Track 7b

Sustainable Development Science

Track Chair

Dr. Joachim H. Spangenberg


Sustainable Development is a development trajectory clearly distinct from the status quo and its prolongation. Sustainable Development Science can be transformation science, asking "how do we get there", or transformative science, itself an engine of that transformation. In any case it should be a transformed science, leaving behind mono-disciplinarity, predictability and equilibria, and be open to uncertainty, system evolution, and transdisciplinarity, to name but a few challenges.


In the context of the conference focus on tipping points, papers would be particularly (but not exclusively) welcome dealing questions such as :


When and how do social systems flip irreversibly into a different state? Can the character of this state be influenced ex ante (i.e. can we direct flips, avoid those towards less hospitable living conditions and promote those towards sustainable development)? Are there early warning signals for unintended and undesired flips (as is discussed in ecology for natural systems)?
What are the interactions and mutual dependencies in socio-ecological systems in the process of transformation towards sustainable societies, and in avoiding a flip into an undesired state? Can social transformations be planned, do they emerge, can they be triggered? What is the role of the biophysical environment in bringing them about? As far as history has shown that environmental change has shaped cultural developments, what does that imply for the anthropocene?
Which are the conditions for a sustainability bifurcation, splitting from business as usual? What does that imply in system terms, and in real world policy terms? Who are the relevant agents, which are the relevant institutions?


What is the role of science as one subsystem of society for and in such a transition process? Is science up to that challenge, and if not so, which changes in the science system, from education to academic merits, from intellectual property systems to publishing strategies, from research questions and the philosophy of science to science communication are necessary to enable science to play a positive role for a sustainable development transition?

Contact: joachim.spangenberg@gmail.com

You may submit your abstract by visiting the Ex Ordo abstract submission system (you will be required to setup an account first): http://isdrs2015.exordo.com/

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10th - 12th July
2015
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