The three logics of sustainability-oriented hybrid organisations: a multi-disciplinary review - Dina Hestad; J. David Tàbara; Thomas F. Thornton (Sustainability Science, 2021)
Given current limitations of global and national governance arrangements in redirecting economic globalisation towards a climate-safe and sustainable world, it is crucial to understand how organisations that aim to tackle social and environmental problems using market mechanisms can contribute to fostering sustainability transformations. This review identified 60 different terms or concepts for hybrid organisations aiming to solve social and ecological problems through market related activities, reflecting a high degree of discontinuity and inconsistency in the literature. To assess the contribution to societal transformations of this array of innovative ventures, we introduce and operationalise Sustainability-Oriented Hybrid Organisations (SOHOs) as an umbrella concept to carry out a comprehensive review of 126 scientific articles that discuss them. Unlike traditional enterprises who apply one logic (commercial) and social and environmental enterprises who combine two logics (social–commercial or environmental–commercial), SOHOs unite commercial, social, and environmental logics, beliefs, and practices simultaneously—thereby adopting a higher level of organisational hybridity. SOHOs are oriented towards achieving net-positive sustainability and consider future generations and global socio-ecological systems which makes transforming enterprises towards SOHO models a potentially significant intervention point for promoting sustainability transformations. However, the narratives and actions of SOHOs can perpetuate rather than ameliorate the underlying causes and differential impacts of complex problems like climate change, unless the organisations adopt systemic, global, long-term, and socio-ecologically embedded strategies.

Scale-related governance challenges in the water–energy–food nexus: toward a diagnostic approach - Claudia Pahl-Wostl; Philipp Gorris; Nicolas Jager; Larissa Koch; Louis Lebel; Christian Stein; Sandra Venghaus; Sisira Withanachchi (Sustainability Science, 2021)
The notion of a water–energy–food (WEF) nexus was introduced to encourage a more holistic perspective on the sustainable development of natural resources. Most attention has been directed at identifying potential synergies and trade-offs among sectors that could be addressed with improved technologies and management. The governance of the WEF nexus more broadly has received comparatively little attention, and the importance of scale in space and time has been largely ignored. Inspired by scholarship on multi-level governance in individual sectors, this paper identifies four scale-related governance challenges in the WEF nexus, namely: (1) scalar fit , which arises when planning and operating procedures work at different levels along the scales of space and time in different sectors; (2) scalar strategies , wherever the levels at which actors have influence and in which action takes place are contested and negotiated; (3) institutional interplay , where rules and norms in different sectors influence each other at different levels; (4) scalar uncertainty , arising out of the complexity of multi-level and multi-scale interactions. The relevance of these four challenges is illustrated with case studies from developed and developing countries. These examples show the importance of considering multiple levels and scales when assessing the likely effectiveness of WEF nexus governance mechanisms or proposals. The cases underline the need to pay close attention to issues of power, contestation, and negotiation, in addition to the analysis of institutional design. Thus, this paper recommends that nexus governance efforts and proposals be scrutinized for scale assumptions. The four identified challenges offer a suitable starting point for diagnosis.

The ‘end of the world’ vs. the ‘end of the month’: understanding social resistance to sustainability transition agendas, a lesson from the Yellow Vests in France - Mathilde Martin; Mine Islar (Sustainability Science, 2021)
This paper investigates the Yellow Vests movement and the extent it constitutes an original platform for resistance to a sustainability transition agenda in the French context. The movement represents a disruption to global climate mitigation solutions that are often formalized at a global scale, and illustrates cultural and economic constraints in providing social justice in the age of climate change. Using a cultural performative approach, this case study reveals the relevance of framing and cultural analyses to understand such resistance. This qualitative exploration initiates a narrative analysis to assess how the universal resolve of the 2015 Paris Conference and the related legitimacy of the sustainability discourse has been further contested by the Yellow Vests and their fractured framing. From the ‘ end of the world ’ to the ‘ end of the month ’, we investigate the rise and fall of the legitimacy of the French sustainability discourse by analysing politicians’ and activists’ speeches, historical narratives as well as visual materials of resistance in France in the context of sustainability transitions. Tip of a broader social crisis, the movement reveals an original conflict of temporalities, symptomatic of the inevitable interdependency of socio-economic inequalities to sustainability transitions. Beyond the resistance itself, the Yellow Vests embody an original exemplar for the importance of cultural appropriation within the sustainability discourse’ legitimation processes.

Are we ignoring a black elephant in the Anthropocene? Climate change and global pandemic as the crisis in health and equality - Shinichiro Asayama; Seita Emori; Masahiro Sugiyama; Fumiko Kasuga; Chiho Watanabe (Sustainability Science, 2021)
Climate change and coronavirus pandemic are the twin crises in the Anthropocene, the era in which unsustainable growth of human activities has led to a significant change in the global environment. The two crises have also exposed a chronic social illness of our time—a deep, widespread inequality in society. Whilst the circumstances are unfortunate, the pandemic can provide an opportunity for sustainability scientists to focus more on human society and its inequalities, rather than a sole focus on the natural environment. It opens the way for a new normative commitment of science in a time of crises. We suggest three agendas for future climate and sustainability research after the pandemic: (1) focus on health and well-being, (2) moral engagement through empathy, and (3) science of loss for managing grief.

Beyond 2020: converging crises demand integrated responses - Jim Falk; Rita Colwell; Adel El-Beltagy; Peter Gleick; Charles Kennel; Yuan T. Lee; Amy Luers; Cherry Murray; Ismail Serageldin; Kazuhiko Takeuchi; Chiho Watanabe; Tetsuzo Yasunari (Sustainability Science, 2021)

Stranded investment associated with rapid energy system changes under the mid-century strategy in Japan - Ken Oshiro; Shinichiro Fujimori (Sustainability Science, 2021)
Japan’s mid-century strategy to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 80% by 2050 requires rapid energy system changes, which may lead to stranded assets in fossil fuel-related infrastructure. Existing studies have shown that massive stranding of assets in the energy supply side is possible; few studies have involved economy-wide stranded asset analysis. In this study, we estimated stranded investments in both the energy supply and demand sectors in Japan in the context of near-term goals for 2030 and the mid-century strategy. To this end, multiple emission scenarios for Japan were assessed based on various emission reduction targets for 2030 and 2050. The results show that stranded investments in the energy supply sectors occur mainly in coal power plants without carbon capture and storage (CCS), especially in scenarios without enhanced near-term mitigation targets. Increases of stranded investment in demand sectors were observed primarily under stringent mitigation scenarios, which exceed the 80% reduction target. In particular, investment for oil and gas heating systems in the buildings sector may be stranded at levels up to $20 billion US between 2021 and 2050. We further simulated a scenario incorporating a subsidy for devices that do not use fossil fuels as a sector-specific policy; this reduced the amount of stranded investment in the buildings sector. We confirmed the benefit of enhancing near-term mitigation targets to avoid generating stranded investments. These findings support the importance of inclusive energy and climate policy design involving not only pricing of carbon emissions but also complementary cross-sector economy-wide policies.

Correction to: Analyzing the effects of institutional capacity on sustainable water governance - Wanxin Li; David von Eiff; Alicia Kyoungjin An (Sustainability Science, 2021)

Correction to: He ʻike ʻana ia i ka pono (it is a recognizing of the right thing): how one indigenous worldview informs relational values and social values - Rachelle K. Gould; Māhealani Pai; Barbara Muraca; Kai M. A. Chan (Sustainability Science, 2021)

COVID-19: the impact of a global crisis on sustainable development research - Walter Leal Filho; Anabela Marisa Azul; Tony Wall; Claudio R. P. Vasconcelos; Amanda Lange Salvia; Arminda do Paço; Kalterina Shulla; Vanessa Levesque; Federica Doni; Lorena Alvarez-Castañón; Claudia Mac-lean; Lucas Veiga Avila; et al. (Sustainability Science, 2021)

Correction to: Sustainability in the management of scientific information - Miguel Ángel Medina (Sustainability Science, 2021)

In search of the good dam: contemporary views on dam planning in Latin America - Christopher Schulz; William M. Adams (Sustainability Science, 2021)
Dam planning and construction is notoriously difficult. It is highly complex, involving a multitude of social, environmental, economic and technological questions that often become politicised in the process; negative impacts are often concentrated on small, vulnerable groups within society, while the benefits are typically spread in a much more diffuse pattern; it requires changing riverine ecosystems, often irreversibly so; and it takes a very long time, with often harsh consequences if mistakes are made. These challenges have generated decades of debate around dams and development, yet it is not clear how dam planning and management can be improved. To address this question, the present study used Q methodology to analyse the views of social and environmental researchers on dams in Latin America on the principles that should guide dam development. The Q analysis rendered three idealised viewpoints: The first suggested that defending the rights of vulnerable people should be the main priority, as a counterbalance to the natural bias towards economically and politically powerful actors within the political economy of dam construction. The second implied adoption of a holistic and scientific vision towards dam decision-making and a focus of efforts on perfecting formal procedures and participatory processes to build better dams in the future. The third called into question the need for dams altogether and concentrated attention on invisible and overlooked aspects of dam decision-making, particularly past injustices, and the rights of indigenous communities to determine their own model of development. Each viewpoint represents an alternative vision for future dam planning and clarifies the choices available to policy-makers and development actors. Moreover, viewpoints give insights into the motivations of those who seek to inform debates on dams and development. While they were identified in the context of dam-decision making, our findings may also be relevant to other fields of sustainable development.

Mass-participant sport events and sustainable development: gender, social bonding, and connectedness to nature as predictors of socially and environmentally responsible behavior intentions - Stavros Triantafyllidis; Lindsey Darvin (Sustainability Science, 2021)

Elaborating a people-centered approach to understanding sustainable livelihoods under climate and environmental change: Thang Binh District, Quang Nam Province, Vietnam - Leslie Mabon; Song Tung Nguyen; Thi Tram Pham; Thi Tuyet Tran; Hong Ngoc Le; Thi Thu Huong Doan; Thi Ngoc Ha Hoang; Natascha Mueller-Hirth; Stephen Vertigans (Sustainability Science, 2021)
This paper explores the maintenance of livelihoods under climate, environmental, and economic development pressures, through the case of Thang Binh District in Quang Nam Province, Vietnam. Within widespread recognition of the need to link sustainable livelihoods approaches with climate change adaptation, there is growing awareness of the importance of people-centered approaches which keep the diverse experience, capabilities, and knowledges of the most vulnerable at the heart of sustainable livelihoods thinking. In response, this paper explores the conditions for changes in modes of livelihoods in a case study area where top-down strategies for sustainable livelihoods are met with residents’ diverse experiences of vulnerability, and where climate and environmental changes shape residents’ relations with the landscape. The research is undertaken via interviews with residents, farmers/fishers, and local government officials. Our study finds that whilst government-led initiatives for sustainable livelihoods are welcomed in the locality, inflexible policies can make it challenging for the most vulnerable people to access support. Moreover, residents see the capacity to live with and respond to extreme weather events as a critical component of maintaining a sustainable livelihood. Our findings reinforce international literature, showing that ‘the poor’ are not a homogenous category, and illustrate the importance of attention to the smallest levels of government who are tasked with putting sustainable livelihoods initiatives into practice in relation to people’s daily lives.

University teaching staff and sustainable development: an assessment of competences - Walter Leal Filho; Vanessa R. Levesque; Amanda Lange Salvia; Arminda Paço; Barbara Fritzen; Fernanda Frankenberger; Luana Inês Damke; Luciana L. Brandli; Lucas Veiga Ávila; Mark Mifsud; Markus Will; Paul Pace; et al. (Sustainability Science, 2021)

The development of climate security discourse in Japan - Yasuko Kameyama; Keishi Ono (Sustainability Science, 2021)
As the level of understanding about climate change has increased, the term “climate security” has been increasingly used in the rapidly growing literature on this subject. Although Japan has officially acknowledged the importance of tackling climate change, discussion of climate security has been almost nonexistent among Japanese governmental officials, politicians, and academics. Our aim was to trace discourses related to climate security in Japan to determine why so little exists in Japan and whether or not such discourse could suggest new areas for consideration to more comprehensively respond to the climate change problem. Because of different interpretations and uses of the term “climate security” in the existing literature, we first categorized existing approaches to climate security into four types and used this categorization to examine Japan’s discourse from these perspectives. Two of the approaches, namely “long-term irreversible planetary changes” and “short-term abrupt risks to individuals”, had been considered in Japan previously but without specific reference to the term climate security. The other two, “cause of conflict and violence” and “impacts to military and defense organizations”, however, had not been used and need to be included in discussions of climate change in Japan. Some of the topics not discussed in Japan include indirect economic losses of Japanese industries via supply chains, loss of Japan’s exclusive economic zone due to sea-level rise, and the potential inflow of refugees resulting from extreme weather patterns outside of Japan.

Sustainability in the management of scientific information - Miguel Ángel Medina (Sustainability Science, 2021)

Social capital and community disaster resilience: post-earthquake tourism recovery on Gili Trawangan, Indonesia - Stefan Partelow (Sustainability Science, 2021)
This study examines the hypothesis that social capital can be a foundation for community disaster resilience with an analysis of empirical findings from the August 2018 earthquake recovery on Gili Trawangan, Indonesia, a globally known coastal tourism destination. Positive links between community social capital and community disaster resilience are hypothesized, but the extent to which an iterative and interdependent relationship is co-shaping both is less understood. Social capital can enable collective action, providing self-organized social, psychological, financial and material resources following a disaster, that may otherwise need to be provided externally. In turn, disasters create collective action problems where collective response and recovery process are needed, creating an institutional space where the degree of usefulness, meaning and function of social capital can be shaped, recognized and drawn upon, often where external aid is insufficient. These relationships can be observed following disasters, because individuals and communities are often linked through emotive and meaningful sequences of common experiences, actions and activities. Findings descriptively detail Gili Trawangan’s response and recovery process through the events and activities that occurred, and are then theoretically analyzed with a social capital framework including bonding (within group), bridging (between group) and linking (across power and institutional) ties. Three conclusions can be summarized. (1) Community social capital and disaster resilience are iteratively co-shaped through collective experiences, actions and activities. (2) Understanding context is critical for understanding if and to what degree this relationship exists. (3) The mechanism through which social capital enhances resilience is that it can enable collective action that can lead to the provision of needed aid and services.

