University of Sussex
Browse
1/1
4 files

Transforming innovation for sustainability

journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-08, 12:07 authored by Melissa LeachMelissa Leach, Johan Rockström, Paul Raskin, Ian ScoonesIan Scoones, Andrew StirlingAndrew Stirling, Adrian SmithAdrian Smith, John ThompsonJohn Thompson, Erik Millstone, Adrian ElyAdrian Ely, Elisa Arond, Carl Folke, Per Olsson
The urgency of charting pathways to sustainability that keep human societies within a "safe operating space" has now been clarified. Crises in climate, food, biodiversity, and energy are already playing out across local and global scales and are set to increase as we approach critical thresholds. Drawing together recent work from the Stockholm Resilience Centre, the Tellus Institute, and the STEPS Centre, this commentary article argues that ambitious Sustainable Development Goals are now required along with major transformation, not only in policies and technologies, but in modes of innovation themselves, to meet them. As examples of dryland agriculture in East Africa and rural energy in Latin America illustrate, such "transformative innovation" needs to give far greater recognition and power to grassroots innovation actors and processes, involving them within an inclusive, multi-scale innovation politics. The three dimensions of direction, diversity, and distribution along with new forms of "sustainability brokering" can help guide the kinds of analysis and decision making now needed to safeguard our planet for current and future generations.

History

Publication status

  • Published

Journal

Ecology and Society

ISSN

1708-3087

Publisher

Resilience Alliance

Issue

2

Volume

17

Page range

11

Department affiliated with

  • SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2012-07-13

Usage metrics

    University of Sussex (Publications)

    Categories

    No categories selected

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC