Abstract
The commitment to understanding the implications of a 1.5 °C global temperature warming limit has contributed to a growing realisation that transformative adaptation is necessary to avoid catastrophic environmental and social consequences. This is particularly the case in urban settlements where disconnection from the systems that support life is pervasive and injustice and inequality play out daily. This paper argues that in order to transform towards thriving social-ecological systems, transformative capacity needs to be strengthened. The paper builds on the rich literature of adaptive capacity, alongside concepts of transformation that are drawn from resilience theory, organisational change, and developmental psychology. Reconnection to life-support systems, agency, and social cohesion are put forward as three foundational aspects of transformative capacity. A transdisciplinary case study of the FLOW programme in the Bergrivier Municipality, South Africa, is used to explore how transformative capacity has been built in practice. The case study explores an innovative programme that works with unemployed urban youth, alongside the exploration and introduction of a community currency in the informal business sector, and strengthening cross-scalar interaction between the local municipality and youth. The paper suggests that working across sectors and scales in a transdisciplinary manner is a challenging endeavour but necessary for building inclusive, thriving, and regenerative urban settlements.
Highlights
Growing awareness that our fossil-fuelled, resource-depleting, poverty-exacerbating, and inequality-worsening way of life is no longer serving us, has prompted a plethora of “solutions” and strategies
The second aspect that we propose as a key to building transformative capacity, is healthy human agency
This paper draws on work from the Fostering Local Wellbeing (FLOW) programme that was funded through the Technical and Management Support (TMS) Programme, which is part of the Development Cooperation Agenda between the governments of South Africa and Belgian Flanders [13]
Summary
Growing awareness that our fossil-fuelled, resource-depleting, poverty-exacerbating, and inequality-worsening way of life is no longer serving us, has prompted a plethora of “solutions” and strategies. Engaged in transdisciplinary conversations that include, but are not bound by, the constraints of the current rules of academic knowledge production Flavoured by this diversity, this paper addresses the question of how to undertake transdisciplinary research that can connect to policy and practice to affect adaptation, resilience, and transformation. We go on to propose that one can consciously cultivate “transformative capacity” by developing a set of new muscles (for some), or strengthening the muscles that are already there, yet underdeveloped These muscles include (1) an awareness of and a reconnection to the visible systems, both natural (air, water, food, energy, biodiversity, ecosystems) and human-made (infrastructure, political, legal, and economic systems), that support our daily wellbeing; (2) a well-developed sense of one’s own agency; and (3) strong social cohesion—“I belong, I am part of a community”. We further argue that this type of work requires a transdisciplinary approach given the multiscalar and multidimensional challenges of learning to thrive in times of complexity and species-threatening global change
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