Collective and individual interdisciplinarity in a sustainability research group: A social network analysis - Bruno Locatelli; Améline Vallet; Jacques Tassin; Denis Gautier; Aurélie Chamaret; Plinio Sist (Sustainability Science, 2021)

Current practice of assessing students’ sustainability competencies: a review of tools - Aaron Redman; Arnim Wiek; Matthias Barth (Sustainability Science, 2021)
While there is growing agreement on the competencies sustainability professionals should possess as well as the pedagogies to develop them, the practice of assessing students’ sustainability competencies is still in its infancy. Despite growing interest among researchers, there has not yet been a systematic review of how students’ sustainability competencies are currently assessed. This review article responds to this need by examining what tools are currently used for assessing students’ sustainability competencies to inform future practice. A systematic literature review was conducted for publications through the end of 2019, resulting in 75 relevant studies that detail the use of an assessment tool. We analyzed the described tools regarding their main features, strengths and weaknesses, as well as potential improvements. Based on this analysis, we first propose a typology of eight assessment tools, which fall into three meta-types: self-perceiving, observation, and test-based approaches, providing specific examples of practice for all tools. We then articulate strengths and weaknesses as well as potential improvements for each tool (type). This study structures the field of sustainability competency assessment, provides a criteria-based overview of the currently used tools, and highlights promising future developments. For the practice, it provides guidance to sustainability (science) instructors, researchers, and program directors who are interested in using competencies assessment tools in more informed ways.

Setting ‘poverty thresholds’: whose experience counts? - Stuart Colin Carr (Sustainability Science, 2021)

Where to begin? Defining national strategies for implementing the 2030 Agenda: the case of Switzerland - Thomas Breu; Michael Bergöö; Laura Ebneter; Myriam Pham-Truffert; Sabin Bieri; Peter Messerli; Cordula Ott; Christoph Bader (Sustainability Science, 2021)
Five years after adoption of the 2030 Agenda, there is a general lack of progress in reaching its Sustainable Development Goals—be it on national, regional, or global scales. Scientists attribute this above all to insufficient understanding and addressing of interactions between goals and targets. This study aims to contribute to the methodological conceptualization of the 2030 Agenda’s implementation at the national level. To this end, taking the case of Switzerland, we tested and enhanced existing approaches for assessing interactions among the 2030 Agenda’s targets and for analysing the systemic relevance of priority targets. Building on our insights, the article concludes with an eight-step proposal for creating knowledge to support national 2030 Agendas.

How to run a sustainability science research group sustainably? - Tobias Plieninger; Nora Fagerholm; Claudia Bieling (Sustainability Science, 2021)
Rigorous sustainability science includes addressing pressing real-world problems, weaving multiple knowledge systems, and striving for transformative change. However, these key attributes of sustainability science often conflict with university structures and established academic work practices, for instance with regard to frequent long-distance travel. Such contradictions between key principles of sustainability and everyday practices are experienced by many researchers not only at university level, but also in their individual behaviors. To help resolve this widespread divergence, we present ten principles to foster the sustainability of a research group working in sustainability science, based on our personal experiences and experiments as research group leaders. These principles comprise: (1) monitor the environmental footprint, (2) foster learning and innovation, (3) reduce the environmental footprint, (4) nurture campus sustainability, (5) embrace sustainability in private life, (6) constructively deal with environmental anxiety, (7) design research projects for sustainability impact, (8) engage with stakeholders, (9) capitalize on sustainability teaching, and (10) recognize biases and limits. Applying sustainability principles in everyday research practices can provide important social tipping points that may trigger the spreading of new social norms and behaviors.

Volunteer beach cleanups: civic environmental stewardship combating global plastic pollution - Bethany Jorgensen; Marianne Krasny; Juan Baztan (Sustainability Science, 2021)

The coronavirus pandemic as an analogy for future sustainability challenges - John-Oliver Engler; David J. Abson; Henrik von Wehrden (Sustainability Science, 2021)
The current coronavirus outbreak may provide an illustrative analogy for sustainability challenges, exemplifying how challenges such as climate change may become wicked problems demanding novel and drastic solution attempts.

Ignored and invisible: internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the face of COVID-19 pandemic - Dan Jezreel A. Orendain; Riyanti Djalante (Sustainability Science, 2021)

Projecting population distribution under depopulation conditions in Japan: scenario analysis for future socio-ecological systems - Keiko Hori; Osamu Saito; Shizuka Hashimoto; Takanori Matsui; Rumana Akter; Kazuhiko Takeuchi (Sustainability Science, 2021)
This study develops a projection model of future population distribution on the basis of Japan’s current depopulation trend and applies this model to scenario analyses that assume population compactification and dispersion. The model enables a description of population migration at two levels. First, municipal populations are projected using the cohort-component method, and second, the spatial distribution of populations within municipalities is projected at a 500 m grid resolution with the use of the gravity model. Based on the Japanese depopulation context and the country’s National Spatial Strategy, the compact scenario predicts the formation of medium-scale regional urban areas (population centers located across Japan) and the concentration of people on high-density population areas within municipalities. Meanwhile, the dispersed scenario predicts the formation of more but smaller regional urban areas and the dispersion of the population to low-density areas. The simulated population distribution for 2050 reveals spatial change in population density and age structure, as well as an abundance of areas that were inhabited in 2015 but will be zero population areas by 2050. Overlay analysis of future land use maps and the simulated population distribution maps can contribute toward identifying areas where natural capital such as farmland and forest plantation should be managed but where there will be significant population loss by 2050.

Transforming sustainability science for practice: a social–ecological systems framework for training sustainability professionals - Andrew Kliskey; Lilian Alessa; David Griffith; Sarah Olsen; Paula Williams; Sammy Matsaw; Martin Cenek; Jim Gosz; Sarah Dengler (Sustainability Science, 2021)

Analyzing the effects of institutional capacity on sustainable water governance - Wanxin Li; David von Eiff; Alicia Kyoungjin An (Sustainability Science, 2021)

Key competencies in sustainability in higher education—toward an agreed-upon reference framework - Katja Brundiers; Matthias Barth; Gisela Cebrián; Matthew Cohen; Liliana Diaz; Sonya Doucette-Remington; Weston Dripps; Geoffrey Habron; Niki Harré; Meghann Jarchow; Kealalokahi Losch; Jessica Michel; et al. (Sustainability Science, 2021)

Do ecological–economic tradeoffs triggered by budget allocations for forest carbon sequestration change under different market conditions? - Seong-Hoon Cho; Young Gwan Lee; Bijay P. Sharma; Daniel J. Hayes (Sustainability Science, 2021)

Adaptive governance in a complex social-ecological context: emergent responses to a native forest insect outbreak - Jesse Abrams; Heidi Huber-Stearns; Michelle Steen-Adams; Emily Jane Davis; Chris Bone; Michael F. Nelson; Cassandra Moseley (Sustainability Science, 2021)

Environmental sustainable value in agriculture revisited: How does Common Agricultural Policy contribute to eco-efficiency? - Bazyli Czyżewski; Anna Matuszczak; Aleksander Grzelak; Marta Guth; Adam Majchrzak (Sustainability Science, 2021)
The conflict between capital-intensive agriculture, often called industrial agriculture, and sustainable farming is ongoing, and not because of Western European countries, where intensification is increasingly sustainable. It is caused by several million small farms in Central and Eastern Europe that must choose a long-term development path. This is also a dilemma for agricultural policy: Are small farms so environmentally friendly that they should play the role of ‘landscape guardians’ at the expense of public support and economic vegetation, or should they strive to improve productivity through investments? This study offers a methodological contribution to the value-based sustainability approach by computing indicators of environmental sustainable value (ESV). The authors have attempted to combine the value-oriented approach with frontier benchmarking. They then tested how the European Union Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) schemes contribute to ESV using a long-term panel of regionally representative farms from Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) with regard to factor endowments, for the years 2004–2017. The seminal within–between specification was employed to control the time variant and time invariant space heterogeneity of European regions. The main finding is that higher investment support is beneficial to ESV. Regarding factor endowment influence, there was a positive impact of the capital–labour ratio. Except the cross-sectional impact of environmental subsidies, the payments exert a negative effect on ESV.

Operationalising place for land system science - Michal Switalski; Adrienne Grêt-Regamey (Sustainability Science, 2021)
The following paper introduces the concept of place for land system science to better understand how the transformation of place, as place-making, can be operationalised. The aim is to operationalise place with the motivation that a deeper understanding of people–place interactions can advance knowledge of land systems towards practicable solutions to current sustainability challenges. An overview of place studies spanning a wide range of research disciplines is presented to form a clear and concise theoretical foundation, necessary when operationalising place beyond its traditional research domains and applications. The limitations and potential of place in the context of land systems science are then explored through examples and the importance of operationalising place as both a product and process is demonstrated. Place and place-making are presented as a conceptual model, which allows for expansion and substantiation when deployed to relevant land system research tasks. In closing, the directions and key themes for further development of people–place interactions in land system science are discussed.

Intrinsic values and the life framework of values: why we should go back to basics—comment to O’Connor and Kenter (2019) - Stijn Neuteleers; Glenn Deliège; Ullrich Melle (Sustainability Science, 2021)
The IPBES Framework aims to allow room for a plurality of values and recently proposed a move from `Ecosystem Services’ to `Nature’s Contributions to People’. O’Connor and Kenter (2019) argue that both approaches still disregard nature as an end in itself. Therefore, they propose a new conceptualisation of `intrinsic value’ and a new approach, labelled the `Life Framework of Values’. This work is highly relevant, but we argue that there are some fundamental conceptual problems with their current account, in particular with the conceptualisation of intrinsic value, relational value, and their category of `living as’. We argue that the changes made to the underlying framework of O’Neill add more confusion than clarification, that it is better to return to the original framework and to focus energy on making that framework applicable.

Analysing interactions among the sustainable development goals: findings and emerging issues from local and global studies - Joseph Alcamo; John Thompson; Anthony Alexander; Andreas Antoniades; Izabela Delabre; Jonathan Dolley; Fiona Marshall; Mary Menton; Jo Middleton; Jörn P. W. Scharlemann (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Recognizing our authors - Kazuhiko Takeuchi (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Mapping citizen science contributions to the UN sustainable development goals - Dilek Fraisl; Jillian Campbell; Linda See; Uta Wehn; Jessica Wardlaw; Margaret Gold; Inian Moorthy; Rosa Arias; Jaume Piera; Jessica L. Oliver; Joan Masó; Marianne Penker; et al. (Sustainability Science, 2020)
The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a vision for achieving a sustainable future. Reliable, timely, comprehensive, and consistent data are critical for measuring progress towards, and ultimately achieving, the SDGs. Data from citizen science represent one new source of data that could be used for SDG reporting and monitoring. However, information is still lacking regarding the current and potential contributions of citizen science to the SDG indicator framework. Through a systematic review of the metadata and work plans of the 244 SDG indicators, as well as the identification of past and ongoing citizen science initiatives that could directly or indirectly provide data for these indicators, this paper presents an overview of where citizen science is already contributing and could contribute data to the SDG indicator framework. The results demonstrate that citizen science is “already contributing” to the monitoring of 5 SDG indicators, and that citizen science “could contribute” to 76 indicators, which, together, equates to around 33%. Our analysis also shows that the greatest inputs from citizen science to the SDG framework relate to SDG 15 Life on Land, SDG 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities, SDG 3 Good Health and Wellbeing, and SDG 6 Clean Water and Sanitation. Realizing the full potential of citizen science requires demonstrating its value in the global data ecosystem, building partnerships around citizen science data to accelerate SDG progress, and leveraging investments to enhance its use and impact.

Looking inward, outward, and forward: Exploring the process of transformative learning in teacher education for a sustainable future - Andrea E. Weinberg; Carlie D. Trott; Wendy Wakefield; Eileen G. Merritt; Leanna Archambault (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Philosophy of science for sustainability science - Michiru Nagatsu; Taylor Davis; C. Tyler DesRoches; Inkeri Koskinen; Miles MacLeod; Milutin Stojanovic; Henrik Thorén (Sustainability Science, 2020)
Sustainability science seeks to extend scientific investigation into domains characterized by a distinct problem-solving agenda, physical and social complexity, and complex moral and ethical landscapes. In this endeavor, it arguably pushes scientific investigation beyond its usual comfort zones, raising fundamental issues about how best to structure such investigation. Philosophers of science have long scrutinized the structure of science and scientific practices, and the conditions under which they operate effectively. We propose a critical engagement between sustainability scientists and philosophers of science with respect to how to engage in scientific activity in these complex domains. We identify specific issues philosophers of science raise concerning current sustainability science and the contributions philosophers can make to resolving them. In conclusion, we reflect on the steps philosophers of science could take to advance sustainability science.

Sustainability from household and infrastructure innovations - Peter Allen; Eugene Butans; Marguerite Robinson; Liz Varga (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Using a combination of Q-methodology and survey-based approach for assessing forest ecosystem services of Five Finger Mountains in Northern Cyprus - Gulay Cetinkaya Ciftcioglu (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Dietary transitions and sustainability: current patterns and future trajectories - Alexandros Gasparatos (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Preparing interdisciplinary leadership for a sustainable future - Christopher G. Boone; Steward T. A. Pickett; Gabriele Bammer; Kamal Bawa; Jennifer A. Dunne; Iain J. Gordon; David Hart; Jessica Hellmann; Alison Miller; Mark New; Jean P. Ometto; Ken Taylor; et al. (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Rationale, experience and ethical considerations underpinning integrated actions to further global goals for health and land biodiversity in Papua New Guinea - Jo Middleton; Jackie A. Cassell; Gavin Colthart; Francesca Dem; James Fairhead; Michael G. Head; Joao Inacio; Mavis Jimbudo; Moses Laman; Vojtech Novotny; Mika Peck; Jonah Philip; et al. (Sustainability Science, 2020)
The SURFACES project is integrating action on good health and wellbeing [Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3] and conservation of life on land (SDG 15) in the threatened rainforests of Papua New Guinea (PNG), and mapping evidence of similar projects worldwide. Our approach is framed by Planetary Health, aiming to safeguard both human health and the natural systems that underpin it. Our rationale is demonstrated through a summary of health needs and forest conservation issues across PNG, and how these play out locally. We outline differing types of integrated conservation and health interventions worldwide, providing examples from Borneo, Uganda, India and elsewhere. We then describe what we are doing on-the-ground in PNG, which includes expansion of a rainforest conservation area alongside the establishment of a nurse-staffed aid post, and an educational intervention conceptually linking forest conservation and health. Importantly, we explore some ethical considerations on the conditionality of medical provision and identify key challenges to the successful implementation of such projects. The latter include: avoiding cross-sectoral blindness and achieving genuine interdisciplinary working; the weak evidence base justifying projects; and temporal-spatial issues. We conclude by suggesting how projects integrating actions on health and conservation SDGs can benefit from (and contribute to) the energy of the emerging Planetary Health movement.

