discipline and single-topic programs continue to be widespread. It has embraced fieldwork to offer learners hands-on experience and, increasingly, to work with local stakeholders in problem-oriented settings. Key elements of the ESD for 2030 framework are found, including concern for transformative learning and critical reflection on the structural causes of unsustainability. However, further research is needed to explore less visible aspects such as nonformal and informal education. Policy advocacy and institutional networking are required to scale up innovative approaches.

National audience; Partout dans le monde, les découpages géographiques, dont les territoires font l'objet, sont soumis à des modifications de noms, d'affiliations, de frontières, etc. Ces changements sont un obstacle à la comparabilité des données statistiques (socio-économiques, sanitaires, environnementales...) mesurées sur ces territoires sur de longues périodes. Afin d'apporter une solution conceptuelle et opérationnelle à cette problématique, nous proposons un framework, nommé Theseus, qui s'appuie sur les technologies du Web sémantique pour décrire l'évolution des découpages géographiques dans le Web des données ouvertes et liées (Linked Open Data (LOD) en anglais). Notre approche couvre la modélisation des zones géographiques et de leurs chan-gements au cours du temps, mais aussi la détection et la description automatique des changements, ainsi que l'exploitation de ces descriptions dans le LOD Cloud au moyen de requêtes SPARQL.

First published online: 27 January 2020 Initiated in 2002, the International Environmental Agreements Data Base (IEADB) catalogs the texts, memberships, and design features of over 3,000 multilateral and bilateral environmental agreements. Using IEADB data, we create a comprehensive review of the evolution of international environmental law, including how the number, subjects, and state memberships in IEAs have changed over time. By providing IEA texts, the IEADB helps scholars identify and systematically code IEA design features. We review scholarship derived from the IEADB on international environmental governance, including insights into IEA membership, formation, and design as well as the deeper structure of international environmental law. We note the IEADB's value as a teaching tool to promote undergraduate and graduate teaching and research. The IEADB's structure and content opens up both broad research realms and specific research questions, and facilitates the ability of scholars to use the IEADB to answer those questions of greatest interest to them.

Le graffiti palestinien a une histoire et des spécificités aussi particulières que méconnues. Né dans les camps de réfugiés à la fin des années 1960, le graffiti y est encore largement répandu aujourd'hui. Il est pratiqué par des graffeurs ne se revendiquant pas tous comme artistes et mobilisant des thèmes éminemment politiques. Sur les murs de Palestine nous emmène au sein du camp de Dheisheh pour nous révéler les dessous de ce mouvement aux prises avec les multiples enjeux de la frontière, dans un espace où celle-ci est systématiquement contestée. Ce livre nous raconte également l'histoire de la création d'un film documentaire, coréalisé avec la cinéaste palestinienne Tamara Abu Laban, qui explore les rues du camp et fait entendre ses voix. Grâce à une approche inédite, cette production audiovisuelle pose les conditions mêmes de la recherche et parvient à créer les outils les plus appropriés pour penser les frontières dans leurs formes diffuses, jusqu'à l'échelle des corps qu'elles contraignent. À travers le récit et le parcours d'une chercheure au plus près de son terrain d'étude, cet ouvrage fait l'éloge du travail en collectif et contribue au renouvellement de la méthodologie d'enquête, en décortiquant la dimension politique qui s'y cache.

The rapid population growth and urban transformation occurring in cities across the world is leaving its imprint across distinct geographic, socio-political and cultural local variations. Within diversity of situation and a complex context urbanism scholar recognize the common denominator; a process of urbanization without form, limits and consideration for the natural environment in cities. Iran's capital city; Tehran is not an exception being impacted by the rapid urbanization process within the last 3 decades that has been exacerbating existing dynamics of sprawl and urban fragmentation. The metropolis of 9million has known rapid development in a relatively short period of time. Major areas of the city are developed according to different land subdivision models for construction of villas and residential and commercial buildings based on plans and measure if early XXth century. The city of Tehran was developed on latter model until the end of the Iran-Iraq war in 1987. To face the surge of population as a result of internal migration waves, Tehran's municipality authorized new higher constructions. The densification strategies, which were carefully conceptualized by city authorities, led in practice to the reduction of quality of life in transformed spaces. Indeed, this latest trend of urbanization in the capital unfolded with no adaptation on the urban transport policy side still predominately driven by the use of individual cars resulting in increasing congestion and air pollution. Meanwhile to face the increasing demand for parking space, urban designers and architects advocated for the easy and unsustainable practice of retrofitting vacant land and greenspaces into parking spaces. The resulting concretization of the land engulfed greenspace into grey spaces with the immediate result of increasing temperature and sealing-off the soil in many areas, expansion of heat islands and generally speaking disrupting natural dynamics including harvesting rain water run offs across the city in favor of a land use logic based on densification and expansion of the built areas. Based on this context this article aims to describe some of the new devised strategies such as Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) and redesign of Parcel Plans, to better decipher new strategies and tools to transform and retrofit existing urban interstices, with limited environmental and social value, into higher quality urban areas. As such the right compromise between mobility needs of growing population and land use through the generalization of Transit Oriented Development model can participate in improving urban life through connecting transport networks with the built environment while reducing the use of individual cars. Further, the use of both models by scaling down mobility and land use to neighborhood and street level also enables the municipality to develop greater resilience of metropolitan area towards future shocks such as pandemics while mitigating negative environmental externalities at smaller yet more implementable scale of parcels, streets and neighborhoods.