Social-ecological Transformation Research Articles

Building solidarities and alliances between degrowth and food sovereignty movements

Degrowth and food sovereignty movements share commitments to social-ecological transformation, democracy and the flourishing of human and non-human life. Encounters between the two movements have been relatively limited, however. This contribution is based on a literature review and a workshop held at the 9th International Degrowth Conference in Zagreb, Croatia, in 2023, where activists, academics, and practitioners collectively explored alliance formation between degrowth and food sovereignty movements. It explores the barriers, gaps, and differences in their political and organizing traditions that may block opportunities for collaboration in different contexts. It also investigates cases of mutual support and collective organizing for transformation already in existence.

Time and space for social-ecological transformation: care-full commoning in and beyond the ecofeminist city

ABSTRACT The relevance of civil society participation is well established in literature on environmental politics. However, the ability to join initiatives or movements actively fighting for a socially just future within biophysical limits is not equally distributed within societies. The configuration of spatial and temporal infrastructures in cities shapes how individuals interact with each other and the environment, thereby reproducing or alleviating intersectional inequalities. We connect literature on care, the commons, feminist time politics, and insurgent planning to discuss spatio-temporal infrastructures that promote space and time for care and participation. Building on feminist critiques of disembedded and disembodied cities, we draw upon examples from European cities to formulate an ‘educated dream’ about what an ecofeminist city could look like. In discussing different forms of scaling (up, out, deep) and bottom-linked transformation, we propose tangible steps towards the realisation of such a concrete utopia.

Recentring the Political in Education for Sustainable Development: Participatory Photovoice Research as Prefigurative Politics Towards Social-ecological Transformation

Abstract Based on the critique of education for sustainable development (ESD) as a socio-political control element of ecological modernisation, we discuss the prefigurative potential of participatory photovoice research in schools in light of social-ecological transformation. We argue that engaging students in prefigurative practices of change in which (sustainable) counter-futures are explored in the (unsustainable) present can help to re-politicise ESD, and we view photovoice as a way to guide this transformative process. Drawing on examples from a participatory research project on the transformation of local food systems in Graz, Austria, we critically explored photovoice as a method of transformative education that creates power-critical spaces of possible futures in which (un)sustainable hegemony and collectively internalised patterns of thought and action can be questioned to envision and negotiate liveable futures for all.

Class versus climate? Transformation conflicts in the automotive industry

ABSTRACT Major ecological threats such as climate change affect everyone, but do not level out social inequalities. The neglect of class in ecological politics means that measures against global warming often encounter social barriers and the social-ecological transformation becomes conflict-ridden. Based on in-depth empirical research at two German car manufacturers, the article shows how management and labour in a carbon industry deal with the transformation. With the help of concepts from class theory, the car plants analysed are described as class societies in miniature. They constitute social fields in which the transformation changes the rules of the game by which the company actors act. Company interest groups and trade union structures, as well as external veto players (climate movements, the far right) have a significant impact on conflict dynamics. In each case, it can be seen that institutionally contained class conflicts in co-determined companies are increasingly turning into social-ecological transformation conflicts. These are multi-level conflicts in which ownership-based decision-making power plays a central role. No ecological class is emerging beyond production. Instead, a transformation corporatism is asserting itself, which is coming up against class-specific limits in the decision-making monopoly over business models.

Next stop carbon dioxide removal? German climate policies and the risky road to negative emission technologies

Both the global and the German climate targets are ambitious given recent emission reduction rates. In addition to emission reduction measures, carbon dioxide removal has been increasingly discussed recently and initial measures have been developed to potentially scale-up carbon removals in order to meet net zero targets. In this article, we undertake a political economy-based analysis of the historical development and structural conditions of German climate policy measures and their enabling role for the emergence and strengthening of carbon dioxide removal policy options. We refer to regulation theory and the Modell Deutschland approach and argue that within this model the concept of ecological modernization has been established as the dominant approach to regulate society-nature relations. In light of the ambitious climate policy goals, such as net zero by 2045, ecological modernization reaches its current limits and must be recalibrated. Against this background, we conclude by discussing the risk of mitigation deterrence associated with carbon dioxide removals and considering alternative pathways, such as degrowth, to social ecological transformation.