Environmental justice and the SDGs: from synergies to gaps and contradictions - Mary Menton; Carlos Larrea; Sara Latorre; Joan Martinez-Alier; Mika Peck; Leah Temper; Mariana Walter (Sustainability Science, 2020)
Through their synergies, trade-offs, and contradictions, the sustainable development goals (SDGs) have the potential to lead to environmental justices and injustices. Yet, environmental justice (EJ), and social justice more broadly, are not currently embedded within the language and spirit of the SDGs. We part from the premise that “many ‘environmental’ problems are, by their very nature, problems of justice” (Lele, Wiley Interdiscip Rev Water 4:e1224, 2017). We review progress in EJ frameworks in recent years, arguing for the need to move beyond a focus on the four principles of mainstream EJ (distribution, procedure, recognition, and capabilities) towards a more intersectional decolonial approach to environmental justice that recognises the indispensability of both humans and non-humans. EJ frameworks, and the SDGs should recognise power dynamics, complex interactions among injustices, and listens to the different ‘senses of justice’ and desires of theorists, activists, and other stakeholder from the Global South. We analyze how EJ frameworks are, or fail to be, incorporated in the SDGs with a focus on the food–water–health nexus (SDG2, 3, 6); climate-energy (SDG7, 13), conservation (SDG14, 15); and poverty and inequality (SDG1, 10). We call attention to the ‘elephant in the room’—the failure to go beyond GDP but instead include economic growth as a goal (SDG8). We argue that sustainable degrowth and intersectional decolonial environmental justices would create better conditions for the transformative changes needed to reach the broader aim of the SDGs: to leave no one behind.

Analysing trade-offs and synergies between SDGs for urban development, food security and poverty alleviation in rapidly changing peri-urban areas: a tool to support inclusive urban planning - Jonathan Dolley; Fiona Marshall; Bradley Butcher; Jeremy Reffin; James Alexander Robinson; Baris Eray; Novi Quadrianto (Sustainability Science, 2020)
Transitional peri-urban contexts are frontiers for sustainable development where land-use change involves negotiation and contestation between diverse interest groups. Multiple, complex trade-offs between outcomes emerge which have both negative and positive impacts on progress towards achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These trade-offs are often overlooked in policy and planning processes which depend on top-down expert perspectives and rely on course grain aggregate data which does not reflect complex peri-urban dynamics or the rapid pace of change. Tools are required to address this gap, integrate data from diverse perspectives and inform more inclusive planning processes. In this paper, we draw on a reinterpretation of empirical data concerned with land-use change and multiple dimensions of food security from the city of Wuhan in China to illustrate some of the complex trade-offs between SDG goals that tend to be overlooked with current planning approaches. We then describe the development of an interactive web-based tool that implements deep learning methods for fine-grained land-use classification of high-resolution remote sensing imagery and integrates this with a flexible method for rapid trade-off analysis of land-use change scenarios. The development and potential use of the tool are illustrated using data from the Wuhan case study example. This tool has the potential to support participatory planning processes by providing a platform for multiple stakeholders to explore the implications of planning decisions and land-use policies. Used alongside other planning, engagement and ecosystem service mapping tools it can help to reveal invisible trade-offs and foreground the perspectives of diverse stakeholders. This is vital for building approaches which recognise how trade-offs between the achievement of SDGs can be influenced by development interventions.

Towards understanding interactions between Sustainable Development Goals: the role of environment–human linkages - Jörn P. W. Scharlemann; Rebecca C. Brock; Nicholas Balfour; Claire Brown; Neil D. Burgess; Miriam K. Guth; Daniel J. Ingram; Richard Lane; Juliette G. C. Martin; Sylvia Wicander; Valerie Kapos (Sustainability Science, 2020)
Only 10 years remain to achieve all Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) globally, so there is a growing need to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of action by targeting multiple SDGs. The SDGs were conceived as an ‘indivisible whole’, but interactions between SDGs need to be better understood. Several previous assessments have begun to explore interactions including synergies and possible conflicts between the SDGs, and differ widely in their conclusions. Although some highlight the role of the more environmentally-focused SDGs in underpinning sustainable development, none specifically focuses on environment–human linkages. Assessing interactions between SDGs, and the influence of environment on them can make an important contribution to informing decisions in 2020 and beyond. Here, we review previous assessments of interactions among SDGs, apply an influence matrix to assess pairwise interactions between all SDGs, and show how viewing these from the perspective of environment–human linkages can influence the outcome. Environment, and environment–human linkages, influence most interactions between SDGs. Our action-focused assessment enables decision makers to focus environmental management to have the greatest impacts and to identify opportunities to build on synergies and reduce trade-offs between particular SDGs. It may enable sectoral decision makers to seek support from environment managers for achieving their goals. We explore cross-cutting issues and the relevance and potential application of our approach in supporting decision making for progress to achieve the SDGs.

The contribution of small-scale food production in urban areas to the sustainable development goals: a review and case study - Elizabeth Nicholls; Adrian Ely; Linda Birkin; Parthiba Basu; Dave Goulson (Sustainability Science, 2020)
Food production depends upon the adequate provision of underpinning ecosystem services, such as pollination. Paradoxically, conventional farming practices are undermining these services and resulting in degraded soils, polluted waters, greenhouse gas emissions and massive loss of biodiversity including declines in pollinators. In essence, farming is undermining the ecosystem services it relies upon. Finding alternative more sustainable ways to meet growing food demands which simultaneously support biodiversity is one of the biggest challenges facing humanity. Here, we review the potential of urban and peri-urban agriculture to contribute to sustainable food production, using the 17 sustainable development goals set by the United Nations General Assembly as a framework. We present new data from a case study of urban gardens and allotments in the city of Brighton and Hove, UK. Such urban and peri-urban landholdings tend to be small and labour-intensive, characterised by a high diversity of crops including perennials and annuals. Our data demonstrate that this type of agricultural system can be highly productive and that it has environmental and social advantages over industrial agriculture in that crops are usually produced using few synthetic inputs and are destined for local consumption. Overall, we conclude that food grown on small-scale areas in and near cities is making a significant contribution to feeding the world and that this type of agriculture is likely to be relatively favourable for some ecosystem services, such as supporting healthy soils. However, major knowledge gaps remain, for example with regard to productivity, economic and employment impacts, pesticide use and the implications for biodiversity.

Collaboration, creativity, conflict and chaos: doing interdisciplinary sustainability research - Rose Cairns; Sabine Hielscher; Ann Light (Sustainability Science, 2020)
How do the social dynamics within interdisciplinary research teams shape sustainability research? This paper presents a case study of interdisciplinary research projects at the University of Sussex, as part of a programme aimed at encouraging collaborative work to address intersections between the Sustainability Development Goals. Using data gathered during a series of participatory workshops at the start and end of the projects, combined with non-participant observation and analysis of project discussions during the lifetime of the projects, we examine the diverse ways in which research teams configure themselves to navigate the terrain of interdisciplinary sustainability research and the kinds of social and discursive dynamics that shape projects. In particular, we relate the emergence of distinct project team configurations to diverse problem framings, and aspirations for collaboration within these teams. We examine some of the challenges facing researchers attempting to work in these ways, and explore implications of these dynamics for knowledge production for sustainability. We conclude by drawing out and addressing some of the challenges for institutions funding and supporting interdisciplinary sustainability research.

Financial crises and the attainment of the SDGs: an adjusted multidimensional poverty approach - Andreas Antoniades; Indra Widiarto; Alexander S. Antonarakis (Sustainability Science, 2020)
This paper analyses the impact of financial crises on the Sustainable Development Goal of eradicating poverty. To do so, we develop an adjusted Multidimensional Poverty Framework (MPF) that includes 15 indicators that span across key poverty aspects related to income, basic needs, health, education and the environment. We then use an econometric model that allows us to examine the impact of financial crises on these indicators in 150 countries over the period 1980–2015. Our analysis produces new estimates on the impact of financial crises on poverty’s multiple social, economic and environmental aspects and equally important captures dynamic linkages between these aspects. Thus, we offer a better understanding of the potential impact of current debt dynamics on Multidimensional Poverty and demonstrate the need to move beyond the boundaries of SDG1, if we are to meet the target of eradicating poverty. Our results indicate that the current financial distress experienced by many low-income countries may reverse the progress that has been made hitherto in reducing poverty. We find that financial crises are associated with an approximately 10% increase of extreme poor in low-income countries. The impact is even stronger in some other poverty aspects. For instance, crises are associated with an average decrease of government spending in education by 17.72% in low-income countries. The dynamic linkages between most of the Multidimensional Poverty indicators, warn of a negative domino effect on a number of SDGs related to poverty, if there is a financial crisis shock. To pre-empt such a domino effect, the specific SDG target 17.4 on attaining long-term debt sustainability through coordinated policies plays a key role and requires urgent attention by the international community.

Exploring synergies and trade-offs among the sustainable development goals: collective action and adaptive capacity in marginal mountainous areas of India - Steven Orchard; Dominic Glover; Shova Thapa Karki; Seife Ayele; Debashish Sen; Roshan Rathod; Pedram Rowhani (Sustainability Science, 2020)
Global environmental change (GEC) threatens to undermine the sustainable development goals (SDGs). Smallholders in marginal mountainous areas (MMA) are particularly vulnerable due to precarious livelihoods in challenging environments. Acting collectively can enable and constrain the ability of smallholders to adapt to GEC. The objectives of this paper are: (i) identify collective actions in four MMA of the central Indian Himalaya Region, each with differing institutional contexts; (ii) assess the adaptive capacity of each village by measuring livelihood capital assets, diversity, and sustainable land management practices. Engaging with adaptive capacity and collective action literatures, we identify three broad approaches to adaptive capacity relating to the SDGs: natural hazard mitigation (SDG 13), social vulnerability (SDG 1, 2 and 5), and social–ecological resilience (SDG 15). We then develop a conceptual framework to understand the institutional context and identify SDG synergies and trade-offs. Adopting a mixed method approach, we analyse the relationships between collective action and the adaptive capacity of each village, the sites where apparent trade-offs and synergies among SDGs occur. Results illustrate each village has unique socio-environmental characteristics, implying distinct development challenges, vulnerabilities and adaptive capacities exist. Subsequently, specific SDG synergies and trade-offs occur even within MMA, and it is therefore crucial that institutions facilitate locally appropriate collective actions in order to achieve the SDGs. We suggest that co-production in the identification, prioritisation and potential solutions to the distinct challenges facing MMA can increase understandings of the specific dynamics and feedbacks necessary to achieve the SDGs in the context of GEC.

Strategies for tropical forest protection and sustainable supply chains: challenges and opportunities for alignment with the UN sustainable development goals - Izabela Delabre; Anthony Alexander; Camila Rodrigues (Sustainability Science, 2020)
Governance for sustainable development increasingly involves diverse stakeholder groups, with the promise of enhanced legitimacy and effectiveness in decision-making and implementation. The UN sustainable development goals (SDGs) emphasise the important role of multiple (non-state) actors, including businesses and non-governmental organisations, including in efforts to ensure the sustainability of supply chains, and to reduce tropical deforestation and forest degradation. This paper critically analyses sustainability strategies to examine how the UN SDG agendas related to ‘sustainable supply chains’ and ‘tropical forest protection’ are framed and enacted by two contrasting non-state actors: (1) Instituto Centro de Vida (ICV), an NGO in Brazil working to address deforestation, including by supporting farmers to produce commodities, and (2) Unilever, a global consumer goods manufacturer and major buyer of such commodities. By identifying areas of variability in the discursive techniques used by ICV and Unilever, we unearth particular power dynamics that can shape the processes and outcomes of sustainability strategies. This paper finds that the two organisations use diverse strategies at different levels of governance, both participate actively in multi-stakeholder forums to advance their organisations’ goals, but have divergent framings of ‘sustainability’. Despite being considered ‘non-state’ actors, the strategies of the two organisations examined both reflect, and influence, the structural effects of the state in the implementation of non-state organisations’ strategies, and progress towards the SDGs. Although there is alignment of certain strategies related to tropical forest protection, in some cases, there is a risk that more sustainable, alternative approaches to governing forests and supply chains may be excluded.

Trade, transboundary impacts and the implementation of SDG 12 - Rob Amos; Emily Lydgate (Sustainability Science, 2020)
The 2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were developed to ‘transform our world’. Yet critics argue that the concept of sustainable development serves to maintain an unsustainable status quo, or provide a positive gloss on a terminal conflict between its ‘pillars’: environmental protection, economic growth and social welfare. In this article, we examine this tension with respect to the implementation of SDG 12 in the European Union. SDG 12 calls for responsible consumption and production, which necessitates reconciling, or ‘decoupling’, economic growth and environmental degradation: the core of sustainable development. Initial examination reveals that the largest implementation gap is among high-consuming countries, including those of the EU, the focus of our article, who are failing to account for transboundary impacts of products consumed domestically. This shortcoming, facilitated by the flexibility of the SDG ‘global target, national action’ approach, undermines the achievement of other environmental SDGs relating to biodiversity and climate, among others. Yet, as compared to other EU approaches to addressing transboundary environmental harm from trade in existing Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) and Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs), which we examine, the global focus and breadth of SDG 12 offers transformative potential. Ultimately, even if the three pillars of sustainable development are not ‘rebalanced’ toward environmental conservation, they can provide a construct for examining interactions and trade-offs between goals. Simply taking account of transboundary consumption, as SDG 12 indicators call for, would encourage more effective cooperation to help producing countries address environmental problems that result from production for export through impact assessment and enforcement.

Developing sustainable bioenergy systems with local bio-resources: cases in Asia - Chun Sheng Goh; Osamu Saito; Yoshiki Yamagata (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Agroforestry governance for operationalising the landscape approach: connecting conservation and farming actors - Yves Zinngrebe; Elena Borasino; Brian Chiputwa; Philip Dobie; Edwin Garcia; Anja Gassner; Phillip Kihumuro; Heru Komarudin; Nining Liswanti; Permutia Makui; Tobias Plieninger; Etti Winter; et al. (Sustainability Science, 2020)
The expansion and intensification of agriculture as well as the associated land clearing are threatening both biodiversity and human wellbeing in tropical areas. Implementing agroforestry systems through a landscape approach has a strong potential for integrating nature conservation objectives into agricultural systems. A key challenge for implementing the landscape approach is that political processes and conservation initiatives operate in ‘silos’, being largely disconnected from farmers and local key agents responsible for tree governance. In this study we brought together different stakeholders in facilitated, structured focus discussions to analyse the role of actor groups in tree governance. We used social network analysis to quantitatively and qualitatively analyse agroforestry governance networks and actor interactions related to information exchange, finance flows, and regulation. The analyses were conducted at national, sub-national and local levels in four countries: Honduras, Peru, Indonesia, and Uganda. Using trees on farms as a boundary object enabled all participants to bridge common interests and illuminate some of the constraints and opportunities of local governance systems while overcoming institutional and ideological barriers. The quantitative results of the social network analysis identify a strong density of actor linkages. Despite this density, results indicate incoherent and fragmented actor networks undermining the support for agroforestry on all levels. Nevertheless, existing processes related to finance, information, and regulation can be better aligned to ensure an effective implementation and mainstreaming of agroforestry for biodiversity conservation. Building social capital among key actors on both national and local levels can reveal a strong potential for adaptive learning processes mainstreaming agroforestry as essential component of “good farming” and integrating incentive systems for a coherent and effective agroforestry governance. We conclude that redirecting both public and private funding towards continuous seed-funding for the facilitation of these integrated learning processes can transform landscape management and at the same time reduce transaction costs.

Evolution of traditional agroforestry landscapes and development of invasive species: lessons from the Pyrenees (France) - Sylvie Guillerme; Hugues Barcet; Nicolas de Munnik; Eric Maire; Claire Marais-Sicre (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Agroforestry for sustainable landscape management - Tobias Plieninger; José Muñoz-Rojas; Louise E. Buck; Sara J. Scherr (Sustainability Science, 2020)
Agroforestry and sustainable landscape management are key strategies for implementing the UN-Sustainable Development Goals across the world’s production landscapes. However, both strategies have so far been studied in isolation from each other. This editorial introduces a special feature dedicated to scrutinizing the role of agroforestry in sustainable landscape management strategies. The special feature comprises eleven studies that adopt inter- and transdisciplinary perspectives, integrating ecological, agricultural, and socio-economic sciences, and in some cases also practical knowledge. The studies relate to a range of different ecosystem goods and services, and to a diversity of societal sectors (e.g., agriculture, forestry, nature conservation, urban planning, landscape protection) and demands, including their mutual synergies and trade-offs. They inform land-use policy and practice by conceptualizing agroforestry as a set of “nature-based solutions” useful to help tackle multiple societal challenges. The studies encompass four themes: social-ecological drivers, processes, and impacts of changes of agroforestry landscapes; the sustainability outcomes of agroforestry at landscape scale; scaling up agroforestry through multi-stakeholder landscape strategies; and development of conceptual and operational tools for stakeholder analysis in agroforestry landscape transitions. Key steps to harness agroforestry for sustainable landscape management comprise: (i) moving towards an “agroforestry sustainability science”; (ii) understanding local land-use trajectories, histories, and traditions; (iii) upscaling agroforestry for landscape-scale benefits; (iv) promoting the multiple economic, environmental, social, and cultural values of agroforestry; (v) fostering inclusive forms of landscape governance; and (vi) supporting the innovation process of agroforestry system analysis and design.

Causes and consequences of reduced human intervention in formerly managed forests in Japan and other countries - Akiko Oono; Chiho Kamiyama; Osamu Saito (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Exploring the social coherence of rural landscapes featuring agroforestry intercropping systems using locals’ visual assessments and perceptions - Geneviève Laroche; Gérald Domon; Alain Olivier (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Using integrated landscape management to scale agroforestry: examples from Ecuador - L. Buck; S. Scherr; L. Trujillo; J. Mecham; M. Fleming (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Combining participatory games and backcasting to support collective scenario evaluation: an action research approach for sustainable agroforestry landscape management - Federico Andreotti; Erika N. Speelman; Karel Van den Meersche; Clementine Allinne (Sustainability Science, 2020)
The combined and interacting effects of land-use change, resource extraction and climate change threaten the sustainability of millions of mainly smallholder farms in tropical agroforested landscapes. In many of these landscapes, coordinated action among stakeholders at landscape level would help to address challenges such as pests and diseases, price crises and climate change. However, methods to facilitate the co-production of sustainable landscape management in such complex multi-stakeholder systems are currently largely lacking. In this paper, we present a novel approach to explore pathways for the sustainability transition of agroforestry systems. By combining participatory forecasting and backcasting approaches, based on serious games and future vision development, we explore relevant agroforestry management strategies for reaching sustainable future coffee-based agroforestry landscapes. We focused our research on the challenges faced in the main coffee-producing area in Nicaragua. Here, we organized five participatory game sessions to explore farmer decision-making processes, farming strategies and to develop new networks and stimulate social learning among farmers. In the associated backcasting workshop, the most influential game session participants joined technicians, researchers and municipality officials to collectively envision sustainable future landscape management. In all game sessions, farmers developed diversified coffee-based agroforested landscapes characterised by increased density and diversity of shade trees, for the purpose of income diversification as well as forest conservation. During the backcasting workshop, the participants identified policy instruments and community-based solutions for the transition to sustainable landscapes. Our participatory approach facilitated discussion on landscape planning among farmers and other stakeholders and allowed the outline of a pathway towards the collective envisioned future landscape. The combination of participatory forecasting and backcasting proved to be a helpful tool to support multi-stakeholder processes towards sustainable landscape management in this and other complex landscapes.

Challenges and innovations for improving the sustainability of European agroforestry systems of high nature and cultural value: stakeholder perspectives - Victor Rolo; Tibor Hartel; Stephanie Aviron; Staffan Berg; Josep Crous-Duran; Antonello Franca; Jaconette Mirck; Joao Henrique Nunes Palma; Anastasia Pantera; Joana Amaral Paulo; Fernando Javier Pulido; Gioavanna Seddaiu; et al. (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Driving factors and impact of land-use change in a fragile rainfed lowland rice-sugar palm cultural agroforestry system in southern Thailand - Pongchai Dumrongrojwatthana; Keerati Wanich; Guy Trébuil (Sustainability Science, 2020)

The policyscape of agroforestry within Mediterranean protected landscapes in France - Clara Therville; Martine Antona; Hubert de Foresta (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Understanding human–nature connections through value networks: the case of ancient wood-pastures of Central Romania - Tibor Hartel; Andreea Nita; Laurentiu Rozylowicz (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Exploring land-use histories of tree-crop landscapes: a cross-site comparison in the Mediterranean Basin - Franziska Wolpert; Cristina Quintas-Soriano; Tobias Plieninger (Sustainability Science, 2020)
Agroforestry landscapes in the Mediterranean Basin have emerged in a co-evolution between humans and nature and provide numerous ecosystem services to society. Tree crops are iconic elements of these landscapes and have frequently been managed in a sustainable way over centuries, shaping multifunctional landscapes and local people’s cultural identities. However, many Mediterranean tree-crop landscapes are undergoing substantial land-use changes, threatening important ecosystem services as a result. The overarching goal of this study is to explore common and diverging patterns of land-use change across different tree crops (oaks, chestnuts, olives) and contrasting landscapes in the Mediterranean Basin over a 200-year period. Specifically, we aim to: (1) describe the dominant land-use change processes across these three crop types using three exemplary sites per crop; and (2) identify and classify the main drivers that determine these landscapes’ land change histories. We find a general acceleration of landscape dynamics and identify expansion, continuity, polarisation, intensification, abandonment and renaissance as dominant processes. Although each landscape history is contextualised, we observe a general trend from multifunctional tree-crop landscapes (expansion) towards intensification or abandonment in the last 70 years. The landscapes of the southern fringe of the Mediterranean Basin show predominant trends towards intensification, while the northern landscapes evolve towards abandonment. The driving forces identified are diverse and interrelated, comprising sets of socio-cultural, political, technical, economic and natural factors. We offer some key lessons for sustainable landscape management in highlighting the undervalued potential of tree crops, the inherent complexity of landscapes, the interdependencies of drivers and the importance of economic and socio-cultural driving forces.

Labelling in Mediterranean agroforestry landscapes: a Delphi study on relevant sustainability indicators - Lukas Flinzberger; Yves Zinngrebe; Tobias Plieninger (Sustainability Science, 2020)
In the face of unsustainable land-use changes including intensified agricultural production and land abandonment, agroforestry systems have the potential to support a diversity of social and ecological functions in agricultural landscapes. Mediterranean agroforestry landscapes have been conserved through traditional practices, and new concepts are necessary to assure the viability of these practices. Labels bear the opportunity to indicate sustainable management along the supply chain and, at the same time, generate higher incomes for sustainably producing farms. We have used an expert-based Delphi survey with three iterative surveys to analyse (1) the relevance of different sustainability aspects in agroforestry systems, (2) the suitability of derived indicators for labelling, and (3) the specific potentials and barriers for labelling agroforestry production or ecological UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG)—are considered relevant for agroforestry systems. Translating these goals into suitable indicators is the more challenging step, revealing the lack of appropriate data, the complexity of sustainability challenges, and a low willingness for producers to adapt their practices as key limiting factors. The assessment of the labelling schemes indicated coherent responses despite the diverse backgrounds of participants. Alongside eco-labels and social labels, Geographic Indications were suggested as the most suitable options for the agroforestry context, although these have not been invented for reflecting sustainability in the first place. Although experts are highly aware of social-cultural values of agroforestry systems, they see little potential to use those social-cultural aspects for labelling agroforestry products. Initial costs and missing consumer awareness for agroforestry are major reasons for not joining labelling schemes. We discuss the possibility of an agroforestry label and why elements of Geographic Indication labels may fit well for this purpose.

Application of technology assessments to co-learning for regional transformation: a case study of biomass energy systems in Tanegashima - Yasunori Kikuchi; Miwa Nakai; Yuichiro Kanematsu; Kazutake Oosawa; Tatsuya Okubo; Yuko Oshita; Yasuhiro Fukushima (Sustainability Science, 2020)
Japan is faced with sustainability challenges such as resource security and depopulation. Well-coordinated, multifaceted actions including a shift from imported fossil to locally available renewable resources and empowering of rural areas are vital in tackling these challenges. Here, we present our co-learning approach to practice the multifaceted actions with a case study on Tanegashima, an isolated Japanese island. In these actions, thorough understanding of the feasible technologies, the locally available resources, and the socioeconomic aspects of the local community should be shared among the stakeholders to acquire the momentum for a change. In addition to the technoeconomic analysis, several other analyses were conducted to reveal the concerns of respective stakeholders, share the understandings on the possibilities of technology options, and their socioeconomic implications on local sustainability. Tools such as the life cycle assessment, input–output analysis, and choice experiments based on questionnaire surveys on the residents' preferences are used for the analyses. The stakeholders were provided with the results during a 5-year period, through more than 30 co-learning events, e.g., symposiums, seminars, and workshops. A total of ca. 1400 participants from residents, local industries, public organizations, and a high school joined these events. These opportunities gradually converted the concerns of the local stakeholders on their future regional energy systems into expectations and yielded constructive alternatives in technology implementation that can use the locally available resources. The changes in residents’ mind set through the co-learning processes induced by the contributions of the outsiders, providing professional insights acquired from the analyses and through the interactions with local stakeholders were examined in this study. This study demonstrates that the holistic incorporation of scientific technology assessments into co-learning can help coordinate the collaboration between researchers and local stakeholders toward regional transformation.

Rethinking sustainable bioenergy development in Japan: decentralised system supported by local forestry biomass - Chun Sheng Goh; Takanobu Aikawa; Amanda Ahl; Kanae Ito; Chihiro Kayo; Yasunori Kikuchi; Yasuo Takahashi; Takaaki Furubayashi; Toshihiko Nakata; Yuichiro Kanematsu; Osamu Saito; Yoshiki Yamagata (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Smart technology applications in the woody biomass supply chain: interview insights and potential in Japan - Amanda Ahl; Mika Goto; Masaru Yarime (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Evaluating landscape improvement scenarios from the perspective of biomass production: a case study of peri-urban satoyama woodland in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area - Toru Terada (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Sustainable bioenergy deployment in East and South East Asia: notes on recent trends - Martin Junginger; Jaap Koppejan; Chun Sheng Goh (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Creating a space for place and multidimensional well-being: lessons learned from localizing the SDGs - Eleanor J. Sterling; Puaʻala Pascua; Amanda Sigouin; Nadav Gazit; Lisa Mandle; Erin Betley; John Aini; Simon Albert; Sophie Caillon; Jennifer E. Caselle; Samantha H. Cheng; Joachim Claudet; et al. (Sustainability Science, 2020)
Achieving sustainable development globally requires multilevel and interdisciplinary efforts and perspectives. Global goals shape priorities and actions at multiple scales, creating cascading impacts realized at the local level through the direction of financial resources and implementation of programs intended to achieve progress towards these metrics. We explore ways to localize global goals to best support human well-being and environmental health by systematically comparing the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with regionally-derived well-being dimensions that encompass components of social–ecological resilience across the Pacific Islands. Our research shows that, in the context of the Pacific, there are overlaps but also significant gaps between regional conceptions of well-being and the globally-derived SDGs. Some dimensions, related to human health and access to infrastructure and finances, are well represented in the SDGs. Other dimensions of high importance when localizing perspectives of well-being, such as those regarding connections between and across people and place and Indigenous and local knowledge, are not. Furthermore, internationally generated indicators may result in trade-offs and measurement challenges in local contexts. Creating space for place-based values in global sustainability planning aligns with international calls for transformational changes needed to achieve global goals. We identify challenges in applying SDG indicators at the local level and provide lessons learned to foster equitable and holistic approaches and outcomes for sustainability.

Simulating alternative sustainable water futures - D. A. Sampson; E. M. Cook; M. J. Davidson; N. B. Grimm; D. M. Iwaniec (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Synergies and trade-offs between sustainable development goals and targets: innovative approaches and new perspectives - Fabrice Renaud; Xin Zhou; Lee Bosher; Brian Barrett; Suiliang Huang (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Networks of action situations in social-ecological systems research - Christian Kimmich; Melf-Hinrich Ehlers; Elke Kellner; Christoph Oberlack; Andreas Thiel; Sergio Villamayor-Tomas (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Deconstructing a 2-year long transdisciplinary sustainability project in Northern universities: is rhetorical nobility obscuring procedural and political discords? - Aditya Ghosh (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Capital, rules or conflict? Factors affecting livelihood-strategies, infrastructure-resilience, and livelihood-vulnerability in the polders of Bangladesh - Sanchayan Nath; Frank van Laerhoven; Peter Driessen; Md. Nadiruzzaman (Sustainability Science, 2020)
Coastal regions are most susceptible to the effects of climate change. To increase infrastructure-resilience of such regions, reduce livelihood-vulnerability of people living in such regions and equip them with appropriate livelihood strategies, governments have invested heavily in coastal infrastructure such as polders. This research is focused on the polders of Bangladesh. The effectiveness of Bangladesh’s polders is disputed. No large-scale, evaluative, quantitative analysis of polders has yet been conducted. There is also only a limited number of evaluative studies on the factors which affect livelihood strategies, livelihood-vulnerability or infrastructure-resilience in polders. Therefore, the research question guiding this research is: What factors affect livelihood strategies, infrastructure-resilience, and livelihood-vulnerability in the polders of Bangladesh? These questions are answered by drawing on propositions from the Sustainable Livelihood Approach (SLA) using statistical analysis of a dataset of 137 polders. This dataset has been created from 76 survey-based interviews, secondary research and geo-spatial analysis. It is hypothesized that under different contextual settings, different combinations of livelihood resource endowments, lead to different combinations of livelihood strategies. These combinations of livelihood strategies lead to different outcomes after being moderated by different institutional, and political settings, under different contextual settings. This research demonstrates that various kinds of conflict-related and rule-making variables affect sustainability outcomes. Relationships proposed by the SLA are statistically significant and are generalizable across a large number of heterogeneous sites. Geological, geomorphological, climatic and hydrological conditions also affect livelihood decisions of polder-residents and also affect the condition of polder-infrastructure.

The Sustainable Development Goals prioritize economic growth over sustainable resource use: a critical reflection on the SDGs from a socio-ecological perspective - Nina Eisenmenger; Melanie Pichler; Nora Krenmayr; Dominik Noll; Barbara Plank; Ekaterina Schalmann; Marie-Theres Wandl; Simone Gingrich (Sustainability Science, 2020)
The sustainable development goals (SDGs) were adopted in 2015, succeeding the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). While the MDGs focused on improving well-being in the developing world, the 17 SDGs address all countries and aim at reconciling economic and social with ecological goals. We adopt a social ecology perspective and critically reflect on the SDGs’ potential for monitoring, supporting, and bringing about a transformation towards sustainability. Starting from a literature review on the SDGs, we link empirical findings from social ecology with analyses of SDG targets and indicators. First, we find that the SDGs fail to monitor absolute trends in resource use and thus prioritize economic growth over ecological integrity. Second, we discuss the contradictions between economic growth and sustainable resource use in early and late stages of industrialization processes and show that they are responsible for important trade-offs among SDG targets. Third, we analyze the transformative potential of the SDGs with a focus on the actors and institutions addressed to bring about transformative change. We find that the SDGs rely mainly on those institutions responsible for unsustainable resource use, and partly propose measures that even reinforce current trends towards less sustainability. Despite ascertaining limited transformative potential to the SDGs from an analytical perspective, we conclude by stressing the strategic relevance of the SDGs for visions, research, and practices of statt towards transformative change towards sustainability.

Loss and Damage and limits to adaptation: recent IPCC insights and implications for climate science and policy - R. Mechler; C. Singh; K. Ebi; R. Djalante; A. Thomas; R. James; P. Tschakert; M. Wewerinke-Singh; T. Schinko; D. Ley; J. Nalau; L. M. Bouwer; et al. (Sustainability Science, 2020)
Recent evidence shows that climate change is leading to irreversible and existential impacts on vulnerable communities and countries across the globe. Among other effects, this has given rise to public debate and engagement around notions of climate crisis and emergency. The Loss and Damage (L&D) policy debate has emphasized these aspects over the last three decades. Yet, despite institutionalization through an article on L&D by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in the Paris Agreement, the debate has remained vague, particularly with reference to its remit and relationship to adaptation policy and practice. Research has recently made important strides forward in terms of developing a science perspective on L&D. This article reviews insights derived from recent publications by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and others, and presents the implications for science and policy. Emerging evidence on hard and soft adaptation limits in certain systems, sectors and regions holds the potential to further build momentum for climate policy to live up to the Paris ambition of stringent emission reductions and to increase efforts to support the most vulnerable. L&D policy may want to consider actions to extend soft adaptation limits and spur transformational, that is, non-standard risk management and adaptation, so that limits are not breached. Financial, technical, and legal support would be appropriate for instances where hard limits are transgressed. Research is well positioned to further develop robust evidence on critical and relevant risks at scale in the most vulnerable countries and communities, as well as options to reduce barriers and limits to adaptation.

Exploring the ‘Safe Operating Space’ of India for the implementation of UN-Sustainable Development Goals through effectual policy alignment - Priya Priyadarshini; Purushothaman Chirakkuzhyil Abhilash (Sustainability Science, 2020)

A global analysis of the drivers of human pressure within protected areas at the national level - Christos Mammides (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Correction to: A community‑engaged approach to transdisciplinary doctoral training in urban ecosystem services - Heejun Chang; Elise F. Granek; David Ervin; Alan Yeakley; Veronica Dujon; Vivek Shandas (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Transition within a transition: how cooperative platforms want to change the sharing economy - Joël Foramitti; Angelos Varvarousis; Giorgos Kallis (Sustainability Science, 2020)

The genetic and cultural evolution of unsustainability - Brian F. Snyder (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Merging the arts and sciences for collaborative sustainability action: a methodological framework - Carlie D. Trott; Trevor L. Even; Susan M. Frame (Sustainability Science, 2020)
This manuscript explores the possibilities and challenges of art–science integration in facilitating collaborative sustainability action in local settings. To date, much sustainability education is prescriptive, rather than participatory, and most integrated art–science programming aims for content learning, rather than societal change. What this means is that learners are more often taught “what is” than invited to imagine “what if?” In order to envision and enact sustainable alternatives, there is a need for methods that allow community members, especially young people, to critically engage with the present, imagine a better future, and collaboratively act for sustainability today. This manuscript introduces a methodological framework that integrates the arts and sciences to facilitate: (1) transdisciplinary learning, focusing on local sustainability challenges; (2) participatory process, bringing experience-based knowledge into conversation with research-based knowledge; and (3) collaborative sustainability action, inviting community members to envision and enact sustainable alternatives where they live. The transformative potential of this framework is examined through international case studies from countries representing the richest and poorest in the Western hemisphere: a multi-site research study and after-school program for climate change education and action in collaboration with children in the Western US; and a multi-cycle research study and community arts center course for environmental photography and youth-led water advocacy in Southern Haiti. Despite many shared characteristics, case studies diverge in important ways relative to the sustainability challenges they sought to address, the specific context in which activities took place, and the manner in which art–science integration was practiced. Across cases, however, art–science integration facilitated participants’ learning, connection, and action for sustainability. Framed by the shared aims of transdisciplinary approaches, this manuscript discusses methodological hurdles and practical lessons learned in art–science integration across settings as well as the transformative capacity of alternative pedagogical and research practices in building a sustainable future.

Graduate ability to show workplace sustainability leadership: demonstration of an assessment tool - Ian Thomas; Sarah Holdsworth; Orana Sandri (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Problematic blue growth: a thematic synthesis of social sustainability problems related to growth in the marine and coastal tourism - Neva Leposa (Sustainability Science, 2020)
Marine and coastal tourism constitutes one of the largest and fastest-growing segments in tourism. Growth in marine tourism is now furthered through the ‘blue growth’ imperative, which this article problematises. The paper argues that there are already existing sustainability issues related to the marine tourism sector. These problems could be exacerbated if growth is additionally boosted. Since the social sustainability consequences of the growth of marine tourism are less known in the sustainability science literature, this paper thematically synthesises these types of sustainability problems in particular, as presented in the tourism studies, and brings them closer to sustainability science readers. The cases of cruise tourism, ecotourism, and tourism in marine protected areas, and community-based tourism studies are examined, wherein the latter represents a critical case for social sustainability matters. The paper reports several social and environmental injustices, produced through structural forces, and a manipulated access to natural resources, health services, and healthy environments. Social sustainability issues are most obvious in cruise tourism; however, also tourism in marine protected areas, ecotourism, and community-based tourism are not unproblematic. Thus, blue growth initiatives should be carefully examined and questioned.

Transdisciplinarity: science for and with society in light of the university’s roles and functions - Roland W. Scholz (Sustainability Science, 2020)
The idea that universities should become entrepreneurial, commercialized, private commodities or should serve politicians and governmental agencies has been promoted by the university–industry–government relationship-based Triple Helix approach and is reality in many places. In contrast, a reemphasis on universities serving the public good has been demanded by proponents of transdisciplinary sustainability research. To better understand the tensions between public-good–oriented approaches of transdisciplinarity and entrepreneurial, market-oriented Triple Helix and third-mission approaches of science—practice collaboration, this paper takes a closer look at the history of universities’ roles and functions. We then elucidate the practice of transdisciplinary processes and discuss the “science for and with society” approach of transdisciplinary sustainable transitioning. We argue that transdisciplinarity for producing groundbreaking sociotechnical solutions has to serve (a) the public good and (b) calls for independence, academic freedom, institutionalization, and proper funding schemes. Third-mission conceptions that follow the commercialization/capitalization of scientific knowledge are in conflict with the conception of science and of transdisciplinarity serving sustainable transitioning. The development of groundbreaking ideas for sustainable transitions must acknowledge the complexity and contextualization of real-world settings. Therefore, collaboration between practice and transdisciplinarity calls for the input and cooperation of authentic practitioners, i.e., the experts of practice and real wold complexity. The challenge of transdisciplinarity is to properly relate the fundamental expertise of practice to validated academic rigor. This implies that transdisciplinary research is a critical element of the university’s research mission.

Selection of indicators as a tool for negotiating objectives and evaluating targets within participatory monitoring - Emma Villaseñor; Luciana Porter-Bolland; Federico Escobar-Sarria; Matthias Rös; Albert M. Chan Dzul; Sara Oliveros López; Alberto López Díaz (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Storylines for practice: a visual storytelling approach to strengthen the science-practice interface - Vivian Juliette Cortes Arevalo; Laura N. H. Verbrugge; Anneke Sools; Marcela Brugnach; Rik Wolterink; R. Pepijn van Denderen; Jasper H. J. Candel; Suzanne J. M. H. Hulscher (Sustainability Science, 2020)
A growing number of scientific publications is available to promote sustainable river management. However, these publications target researchers rather than water management professionals who are responsible for the implementation of management practices. To bridge this science-to-practice gap, we conceptualize and propose a series of steps to prepare effective storylines targeted at a practitioner audience. We developed this approach within a research program that supports integrated and collaborative river management. We prepared three storylines, each based on one scientific publication. The storylines combined text and interactive visuals using the ESRI StoryMaps tool to make them available online. Via focus groups with 44 participants from research and practice, we evaluated the perceived usefulness of and engagement with the content and design. We collected feedback from participants using a survey as well as via audio and screen recordings. Our findings show that we should narrow down the audience of the storylines by tailoring them to the needs of project managers rather than specialized advisors. Therefore, the content should offer more than a visual summary of the research by showing examples of the management application. A more engaging sequence with a clear protagonist is further required to better relate to the problem and the potential application. Although visuals and interactive elements were considered attractive, a multi-disciplinary editorial team is necessary to better complement the visuals’ design to the text. The level of detail of participants’ feedback shows that involving project managers to co-create storylines can be an important step for improvement.

On the feasibility of cropland and forest area expansions required to achieve long-term temperature targets - Ayami Hayashi; Fuminori Sano; Keigo Akimoto (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Correction to: Adapting global shared socio-economic pathways for national scenarios in Japan - He Chen; Keisuke Matsuhashi; Kiyoshi Takahashi; Shinichiro Fujimori; Keita Honjo; Kei Gomi (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Homegarden commercialization: extent, household characteristics, and effect on food security and food sovereignty in Rural Indonesia - Oekan S. Abdoellah; Mindi Schneider; Luthfan Meilana Nugraha; Yusep Suparman; Cisma Tami Voletta; Susanti Withaningsih; Parikesit; Amanda Heptiyanggit; Lukmanul Hakim (Sustainability Science, 2020)
Homegardens have long been recognized for contributing to household food security, nutritional status, and ecological sustainability in especially poor, rural areas in low-income countries. However, as markets and policies drive the commercialization of food and farming systems, and of rural livelihoods in general, it becomes increasingly difficult for small-holder farmers to maintain homegarden plots. Rather than autonomous spaces to grow food for self-consumption, farmers are transforming the land around their dwellings into an income-generating space by planting commercial crops for sale in urban and processing markets. The objective of this study was to examine homegarden commercialization in the Upper Citarum Watershed of West Java, Indonesia, and its effects on food security and food sovereignty. We employed a mixed-method approach to survey 81 village households involved in agricultural production. For quantitative analysis, we calculated a “homegarden commercialization index,” and developed indicator frameworks to examine relationships between commercialization, household food security, and food-related decision-making. Accompanied by insights from qualitative interviews, our results show that homegardens are highly commercialized, which contributes to the spread of monocultural production in the region. We argue that homegardens should be included and supported in food, agricultural, health, environmental, and rural development policy, in Indonesia and generally.

