Leverage points for sustainability transformation

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• 作者：David J. Abson ; Joern Fischer ; Julia Leventon ; Jens Newig ; Thomas Schomerus…
• 关键词：Human–environment systems ; Institutional change ; Knowledge creation and use ; Social–ecological systems ; Sustainability science ; Transdisciplinarity
• 刊名：Ambio
• 出版年：2017
• 出版时间：February 2017
• 年：2017
• 卷：46
• 期：1
• 页码：30-39
• 全文大小：
• 刊物类别：Earth and Environmental Science
• 刊物主题：Environment, general; Ecology; Atmospheric Sciences; Physical Geography; Environmental Management; Environmental Engineering/Biotechnology;
• 出版者：Springer Netherlands
• ISSN：1654-7209
• 卷排序：46

文摘

Despite substantial focus on sustainability issues in both science and politics, humanity remains on largely unsustainable development trajectories. Partly, this is due to the failure of sustainability science to engage with the root causes of unsustainability. Drawing on ideas by Donella Meadows, we argue that many sustainability interventions target highly tangible, but essentially weak, leverage points (i.e. using interventions that are easy, but have limited potential for transformational change). Thus, there is an urgent need to focus on less obvious but potentially far more powerful areas of intervention. We propose a research agenda inspired by systems thinking that focuses on transformational ‘sustainability interventions’, centred on three realms of leverage: reconnecting people to nature, restructuring institutions and rethinking how knowledge is created and used in pursuit of sustainability. The notion of leverage points has the potential to act as a boundary object for genuinely transformational sustainability science.