Democratizing the monetary provisioning system to enable social-ecological transformation

Any society must undertake economic activities, which are embedded within social systems, to generate the flow of goods and services to provide for the material means of life, including the provisioning of money. The economic ideology of money as a “neutral” medium of exchange obfuscates the sociopolitical nature of the monetary provisioning system. In contrast, we ground our analysis in the understanding of money as a social relation, and we apply the lens of social provisioning to the monetary system. This view makes clear that the monetary system is embedded within, and reinforces, existing hierarchies and power structures and evolves through processes of political contestation. First, our analysis traces how changes in the monetary system have shaped the institutional structures of early capitalism such that the monetary system was seemingly depoliticized. Second, we apply this historical analysis to generate a deeper understanding of current monetary contestations. We apply a discourse analysis of the European Union’s fiscal rules to reflect these debates. The monetary system as it has taken shape through the financial crisis of 2007–2008 and the COVID-19 pandemic has brought the political nature of money back into the public imaginary. Accordingly, we highlight the role and power of the state as guarantor of the functioning of the monetary system. A full acknowledgement of this governmental capacity could create renewed space for monetary contestations and democratization. Our analysis reveals that these are both necessary elements to ensure the financing and macroeconomic stability of a social-ecological transformation.

Degrowth in the Semi-Periphery: Ecology and Class in Central and Eastern Europe

The aim of this extended review essay is to discuss the potential relevance of degrowth-aligned social-ecological transformation for the specific context of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). We frame this discussion around three recent books which we consider especially useful for this debate: The Future is Degrowth by Schmelzer et al. (2022, in Czech 2023) for an up-to-date and comprehensive overview of the concept of degrowth; Marx in the Anthropocene by Saito (2023) for an ecologically grounded debate on anticapitalist strategies stemming from writings of late Marx; and The Political Economy of Middle Class Politics and the Global Crisis in Eastern Europe by Gagyi (2021) that empirically analyses the specific position of the CEE semiperiphery and its implications for a radical social-ecological transformation. We introduce and interlink the main ideas of these books and discuss their implications for the degrowth movement in the CEE context. We argue that to deeply transform our socio-metabolic relation with nature, it is crucial to cultivate and expand spaces of reproductive autonomy, and link them to struggles of labour and social movements. We conclude by emphasising the role of internationalism from below.

Integration of Acceptability Analyses into an Adaptive Landscape Co-Design and Management Approach—The Acceptability and Landscape Design Cycle (ALDC)

Acceptability analyses of place–based innovations provide crucial in-depth knowledge (e.g., perceptions and values on landscapes) for the social–ecological transformation of landscapes. However, previous acceptability analyses often neglected complex and ongoing processes. We argue that, for the design of a sustainability-oriented transformation and to address spatial and temporal dynamics in landscapes, an operational heuristic is needed; one that integrates acceptability analyses into an adaptive landscape co-design and management approach. Therefore, this conceptual–empirical paper introduces the concept of the ‘acceptability and landscape design cycle’ (ALDC), which is based on findings from various transdisciplinary innovation processes in the Spreewald region (Germany). It is composed of four iterative phases: (1) defining the preconditions for acceptability analysis, (2) conducting the acceptability analysis, (3) integrating the results into the landscape development strategy, and (4) re-designing and refining it. We illustrate the application of these phases using a case study of the cultural landscape in Spreewald. The paper provides practical implementation guidelines of the ALDC and contributes to a better understanding of the dynamics of acceptability decisions regarding the transformation processes of landscapes. Furthermore, it can advance the understanding of how co-evolution of socio-ecological systems occurs.