A community-engaged approach to transdisciplinary doctoral training in urban ecosystem services - Heejun Chang; Elise F. Granek; David Ervin; Alan Yeakley; Veronica Dujon; Vivek Shandas (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Knowledge coevolution: generating new understanding through bridging and strengthening distinct knowledge systems and empowering local knowledge holders - J. M. Chapman; S. Schott (Sustainability Science, 2020)
The effective and appropriate bridging of Western science with traditional or Indigenous knowledge is an ongoing discussion in the literature and in practice. The discourse transitioned from separate knowledge system to knowledge integration and most recently to knowledge co-production. We argue it is the moral and ethical responsibility of Western scientists working in and with Indigenous communities to make a concerted effort to collectively create mutually advantageous new knowledge while strengthening traditional knowledge and considering the normative impacts of Western science methods. Our knowledge coevolution framework provides guidance for achieving this in a flexible manner that can be applied to an array of research programs. Project governance structure, steps for implementation, checks and balances, and challenges are presented within the context of research project execution. We then illustrate application of the model throughout a harvest study conducted in Gjoa Haven, Nunavut, Canada.

Embracing indigenous metaphors: a new/old way of thinking about sustainability - Matthew Rout; John Reid (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Can water systems foster commoning practices? Analysing leverages for self-organization in urban water commons as social–ecological systems - Daniela Perrotti; Katherine Hyde; Daniel Otero Peña (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Governance of the water-energy-food nexus: insights from four infrastructure projects in the Lower Mekong Basin - Louis Lebel; Andrea Haefner; Claudia Pahl-Wostl; Anik Baduri (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Adapting global shared socio-economic pathways for national scenarios in Japan - He Chen; Keisuke Matsuhashi; Kiyoshi Takahashi; Shinichiro Fujimori; Keita Honjo; Kei Gomi (Sustainability Science, 2020)
Shared socio-economic pathways (SSPs) are alternative global development scenarios focused on the mitigation of and adaptation to climate change. However, global SSPs would need revised versions for regional or local assessment, which is the so-called extended version, because global narratives may lack region-specific important drivers, national policy perspectives, and unification of data for each nation. Thus, it is necessary to construct scenarios that can be used for governments in response to the SSPs to reflect national and sub-national unique situations. This study presents national SSP scenarios, specifically focusing on Japan (hereafter, Japan SSPs), as well as a process for developing scenarios that qualitatively links to global SSPs. We document the descriptions of drivers and basic narratives of Japan SSPs coherent with global SSPs, based on workshops conducted by local researchers and governments. Moreover, we provide a common data set of population and GDP using the national scale. Japan SSPs emphasized population trends different from global SSPs and influencing factors, citizen participation, industrial development resulting from economic change, distribution, and inequality of sub-national population, among others. We selected data sets from existing population projections that have been widely used by Japanese researchers; the data show that the population and GDP of Japan SSPs are expected to be about 20–25% less than global SSPs by 2100.

Changes in the potential stocks of coral reef ecosystem services following coral bleaching in Sekisei Lagoon, southern Japan: implications for the future under global warming - Masaaki Sato; Atsushi Nanami; Christopher J. Bayne; Mitsutaku Makino; Masakazu Hori (Sustainability Science, 2020)

The evolution of sustainability models, from descriptive, to strategic, to the three pillars framework for applied solutions - William H. Clune; Alexander J. B. Zehnder (Sustainability Science, 2020)

How we know biodiversity: institutions and knowledge-policy relationships - Rajeswari S. Raina; Debanjana Dey (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Gender inequality and development - Lars Carlsen (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Fostering inter- and transdisciplinarity in discipline-oriented universities to improve sustainability science and practice - Pedro Luís Bernardo da Rocha; Renata Pardini; Blandina Felipe Viana; Charbel N. El-Hani (Sustainability Science, 2020)

The mediating role of place attachment between nature connectedness and human well-being: perspectives from Japan - Mrittika Basu; Shizuka Hashimoto; Rajarshi Dasgupta (Sustainability Science, 2020)

A review of data-intensive approaches for sustainability: methodology, epistemology, normativity, and ontology - Vivek Anand Asokan; Masaru Yarime; Motoharu Onuki (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Finding common ground: mapping the nomological networks of sustainability constructs for improved social marketing - Harry Beachcroft-Shaw; Debbie Ellis (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Living degrowth? Investigating degrowth practices through performative methods - Johannes Brossmann; Mine Islar (Sustainability Science, 2020)
Degrowth scholarship argues for multi-scalar transformations beyond the growth-oriented economic paradigm to achieve long-term socio-ecological sustainability. While the literature on degrowth has grown substantially, little has been said about how these transformations are understood in practice. By drawing upon practice theory and using performative methods, this paper explores the ways in which degrowth scholars and practitioners experience and understand degrowth. It provides a preliminary account of living degrowth by portraying a diverse range of interrelated practices grouped in five spheres: (1) rethinking society, (2) acting political, (3) creating alternatives, (4) fostering connections, and (5) unveiling the self. Drawing upon the spheres of practices, we conceptualize living degrowth as an endeavour that aims to transform current problems into imagined futures in multiple realms. The practices of living degrowth are concerned with theoretical, political, material, economical, social and personal dimensions of world and life. This points to the importance for sustainability science to investigate and foster transformations in all domains and at all levels, reaching from the outer to the inner and vice versa.

Local lens for SDG implementation: lessons from bottom-up approaches in Africa - Amanda Jiménez-Aceituno; Garry D. Peterson; Albert V. Norström; Grace Y. Wong; Andrea S. Downing (Sustainability Science, 2020)
The Anthropocene presents a set of interlinked sustainability challenges for humanity. The United Nations 2030 Agenda has identified 17 specific Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a way to confront these challenges. However, local initiatives have long been addressing issues connected to these goals in a myriad of diverse and innovative ways. We present a new approach to assess how local initiatives contribute to achieving the SDGs. We analyse how many, and how frequently, different SDGs and targets are addressed in a set of African initiatives. We consider goals and targets addressed by the same initiative as interacting between them. Then, we cluster the SDGs based on the combinations of goals and targets addressed by the initiatives and explore how SDGs differ in how local initiatives engage with them. We identify 5 main groups: SDGs addressed by broad-scope projects, SDGs addressed by specific projects, SDGs as means of implementation, cross-cutting SDGs and underrepresented SDGs. Goal 11 (sustainable cities & communities) is not clustered with any other goal. Finally, we explore the nuances of these groups and discuss the implications and relevance for the SDG framework to consider bottom-up approaches. Efforts to monitor the success on implementing the SDGs in local contexts should be reinforced and consider the different patterns initiatives follow to address the goals. Additionally, achieving the goals of the 2030 Agenda will require diversity and alignment of bottom-up and top-down approaches.

Sustainability science in education: analysis of master’s programmes’ curricula - Janne J. Salovaara; Katriina Soini; Janna Pietikäinen (Sustainability Science, 2020)
Sustainability science is an emerging, free-standing scientific discipline. It has introduced a new approach to both sustainability research and educational programmes, while evoking novel perspectives to stronger societal contextualization. Among several other areas of sustainability research, competencies for sustainability have become a focal topic of sustainability education research. This research explores the educational programmes and the representation of the theory-based key competencies for sustainability. Through a qualitative content study of 45 master programmes associated with sustainability science, we aim to understand what kind of sustainability competencies can be found in sustainability science master’s programmes and how they reflect the current discussions of the discipline of sustainability science and possibly drive the future education in the field. The study reveals that commonly suggested competencies including systems thinking, anticipatory, strategic, interpersonal, and normative competencies were frequently mentioned as content and learning outcomes in the curricula and are firmly present and widely employed in sustainability education. Additionally, this study identified three other clusters of competencies: diverse modes of thinking, methodological plurality, and competencies for autonomy. In addition to the contribution to education in the field by suggesting three emerged competencies for sustainability science specifically, we aim to contribute to the ongoing discussion about the discipline by suggesting a process-oriented framing of sustainability science.

Joint problem framing as reflexive practice: honing a transdisciplinary skill - BinBin J. Pearce; Olivier Ejderyan (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Decision makers’ barriers to climate and extreme weather adaptation: a study of North Atlantic high- and medium-use seaports - Elizabeth L. Mclean; Austin Becker (Sustainability Science, 2020)

The political imaginaries of blockchain projects: discerning the expressions of an emerging ecosystem - Syed Omer Husain; Alex Franklin; Dirk Roep (Sustainability Science, 2020)
There is a wealth of information, hype around, and research into blockchain’s ‘disruptive’ and ‘transformative’ potential concerning every industry. However, there is an absence of scholarly attention given to identifying and analyzing the political premises and consequences of blockchain projects. Through digital ethnography and participatory action research, this article shows how blockchain experiments personify ‘prefigurative politics’ by design: they embody the politics and power structures which they want to enable in society. By showing how these prefigurative embodiments are informed and determined by the underlying political imaginaries, the article proposes a basic typology of blockchain projects. Furthermore, it outlines a frame to question, cluster, and analyze the expressions of political imaginaries intrinsic to the design and operationalization of blockchain projects on three analytic levels: users, intermediaries, and institutions.

Exploring the transformative capacity of place-shaping practices - Lummina G. Horlings; Dirk Roep; Erik Mathijs; Terry Marsden (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Inner change and sustainability initiatives: exploring the narratives from eco-villagers through a place-based transformative learning approach - S. R. Pisters; H. Vihinen; E. Figueiredo (Sustainability Science, 2020)
In an earlier work, we suggested that connection, compassion and creativity could be used as key analytical dimensions of transformative place-based learning (Pisters et al. in Emot Sp Soc 34(8):100578, 2019). This analytical framework was created to study processes of place-based transformative learning which evoke shifts in our consciousness. This inner change might well be critical in the development of regenerative practices and places. This article aims to critically investigate the framework empirically using life-story interviews with people living in three different ecovillages. Ecovillages are so-called intentional communities which aim to develop sustainable, regenerative ways of living. Methodologically, the research is grounded in an ethnography and narrative inquiry. Following the empirical results, we will reflect on the merits and shortcomings of the analytical framework. The article concludes that the framework proved useful for its purpose if it includes a fourth dimension of 'transgression' and portraits the dimensions as continua.

The role of local energy initiatives in co-producing sustainable places - Diogo Soares da Silva; Lummina G. Horlings (Sustainability Science, 2020)
During the first two decades of the twenty-first century, the introduction of policies that promote renewable energy in Western European countries facilitated a shift towards the production of cleaner energy and its decentralisation. Subsidies, incentive schemes, and declining installation costs—combined with rapid technology advances—made the investment in small-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) panels and wind turbines more attractive for individuals and small businesses. Simultaneously, we observe the emergence of citizen initiatives which aim to provide public services across various sectors, including renewable energy generation and distribution. These initiatives, started by citizens, often involve the participation of local residents and prioritise social and environmental goals. In some areas, governments and engaged citizens work together to achieve common goals through citizen–government co-production. In this article, we address the question: how can the co-production of government(s) and citizens, through local energy initiatives, contribute to the shaping of more sustainable places? Using the PlaCI model—a conceptual model of citizen initiatives and their role in shaping sustainable places—we conduct an analysis of WindpowerNijmegen, a citizen-led renewable energy cooperative in the Netherlands. We assess who the relevant stakeholders are, what are the enabling conditions for fruitful collaboration, which new arrangements are established, and how they contribute to shaping more sustainable places. The results indicate that local energy initiatives are place based, conditioned by the characteristics of the physical space needed for the production of renewable energy, specific institutional arrangements, place-based assets and people’s capacities characteristic for the place, and past collaboration.

Co-created visual narratives and inclusive place branding: a socially responsible approach to residents’ participation and engagement - Cátia Rebelo; Abid Mehmood; Terry Marsden (Sustainability Science, 2020)
This paper discusses the importance of co-created visual narratives in developing participatory and inclusive place branding. We refer to the need for a socially responsible approach when considering place branding policies and practices. For this purpose, we develop and empirically apply a novel framework with four interconnected phases comprising place-based contextualization, re-appreciation, re-positioning, and consolidation of residents’ perceptions, experiences and aspirations to develop and initiate inclusive place branding processes. Using participatory research and collaborative visual methods, we worked with a group of residents in Carvalhal de Vermilhas, Portugal. This work stimulated the co-development of collective agency to consider narratives, values and identities to be articulated for creating and promoting more inclusive representation of place in a (hypothetical) branding exercise. The framework application as well as its challenges and limitations, particularly in co-creation processes, were critically deliberated at all phases. Collaborative visual techniques from our analysis emerge as valuable participatory tools for researchers towards improving residents’ participation in place branding, and therefore contributing towards a more inclusive form of this practice. However, we are also aware of the perils associated with communities’ opening up their pristine heritage to touristic ventures, and hence suggest considering the importance of sustainable place-shaping in all branding decisions.

Operationalising transformative sustainability science through place-based research: the role of researchers - Lummina G. Horlings; Marta Nieto-Romero; Siri Pisters; Katriina Soini (Sustainability Science, 2020)
Among scholars in sustainability science, there is an increasing recognition of the potential of place-based research in the context of transformative change towards sustainability. In this research, researchers may have a variety of roles; these are determined by the researcher’s engagement with the subject, the inherent theoretical, normative and methodological choices he or she makes, the researcher’s ambitions in contributing to change, and ethical issues. This article explores the varied roles of research fellows within the European Marie Curie ITN research program on sustainable place-shaping (SUSPLACE). By analysing 15 SUSPLACE projects and reflecting on the roles of researchers identified by Wittmayer and Schäpke (Sustain Sci 9(4):483–496, 2014) we describe how the fellows’ theoretical positionality, methods applied, and engagement in places led to different research roles. The methodology used for the paper is based on an interactive process, co-producing knowledge with Early Stage Researchers (fellows) of the SUSPLACE consortium. The results show a range of place meanings applied by the fellows. Varied methods are used to give voice to participants in research and to bring them together for joint reflection on values, networks and understandings, co-creating knowledge. Multiple conceptualisations of ‘sustainability’ were used, reflecting different normative viewpoints. These choices and viewpoints resulted in fellows each engaging in multiple roles, exploring various routes of sustainable place-shaping, and influencing place-relations. Based on our findings we introduce a framework for the ‘embodied researcher’: a researcher who is engaged in research with their ‘brain, heart, hands and feet’ and who integrates different roles during the research process.