Art, science, and life: where arts-based research and social-ecological transformation can meet

Arts-based research offers an innovative approach to today’s social-ecological challenges. Many authors ascertain the transformative power of arts-based research lies in its ability to generate holistic and collaborative encounters which facilitate change. To advance critical discussions around arts-based research, the following article opens up pockets of success as well as the limitations and failures of the My Mabopane photovoice project. This project intended to support urban transformation in the City of Tshwane, South Africa, by asking participants to photograph and reflect upon a nearby green space afflicted with various social and environmental challenges. Results suggest alternative ways of knowing, which contribute to transformative learning, can link arts-based research to social-ecological transformation. However, despite this promising pathway, analyses also reveal realizing social-ecological transformation with arts-based research is no walk in the park. Rather problematic assumptions around knowledge and knowledge production, emerging in tensions between art and science, often trump the emancipatory intentions of photovoice. And broader structural challenges, that arts-based research situates itself in and against, pose a strong barrier for social-ecological transformation. In response to these barriers, this article argues for a collaborative arts-based research practice centering community realities on multiple scales via a merging of art, science, and life.

Rereading the Wages for Housework Campaign: Feminist Degrowth Reflections on Social Reproduction, Commons, and a Care Income

Abstract This paper explores how debates on wages for housework in the 1970s contribute to current discourses on redefining, redistributing, and revaluing care. More specifically, this paper asks: How does a rereading of the international Wages for Housework (WfH) campaign contribute to feminist degrowth debates on commoning care and a care income? In trying to answer this question, I revisit original literature and interpretations of WfH and show that, as a Marxist feminist political perspective, the aim of the campaign ventured beyond the monetization of care. Subsequently, I elaborate on the now divergent ideas of Selma James and Silvia Federici, two of the campaign's main founders, of how to re-actualize the transformative aim of the campaign. Their two proposals, namely, a care income and reproductive commons, are introduced, brought into conversation with each other, and critically discussed against the background of Nancy Fraser's distinction between affirmative and transformative strategies of transformation. Exploring the fertile tension between a care income and commoning care, I draw preliminary conclusions on what feminist degrowth can learn from WfH regarding a social-ecological transformation to a more socially just and ecologically sound economic system.

Price-making in provisioning systems and social-ecological transformation? The cases of the electric vehicle metals copper, cobalt, and lithium

Research and debates around mineral extraction in the context of social-ecological transformation have to date dedicated limited attention to price-making. Drawing on the provisioning systems approach, this article assesses price-making in mineral provisioning as contested processes. We argue that price-making is not an objective or solely technical process taking place on abstract markets but rather it is, first, reflective of power struggles over specific rules and devices between different actors, embedded in social relations, network practices, and institutions and, second, linked to the materialities of commodities and the territorial and organizational forms of their provisioning. Empirically, we analyze the “electric vehicle metals” copper, cobalt, and lithium for which derivative markets are intensifying their role as price-determination institutions linked particularly to the interest of financial actors in getting price exposure. The article criticizes current shifts to benchmark- and derivative markets-based price-determination. This approach focuses on short-term demand and supply considerations without considering local producer-region production specificities, broader economic impacts, and environmental and social costs and risks. Moreover, it fails to address the long-term insecurities related to resource depletion. With financial actors dominating price-determination on derivative markets, prices deviate even from such a narrow fundamental demand and supply perspective, increasing volatility and short-termism. Alternative price-making mechanisms are needed, together with other policies for social-ecological transformation which requires political regulation embedded in democratic decision-making. Methodologically, the article is based on production, trade, and financial data and semi-structured interviews with representatives of price-determination institutions, metal-provisioning systems, and producer countries.

Framing social–ecological transformation as a geographical concept

AbstractGlobal challenges call for timely social–ecological transformation. There is a substantial amount of literature on social–ecological transformation, increasingly replacing and going beyond ‘sustainability’. However, the concept itself is used very inconsistently. This paper aims at identifying and systematizing the strains of argumentation that encompass the social–ecological transformation. Adding German‐speaking literature to the Anglophone debate, we systematize as we follow the concept's genesis to its varieties of use within context‐based (spatial, temporal, and societal) disciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary debates. Building on the various strands of contemporary use, this paper aims at contouring the epistemologies of the concept. Lastly, we illustrate the roles of geographical research approaches and the assigned methodology. We argue that the strands tend to drift apart and cannot be seen nor used as a singular uniform approach. We identify the key dimensions of how scholars use social–ecological transformation, unearthing underlying epistemologies. To conclude, we delineate key elements that geographical research on social–ecological transformation must address, laying the foundation for further scholarly debate.