Transformative roles of people and places: learning, experiencing, and regenerative action through social innovation - Abid Mehmood; Terry Marsden; Alice Taherzadeh; Lorena F. Axinte; Cátia Rebelo (Sustainability Science, 2020)
This paper discusses the transformative role of people and the places which they inhabit. It advocates the richness and multiplicity of actors and understandings to drive sustainable place-shaping practices. Grounded in the interdisciplinary place-based conceptualisation of social innovation, the paper aims to progress a holistic conceptual framework which integrates the active processes of learning, experiencing, and regeneration to tackle the complex challenges of sustainability. The discussion argues for moving beyond the conceptual deliberations into practice-based research. The framework proposed brings together three different lenses: first, transformative learning as an approach to experiential pedagogy with focus on education and learning based in local communities and the surrounding places; second, experiencing place through sense-making to help people relate closely to their values and meanings of place; third, regenerative action to reverse and recuperate from the negative impact of humans on the environment and promote place stewardship. Through a dynamic combination of these processes, new socially innovative agency is created. Empirical examples of this agency have been captured in this paper from a series of projects which were part of the SUSPLACE programme. In conclusion, we associate the interactive nature of this agency with sustainable re-learning, re-experiencing, and re-generation processes to reshape places in a transformative way.

The inner dimension of sustainability transformation: how sense of place and values can support sustainable place-shaping - Sara Grenni; Katriina Soini; Lummina Geertruida Horlings (Sustainability Science, 2020)
Sense of place and values are concepts that have been defined in a multiplicity of ways by a variety of disciplines and seldom approached in combination within studies of place-based sustainability. In recent years, the debate on sustainability, and particularly on sustainability transformation, has started to recognise the central importance of the “inner dimension” in achieving sustainable futures. This brings to the fore individual and cultural immaterial aspects, such as values and sense of place. The aim of this article is to explore the role of sense of place and place values in the context of sustainable place-shaping and propose a framework to operationalise them in research. Three central questions guided and structured our work: (a) how can place-shaping contribute to sustainability transformations? (b) what is the role of the inner dimension of transformation in processes of sustainable place-shaping? (c) how to include the inner dimension—specifically sense of place and its underlying values—into place-shaping practice and discourse? Through the article, we argue that there is scope for a broader understanding of how sense of place contributes to sustainability transformations through place-shaping. The article ends with the introduction of an analytical tool for the study of sense of place and place values as potential drivers of place-based transformation. The conclusion of the article summarises the contribution of the inner dimension of place to place-shaping and, more in general, sustainability transformation.

Exploring enabling resources for place-based social entrepreneurship: a participatory study of Green Care practices in Finland - Angela Moriggi (Sustainability Science, 2020)
Enabling resources are the array of tangible and intangible assets that social entrepreneurs mobilize or create to bring forward novel place-based initiatives, to respond to unmet sustainability challenges and ideally contribute to virtuous processes of socio-economic transformation. Understanding the role of resources in constraining or enabling the development of social enterprises holds important implications not merely for the initiatives, but also for the places where they are embedded. Existing studies fail to provide a comprehensive, empirically grounded account of resources for place-based social entrepreneurship. This paper aims to fill this gap, by exploring the array of resources that enable and constrain the development of Green Care practice, i.e., nature-based activities with a social innovation purpose. Three communities of Finnish practitioners—a nature-tourism company, a care farm, and a biodynamic farm—were involved over the span of 3 years in research activities conducted with an in-depth qualitative approach. Participants were engaged in several stages of iterative learning combining conventional and action-research methods: semi-structured interviews, participatory mapping, and a co-creation workshop. Results show that entrepreneurs resort to a great variety of enabling resources, inclusive of both tangible and intangible assets, that are only marginally considered by relevant literature. Based on these findings, the paper proposes a novel set of enabling resources, comprehensive of nine clusters: infrastructural, institutional, material, place-specific, organizational culture-related, social, ethical, affective, and competence-related. Two concluding insights can be inferred: understanding resources is paramount to grasp possibilities and challenges of place-based entrepreneurship; in-depth participatory processes are needed for a thorough and grounded investigation of enabling resources in places.

Adaptive capacity in social–ecological systems: a framework for addressing bark beetle disturbances in natural resource management - Stuart Cottrell; Katherine M. Mattor; Jesse L. Morris; Christopher J. Fettig; Pavlina McGrady; Dorothy Maguire; Patrick M. A. James; Jennifer Clear; Zach Wurtzebach; Yu Wei; Andrea Brunelle; Jessica Western; et al. (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Bridging sustainability science, earth science, and data science through interdisciplinary education - Deana Pennington; Imme Ebert-Uphoff; Natalie Freed; Jo Martin; Suzanne A. Pierce (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Moving beyond water centricity? Conceptualizing integrated water resources management for implementing sustainable development goals - David Benson; Animesh K. Gain; Carlo Giupponi (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Evaluating climate change adaptation pathways through capital assessment: five case studies of forest social-ecological systems in France - Roxane Sansilvestri; Marlène Cuccarollo; Nathalie Frascaria-Lacoste; Marta Benito-Garzon; Juan Fernandez-Manjarrés (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Quantum theory as a source of insights to close the gap between Mode 1 and Mode 2 transdisciplinarity: potentialities, pitfalls and a possible way forward - Cyrille Rigolot (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Taking control of human-induced destabilisation of atoll islands: lessons learnt from the Tuamotu Archipelago, French Polynesia - V. K. E. Duvat; L. Stahl; S. Costa; O. Maquaire; A. K. Magnan (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Seeds of good anthropocenes: developing sustainability scenarios for Northern Europe - C. Raudsepp-Hearne; G. D. Peterson; E. M. Bennett; R. Biggs; A. V. Norström; L. Pereira; J. Vervoort; D. M. Iwaniec; T. McPhearson; P. Olsson; T. Hichert; M. Falardeau; et al. (Sustainability Science, 2020)

The social–ecological dimension of vulnerability and risk to natural hazards - Yaella Depietri (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Assessing national progress and priorities for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): experience from Australia - Cameron Allen; Michael Reid; John Thwaites; Rod Glover; Tahl Kestin (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Research and policy priorities for edible insects - Valerie Stull; Jonathan Patz (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Re-imagining the driver–pressure–state–impact–response framework from an equity and inclusive development perspective - Joyeeta Gupta; Joeri Scholtens; Leisa Perch; Irene Dankelman; Joni Seager; Fülöp Sánder; Michael Stanley-Jones; Isabell Kempf (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Evaluating core competencies and learning outcomes for training the next generation of sustainability researchers - Samuel G. Roy; Simone Pereira de Souza; Bridie McGreavy; Caroline Gottschalk Druschke; David D. Hart; Kevin Gardner (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Learning from social–ecological crisis for legal resilience building: multi-scale dynamics in the coffee rust epidemic - Antoine Libert Amico; Claudia Ituarte-Lima; Thomas Elmqvist (Sustainability Science, 2020)

The Blue Fix: What's driving blue growth? - Zoe W. Brent; Mads Barbesgaard; Carsten Pedersen (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Editorial: Blue degrowth and the politics of the sea: rethinking the blue economy - I. Ertör; M. Hadjimichael (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Designing sustainability in blues: the limits of technospatial growth imaginaries - Duygu Kaşdoğan (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Growth in the docks: ports, metabolic flows and socio-environmental impacts - Borja Nogué-Algueró (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Blue Growth and its discontents in the Faroe Islands: an island perspective on Blue (De)Growth, sustainability, and environmental justice - Ragnheiður Bogadóttir (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Lessons for blue degrowth from Namibia’s emerging blue economy - Rosanna Carver (Sustainability Science, 2020)
Globally there has been recognition that there is little consensus attributed to the definition of the blue economy. However, despite this acknowledgement, the blue economy is championed for its development potential by the African Union and subsequently, several African states. Having formalised the agenda in its fifth National Development Plan Namibia is working to implement a governance and management framework to “sustainably maximise benefits from marine resources” by 2020 (Republic of Namibia in Namibia’s 5th National Development Plan (NDP5) 2017). Concurrently, new entrants, such as marine mineral mining projects, have emerged in recognition of the potential offered within the state’s Exclusive Economic Zone. This article argues that the uptake of the blue economy is shaped by multiple, and often conflicting, interests. The emergence of the agenda is not apolitical, nor has it been established in isolation from exogenous actors and interests. Subsequently, this article suggests that the critique of the emerging blue economy should be applied to discussions of a blue degrowth movement, to avoid transposing a new agenda over another. As demonstrated with reference to Namibia, contextual and historical issues need to be recognised by degrowth discussions, and their inherent and continued structural effects analysed. This is of particular importance when considering whose voices are represented or excluded by such agendas, complicated by the (geo)physical characteristics of the marine sphere.

Swimming upstream: community economies for a different coastal rural development in Sweden - Milena Arias Schreiber; Ida Wingren; Sebastian Linke (Sustainability Science, 2020)
The EU Blue Growth agenda is being implemented at a time when European coastal fisheries and traditional fishing communities are struggling to survive or have already vanished from areas where they used to flourish. Driven by the strong conviction that current disadvantaged and vulnerable coastal fishers still have a central role to play in rural development, local level initiatives are calling for a different future for this fishery sector. The participants in these initiatives insist that coastal fisheries should not be driven to extinction, despite their low economic profitability and thus minimal contribution to economic growth compared to large-scale enterprises. Through participatory observation and informal interviews, we investigate one of these local level initiatives on the Swedish Baltic Sea coast and analyse how it aligns with a community economies’ project based on a different economic perspective. We describe first the primary activities carried out by the initiative and follow by an examination on what drove it, how it has been maintained, and how it might spread. We conclude on the potentials of the community economies framework and project to advance a Blue degrowth agenda based on difference and not necessarily less.

‘Re-grabbing’ marine resources: a blue degrowth agenda for the resurgence of small-scale fisheries in Malta - Alicia Said; Douglas MacMillan (Sustainability Science, 2020)

The paradox of sustainable tuna fisheries in the Western Indian Ocean: between visions of blue economy and realities of accumulation - Mialy Andriamahefazafy; Megan Bailey; Hussain Sinan; Christian A. Kull (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Performing ‘blue degrowth’: critiquing seabed mining in Papua New Guinea through creative practice - John Childs (Sustainability Science, 2020)
Scripted as a sustainable alternative to terrestrial mining, the licence for the world’s first commercial deep-sea mining (DSM) site was issued in Papua New Guinea in 2011 to extract copper and gold from a deposit situated 1600 m below the surface of the Bismarck Sea. Whilst DSM’s proponents locate it as emergent part of a blue economy narrative, its critics point to the ecological and economic uncertainty that characterises the proposed practice. Yet, due its extreme geography, DSM is also profoundly elusive to direct human experience and thus presents a challenge to forms of resistance against an industry extolled as having ‘no human impact’. Against this background, this paper analyses the ways in which ‘blue degrowth’—as a distinct form of counter-narrative—might be ‘performed’, and which imagined (and alternative) geographies are invoked accordingly. To do this it critically reflects upon 2 years of participatory research in the Duke of York Islands focusing on three, community-developed methods of resisting DSM. Practices of counter mapping, sculpture and participatory drama all sought to ‘perform’ the deep-ocean environment imagined as relational whilst simultaneously questioning the very notion of ‘economy’ central to the discourse of ‘blue growth’.

Contesting growth in marine capture fisheries: the case of small-scale fishing cooperatives in Istanbul - Pinar Ertör-Akyazi (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Integrated assessment of land-use/coverage changes and their impacts on ecosystem services in Gansu Province, northwest China: implications for sustainable development goals - Lijun Liu; Youjia Liang; Shizuka Hashimoto (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Transformative spaces in the making: key lessons from nine cases in the Global South - Laura Pereira; Niki Frantzeskaki; Aniek Hebinck; Lakshmi Charli-Joseph; Scott Drimie; Michelle Dyer; Hallie Eakin; Diego Galafassi; Timos Karpouzoglou; Fiona Marshall; Michele-Lee Moore; Per Olsson; et al. (Sustainability Science, 2020)
Creating a just and sustainable planet will require not only small changes, but also systemic transformations in how humans relate to the planet and to each other, i.e., social–ecological transformations. We suggest there is a need for collaborative environments where experimentation with new configurations of social–ecological systems can occur, and we refer to these as transformative spaces. In this paper, we seek a better understanding of how to design and enable the creation of transformative spaces in a development context. We analyse nine case studies from a previous special issue on Designing Transformative Spaces that aimed to collect examples of cutting-edge action-oriented research on transformations from the Global South. The analysis showed five design phases as being essential: Problem Definition Phase; Operationalisation Phase; Tactical Phase; Outcome Phase; and Reflection Phase. From this synthesis, we distilled five key messages that should be considered when designing research, including: (a) there are ethical dilemmas associated with creating a transformative space in a system; (b) it is important to assess the readiness of the system for change before engaging in it; (c) there is a need to balance between ‘safe’ and ‘safe-enough’ spaces for transformation; (d) convening a transformative space requires an assemblage of diverse methodological frameworks and tools; and (e) transformative spaces can act as a starting point for institutionalising transformative change. Many researchers are now engaging in transdisciplinary transformations research, and are finding themselves at the knowledge–action interface contributing to transformative space-making. We hope that by analysing experiences from across different geographies we can contribute towards better understanding of how to navigate the processes needed for the urgent global transformations that are being called for to create a more equitable and sustainable planet Earth.