Reconnecting with the social-political and ecological-economic reality

This article critically reflects on the research portfolio by the ecological economist Clive Spash who has helped pinpoint specific and systemic blindspots in a political-economic system that prioritises myopic development trajectories divorced from ecological reality. Drawing on his published work and collaborations it seeks to make sense of the slow, or absent, progress in averting global warming and ecological destruction. Three strands of key concern and influence are identified and discussed with reference to their orientation and explicit expression regarding Ontology, Epistemology and Axiology. Some complementary points about indeterminacy and holism are presented to further strengthen the arguments for a transition towards a social-ecological economic system that puts values and principles back into focus. While Clive Spash's work has made a strong case within the economic community and appealing to ecology professionals, the value-myopia or value-vacuum has to be tackled across all disciplines, politics and society for a meaningful and urgently required transformation in decision making. Hence, the article finishes with some suggestions for the (higher) education system, and highlights the importance of simplicity and sufficiency, as well as strong sustainability-driven citizen and community action as necessary catalysts of change in this social-ecological transformation.

Exploring economic dimensions of social ecological crises: A reply to special issue papers

In this paper I consider various shifts in my research and understanding stimulated by seeking how to combat social ecological crises connected to modern economies. The discussion and critical reflections are structured around five papers that were submitted to Environmental Values in an open call to address my work. A common aspect is the move away from neoclassical environmental economics, and its reductionist monetary valuation, to a more realist theory and multiple methods. This relates to my work on environmental ethics, plural values, stated preference validity and deliberative monetary valuation. Expanding beyond the narrow confines of mainstream orthodoxy has involved exploring a range of other disciplines (e.g. applied philosophy, social psychology, human geography, political science, social anthropology, history of thought and philosophy of science) and learning from this literature to rethink economics and develop social ecological economics. A broad range of subjects are covered here, including: personal responsibility, social practice, psychology of the individual, participatory processes, value (intrinsic, instrumental and relational), Nature–society relationships and interdependencies, critical realism and the conduct of unifying interdisciplinary science. I end with a series of comments concerning the failings of orthodox economics and the conduct of scientific research for social ecological transformation.

World-making technology entangled with coloniality, race and gender: Ecomodernist and degrowth perspectives

Impelled by the intertwined expansion of capitalist institutions and fossil-fueled industry, human activity has made devastating impacts on ecosystems and earth systems. The colonial, class, racial, and gender systems that coevolved with these historical processes have long been critiqued for engineering exploitation and inequality. Yet the technologies with which these systems interact are widely portrayed as neutral and nonpartisan. This paper interrogates the purported independence of technology on two fronts. First, it uses a political ecology lens to illuminate some ways in which the generation and application of technology have been historically entangled with colonial, racial, and gender systems. Second, it considers how those entanglements have been variously obscured, acknowledged, depoliticized, and/or politicized in two realms of thought and practice: ecomodernism and degrowth. Conclusions call for bringing creative innovation of ecomodernism together with degrowth commitment to just social–ecological transformation.

Thinking about social-ecological transformation through the structure of Paul’s messianic life

In the face of the urgent crisis of the times on a global scale today, theology needs to go beyond self-apologetic and provide a ‘actual contribution’ for theories or discourses to meet the needs. This study aims to solve this perception in the theme of ‘social-ecological transformation.’ In order to transform the social-ecological system, the paradigm at the macro level, power and institutions at the meso level, and culture and awareness at the micro level must all change. In this article, a ‘conceptual framework for social-ecological transformation’ is introduced, and through this framework, the synthesis of degrowth and decoupling, two representative discourses of responding to climate-ecological crisis, will be mediated between structure and practice. It is dealt with by turning to the problem of describing the meso level. At this point, by applying the structure of St. Paul’s ‘messianic life’ to the structure of meso level power and politics, theology can provide a ‘actual contribution’ to the discussion of current issues to respond to the urgent global climate-ecological crisis.