On the other end of research: exploring community-level knowledge exchanges in small-scale fisheries in Zanzibar - Viola Hakkarainen; Tim M. Daw; Maria Tengö (Sustainability Science, 2020)
Sustainability science has increasingly adopted more action-oriented approaches in an attempt to mobilise and implement a broad knowledge base to sustain human wellbeing and promote sustainable development. There is an increasing recognition of the importance of knowledge exchange (KE) between scientists and end users of research for enhancing social, environmental and economic impacts of research. Here, we explore the process of KE through close observation of two cases of KE between external PhD researchers and local actors in small-scale fisheries at the community level in Zanzibar, Tanzania. First, we address context by examining perceptions of research held by actors at community level and patterns of interactions and flows of benefits between external researchers and local actors including fisheries managers, local research institute as well as fishers and traders. Second, we unpack experiences of actors engaged in the cases of KE. The study draws attention to KE processes in the Global South and actors outside decision-making processes in fisheries management. The study concludes that as KE is a complex and dynamic process and that (i) history and relationships between actors shape the outcomes of KE, (ii) KE includes more than knowledge-based processes and outcomes because multiple incentives of different actors shape KE and how it is experiences and (iii) knowledge-based outcomes of KE are complex and unpredictable as different actors create their own meaning from shared information. The results exemplify the inevitably complex and unpredictable nature of KE processes and their outcomes, and provide insight into how KE can contribute to science–society relationships.

A multi-stakeholder perception analysis about the adoption, impacts and priority areas in the Kenyan clean cooking sector - Alice Karanja; Francis Mburu; Alexandros Gasparatos (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Analysis of national and local governance systems to achieve the sustainable development goals: case studies of Japan and Indonesia - Kanako Morita; Mahesti Okitasari; Hiromi Masuda (Sustainability Science, 2020)
To achieve the sustainable development goals (SDGs), all countries’ efforts are essential, and each country needs to recognize their level of achievement in terms of the SDGs, identify the goals and targets that require more effort, and build more effective and well-performed governance systems to accelerate their efforts toward achieving the SDGs. This study identifies different governance system structures for achieving the SDGs and the challenges they face in improving their performance using a new matrix tool to evaluate governance systems for the SDGs. We use Japan and Indonesia as case studies to provide perspectives from countries at different levels of economic development. The results show that the governance systems for the SDGs are structurally and functionally different in the two countries, which face different challenges. Japan has relatively well-structured “vision and objective setting”, “research and assessment”, and “strategy development”, but faces challenges in relation to “implementation” and “monitoring, evaluation, and review”, while Indonesia has relatively well-structured “research and assessment”, “strategy development”, and “monitoring, evaluation, and review.” However, Indonesia faces challenges in relation to “vision and objective setting” and “implementation.” We found that the differences in the governance systems for the SDGs have arisen in relation to three key elements: differences in the development of governance systems for the SDGs, differences in the lead ministries, and the existence or otherwise of a supportive legal framework. We argue that the proposed matrix tool is useful in identifying the structure of governance systems for the SDGs and the challenges that must be overcome to improve the performance of these systems. However, some analytical limitations must be overcome before the tool can be applied to other countries.

Learning to collaborate while collaborating: advancing interdisciplinary sustainability research - Rebecca Freeth; Guido Caniglia (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Pathways to sustainable low-carbon transitions in an auto-dependent Canadian city - Noel Keough; Geoff Ghitter (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Hyperlocal sustainabilities: theorizing action research for sustainability in the digital age - Bethany B. Cutts; Andrew J. Greenlee; Kaitlyn Hornik; Caitie A. Nigrelli (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Understanding mechanisms of conflict resolution beyond collaboration: an interdisciplinary typology of knowledge types and their integration in practice - Olga Stepanova; Merritt Polk; Hannah Saldert (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Holistic competence orientation in sustainability-related study programmes: lessons from implementing transdisciplinary student team research in Colombia, China, Mexico and Nicaragua - Álvaro Acevedo-Osorio; Susanne Hofmann-Souki; Juana Cruz Morales (Sustainability Science, 2020)

Can we use a local government institute for the environment in Japan to foster environmental science literacy for sustainability? - Yoshinori Saitoh; Hiroshi Tago; Akihiro Iijima; Kazumi Sano (Sustainability Science, 2020)

The sustainability–peace nexus in the context of global change - Hassan Virji; Ayyoob Sharifi; Shinji Kaneko; Dahlia Simangan (Sustainability Science, 2019)

Valuation of nature and nature’s contributions to people - Shunsuke Managi; Moinul Islam; Osamu Saito; Marie Stenseke; Luthando Dziba; Sandra Lavorel; Unai Pascual; Shizuka Hashimoto (Sustainability Science, 2019)

Rules to goals: emergence of new governance strategies for sustainable development - Norichika Kanie; David Griggs; Oran Young; Steve Waddell; Paul Shrivastava; Peter M. Haas; Wendy Broadgate; Owen Gaffney; Csaba Kőrösi (Sustainability Science, 2019)

Correction to: Communication processes in intercultural transdisciplinary research: framework from a group perspective - Jue Wang; Thomas Aenis; Tuck Fatt Siew (Sustainability Science, 2019)

Reconciling intergenerational conflicts with imaginary future generations: evidence from a participatory deliberation practice in a municipality in Japan - Keishiro Hara; Ritsuji Yoshioka; Masashi Kuroda; Shuji Kurimoto; Tatsuyoshi Saijo (Sustainability Science, 2019)

Co-production in action: perceiving power in the organisational dimensions of a global biodiversity expert process - Jasper Montana (Sustainability Science, 2019)
Opening up knowledge–action systems to a wider range of disciplinary and societal actors is considered to be a necessary step in achieving transformative change for sustainability. In science for sustainability, there is a growing body of experience and literature of putting this ‘co-production’ into action. However, there is an opportunity to strengthen the application of analytical resources for more explicitly recognising and accounting for the power relations embedded in these initiatives. This paper deploys social theory from science and technology studies to develop an approach to perceive power relations between the participants, processes and products of co-production. This necessitates paying attention to the multiple and distributed organisational spaces where co-production takes place to discern: who participates; who (and what) is represented; how deliberations are structured; and how outcomes are circulated. This paper shows that these organisational dimensions of participation, representation, deliberation, and circulation not only give structure to co-productive forums, but can also define the power relations between their participants, processes and products. The paper then illustrates the applicability of this approach using the case of a current global expert process for biodiversity: The Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). This case study offers insights on the challenges and opportunities for designing and evaluating co-production initiatives for sustainability.

Improving conservation practice with principles and tools from systems thinking and evaluation - Andrew T. Knight; Carly N. Cook; Kent H. Redford; Duan Biggs; Claudia Romero; Alejandro Ortega-Argueta; Cameron D. Norman; Beverly Parsons; Martin Reynolds; Glenda Eoyang; Matt Keene (Sustainability Science, 2019)

Strengthening the science–policy–industry interface for progressing toward sustainability: a systems thinking view - Marialuisa Saviano; Sergio Barile; Francesca Farioli; Fabio Orecchini (Sustainability Science, 2019)

The good, the bad and the ugly: framing debates on nature in a One Health community - Nicolas Antoine-Moussiaux; Luc Janssens de Bisthoven; Stéphane Leyens; Timo Assmuth; Hans Keune; Zinsstag Jakob; Jean Hugé; Maarten P. M. Vanhove (Sustainability Science, 2019)

Towards net zero CO2 emissions without relying on massive carbon dioxide removal - Yoichi Kaya; Mitsutsune Yamaguchi; Oliver Geden (Sustainability Science, 2019)

Leaving the “sustainability or collapse” narrative behind - Sebastian Strunz; Melissa Marselle; Matthias Schröter (Sustainability Science, 2019)

How can science support the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development? Four tasks to tackle the normative dimension of sustainability - Flurina Schneider; Andreas Kläy; Anne B. Zimmermann; Tobias Buser; Micah Ingalls; Peter Messerli (Sustainability Science, 2019)

What future for primates? Conservation struggles in the forests of Cross River State, Nigeria - Torsten Krause; Tobias Nielsen; Laura Guia-Diaz; Veiko Lehsten; Ola Olsson; Fariborz Zelli (Sustainability Science, 2019)

Towards more effective landscape governance for sustainability: the case of RIMBA corridor, Central Sumatra, Indonesia - Barano Siswa Sulistyawan; Clément Feger; Emily McKenzie; Louise A. Gallagher; Pita A. Verweij; René Verburg (Sustainability Science, 2019)

Communication processes in intercultural transdisciplinary research: framework from a group perspective - Jue Wang; Thomas Aenis; Tuck Fatt Siew (Sustainability Science, 2019)

The 2030 Agenda compared with six related international agreements: valuable resources for SDG implementation - Raymond Saner; Lichia Yiu; Christian Kingombe (Sustainability Science, 2019)

Sustainability assessment of a community open space vision - Matthew Cohen; John E. Quinn; Demi Marshall; Tim Sharp (Sustainability Science, 2019)

Public attitudes toward urban water sustainability transitions: a multi-city survey in the western United States - Dave D. White; Eleanor K. Rauh; Abigail Sullivan; Kelli L. Larson; Amber Wutich; Danielle Linthicum; Veronica Horvath; Krista L. Lawless (Sustainability Science, 2019)

Towards more effective and transferable transition experiments: learning through stratification - John-Oliver Engler; Heike Zimmermann; Daniel J. Lang; Robert L. Feller; Henrik von Wehrden (Sustainability Science, 2019)

Synergy potential between climate change mitigation and forest conservation policies in the Indonesian forest sector: implications for achieving multiple sustainable development objectives - Ken’ichi Matsumoto; Tomoko Hasegawa; Kanako Morita; Shinichiro Fujimori (Sustainability Science, 2019)

One transition, many transitions? A corpus-based study of societal sustainability transition discourses in four civil society’s proposals - Giuseppe Feola; Sylvia Jaworska (Sustainability Science, 2019)

Higher education for sustainable development: actioning the global goals in policy, curriculum and practice - I. Franco; O. Saito; P. Vaughter; J. Whereat; N. Kanie; K. Takemoto (Sustainability Science, 2019)

Social learning as a link between the individual and the collective: evaluating deliberation on social values - Max Eriksson; Carena J. van Riper; Ben Leitschuh; Amanda Bentley Brymer; Andrea Rawluk; Christopher M. Raymond; Jasper O. Kenter (Sustainability Science, 2019)

Loving the mess: navigating diversity and conflict in social values for sustainability - Jasper O. Kenter; Christopher M. Raymond; Carena J. van Riper; Elaine Azzopardi; Michelle R. Brear; Fulvia Calcagni; Ian Christie; Michael Christie; Anne Fordham; Rachelle K. Gould; Christopher D. Ives; Adam P. Hejnowicz; et al. (Sustainability Science, 2019)

Editorial overview: theoretical traditions in social values for sustainability - Christopher M. Raymond; Jasper O. Kenter; Carena J. van Riper; Andrea Rawluk; Dave Kendal (Sustainability Science, 2019)

He ʻike ʻana ia i ka pono (it is a recognizing of the right thing): how one indigenous worldview informs relational values and social values - Rachelle K. Gould; Māhealani Pai; Barbara Muraca; Kai M. A. Chan (Sustainability Science, 2019)

Identifying the social values driving corporate social responsibility - Anne Elizabeth Fordham; Guy M. Robinson (Sustainability Science, 2019)

Three perspectives on relational values of nature - Sanna Stålhammar; Henrik Thorén (Sustainability Science, 2019)

Social values, needs, and sustainable water–energy–food resource utilisation practices: a rural Swazi case study - Michelle R. Brear; Bonginkosi M. Mbonane (Sustainability Science, 2019)

Making intrinsic values work; integrating intrinsic values of the more-than-human world through the Life Framework of Values - Seb O’Connor; Jasper O. Kenter (Sustainability Science, 2019)

Understanding the diversity of values of “Nature’s contributions to people”: insights from the IPBES Assessment of Europe and Central Asia - Mike Christie; Berta Martín-López; Andrew Church; Ewa Siwicka; Pawel Szymonczyk; Jasmin Mena Sauterel (Sustainability Science, 2019)

Positive psychology perspectives on social values and their application to intentionally delivered sustainability interventions - Ivan J. Raymond; Christopher M. Raymond (Sustainability Science, 2019)

Sustainability and the common good: Catholic Social Teaching and ‘Integral Ecology’ as contributions to a framework of social values for sustainability transitions - Ian Christie; Richard M. Gunton; Adam P. Hejnowicz (Sustainability Science, 2019)

Social values and sustainability: a retrospective view on the contribution of economics - Julian Richard Massenberg (Sustainability Science, 2019)

Integrating multi-level values and pro-environmental behavior in a U.S. protected area - Carena van Riper; Sophia Winkler-Schor; Lorraine Foelske; Rose Keller; Michael Braito; Christopher Raymond; Max Eriksson; Elizabeth Golebie; Dana Johnson (Sustainability Science, 2019)

Integrating social values with other value dimensions: parallel use vs. combination vs. full integration - Jakub Kronenberg; Erik Andersson (Sustainability Science, 2019)

Digital co-construction of relational values: understanding the role of social media for sustainability - Fulvia Calcagni; Ana Terra Amorim Maia; James John Timothy Connolly; Johannes Langemeyer (Sustainability Science, 2019)

Religion and social values for sustainability - Christopher D. Ives; Jeremy Kidwell (Sustainability Science, 2019)

Values in transformational sustainability science: four perspectives for change - Andra-Ioana Horcea-Milcu; David J. Abson; Cristina I. Apetrei; Ioana Alexandra Duse; Rebecca Freeth; Maraja Riechers; David P. M. Lam; Christian Dorninger; Daniel J. Lang (Sustainability Science, 2019)

A new normative economics for the formation of shared social values - Neil Ravenscroft (Sustainability Science, 2019)

Understanding pathways to shifting people’s values over time in the context of social–ecological systems - Dave Kendal; Christopher M. Raymond (Sustainability Science, 2019)

Exploring multiple dimensions of values and valuing: a conceptual framework for mapping and translating values for social-ecological research and practice - Andrea Rawluk; Rebecca Ford; Nerida Anderson; Kathryn Williams (Sustainability Science, 2019)

Mapping diverse visions of energy transitions: co-producing sociotechnical imaginaries - Noel Longhurst; Jason Chilvers (Sustainability Science, 2019)