Mentalities, classes and the four lines of conflict in the social-ecological transformation

AbstractIn this article, we argue that current societal struggles about whether and how eco-social policy and politics should be implemented to tackle the interlinked challenges of climate change and inequality are an expression of the main societal conflict of our times: the social-ecological transformation conflict. We identify four lines of conflict in the social-ecological transformation and explore how they are related to classes and mentalities. In the theoretical part, we conceptualize classes in social space and mentalities through a Bourdieusian relational approach. We also discuss the location of the four lines of conflict in social space. In the empirical part, we analyze survey data from Germany. Firstly, we find eight mentalities among respondents reflecting their views on various eco-social topics. Secondly, we construct the social space with socio-economic variables for the economic and cultural capital of the respondents. Thirdly, we plot the mentalities in the social space. The results show that the cultural middle class is in favor of eco-social policy, while the upper class and the economic middle class prefer green growth and ecological modernization. The lower-class fractions are skeptical of any transformation because they distrust institutions and cannot bear the transformation costs.

Barriers and interventions for healthy and climate-friendly living for vulnerable groups

Abstract Background The climate crisis constitutes the largest threat to public health in the 21st century. Against this background co -beneficial measures for climate mitigation and health promotion can offer the opportunity for necessary transformative change, especially in terms of active mobility, sustainable food systems and spatial planning. Vulnerable groups are in particular affected by health burdens and limited in their scope of action regarding climate-friendly and healthy practices, making the identification of barriers and necessary structural changes especially important for vulnerable groups. Methods Within the framework of a narrative literature review, a policy analysis, and a complementary co-production workshop with representatives of vulnerable groups have been conducted. To identify essential measures amongst the core themes mobility, food system and spatial planning, the analysis included actual barriers and necessary structural changes for more health equity and climate mitigation. Results Based on our analytical framework different measures, especially requirements in terms of infrastructure, for all three fields of action (mobility, food system, and spatial planning) are needed. At the policy level, insufficient integration of public health aspects in other policy areas is evident, in particular due to a closed silo structure of different public authorities. Conclusions To shape transformative changes toward healthy and climate-friendly living, at policy level, long-term goal-oriented thinking that goes beyond legislative and funding periods is needed in order to be able to implement structural changes. Likewise, there is a need for fiscal policy measures in the sense of a socially just and ecological transformation. Also investments in physical infrastructure (e.g. bicycle parking, low-priced offers of healthy and sustainable restaurants) are essential for a social-ecological transformation. Key messages • Healthy and climate-friendly environments for vulnerable groups are in the need for the needed transformation. • Using co-benefits between health promotion and climate mitigation measures.

Understanding the bioeconomy through its instruments: standardizing sustainability, neoliberalizing bioeconomies?

Sustainability standards have been one of the hopefuls for decades when it comes to ensuring the sustainability of biomass for the bioeconomy, especially in the wake of their evolvement from voluntary, non-governmental to hybrid, public–private governance instruments in recent years. In addition to doubts regarding their legitimacy and effectiveness, however, they have also been associated with a neoliberalization of nature that integrates natural resources into a free market logic. Drawing on a conceptual framework that builds on political ecology and the political sociology of policy instruments, this paper challenges this notion. To this end, it examines sustainability standards in three countries/regions particularly prominent for the bioeconomy—the EU, Brazil, and Indonesia—to illustrate how these can be differentiated in terms of their neoliberal orientation, and what can be inferred from this for the orientation and state of the respective bioeconomies. The results show that the introduction of sustainability standards is not necessarily accompanied by a neoliberalization of nature. Rather, it is shown that the standards and their specific designs—and thus also their intrinsic understanding of sustainability as integration—are primarily intended to serve the material interests of the state and the respective industrial factions, for which neoliberal configurations are sometimes seen as rather obstructive, sometimes as rather useful. The sustainability standards, and thus the bioeconomies for which they stand, therefore, rather serve as instruments to stay on the path of modernization and industrial development already taken or envisaged, or, put differently, as strategies to avoid social–ecological transformation.

Pluriversity, Epistemic Selectivity and Social Ecological Transformation: The Example of Latin American Universities

Pluriversity, Epistemic Selectivity and Social Ecological Transformation: The Example of Latin American Universities