This book places tipping points in their scientific, economic, governmental, creative, and spiritual contexts. It seeks to offer a comprehensive set of interpretations on the meaning and application of tipping points. Its contribution focuses on the various characterisations and metaphors of tipping points, on the scope for anticipating their onset, the capacity for societal resilience in the face of their impending arrival, and for better ways of communicating and preparing societies, economies, and governments for accommodating them, and hence to turn them into responses which buffer and better human well-being. Above all, the possibility of preparing society for creative and benign ‘tips’ is a unifying theme. 

The conclusion is sombre but not without hope. Thresholds of profound change can combine earth system-based relatively abrupt shifts with human-caused alterations of these disturbed patterns which, coupled together, produce more rapid onsets and greater tensions and stresses for governments and economies, as well as socially unequal societies. There is still time to predict and address these thresholds but too much delay will make the task of accommodation very difficult to achieve with relevant-scale community support. There are many examples of adaptive resilience throughout the world. These should be identified, supported, and emulated according to cultural acceptance and emerging economic realities. 

Contents page:

Front Matter

• Foreword 

• Preface 

• Acknowledgements 

• Contributors 

Part 1: Tipping Points and Critical Thresholds

• 1.1 Metaphors and Systemic Change 

Part 2: Earth System Tipping Points

• 2.1 Tipping Elements from a Global Perspective 

Part 3: The Culture Dimensions

• 3.1 Skittles: The Story of the Tipping Point Metaphor and its Relation to new Realities 

• Commentary 3.2: Aligning Contrasting Perspectives of Tipping Points 

Part 4: Food Security, Biodiversity, and Ecosystems Degradation

• 4.1 Food Security Twists and Turns: Why Food Systems need Complex Governance 

• 4.2 Human Resilience in the Face of Biodiversity Tipping Points at Local and Regional Scales 

• 4.3 The Amazon in Transition: The Challenge of Transforming the World’s Largest Tropical Forest Biome into a Sustainable Social-Ecological System 

Part 5: The Spiritual Dimension

• 5.1 Contemplative Consciousness 

• Commentary 5.2: Faith and Tipping Points 

Part 6: Politics, The Markets, and Business

• 6.1 Sustaining Markets, Establishing Well-Being, and Promoting Social Virtue for Transformational Tipping Points 

• 6.2 Some Socio-Economic Thoughts 

• 6.3 Leadership for Sustainability: The Search for Tipping Points 

• Commentary 6.4: Leadership by Business for Coping with Transformational Tipping Thresholds 

• Commentary 6.5: Private Sector Failure and Risk Management for Tipping Points 

• Commentary 6.6: Creating a Roadmap for Sustainable, Transformational Change 

• Commentary 6.7: Tipping Points and ‘Too Difficult Boxes’ 

• Commentary 6.8: It Tips Both Ways 

• Commentary 6.9: Perspective of a Global Retailer 

Part 7: Communicating Tipping Points and Resilience

• 7.1 Media Coverage of Tipping Points: Searching for a Balanced Story 

• 7.2 Exploring Adaptive Governance for Managing Tipping Points 

• Commentary 7.3: Reflections of a Journalist 

• Commentary 7.4: Making Sense of the World 

• Commentary 7.5: Endgame 

• Commentary 7.6: Beyond the LinearThe Role of Visual Thinking and Visualization 

Part 8: A Precarious Future

• 8.1 Into a Precarious Future 

• 8.2 Improving Our Chances of Transition to Sustainability: The Role of Values and the Ethics of Solidarity and Sympathy 

• Commentary 8.3: Turning the Tides? Parallel Infrastructures and the Revolt of the Corporate Elites 

End Matter

• Index

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With transitions to more sustainable ways of living already underway, this book examines how we understand the underlying dynamics of the transitions that are unfolding. Without this understanding, we enter the future in a state of informed bewilderment.

Every day we are bombarded by reports about ecosystem breakdown, social conflict, economic stagnation and a crisis of identity. There is mounting evidence that deeper transitions are underway that suggest we may be entering another period of great transformation equal in significance to the agricultural revolution some 13,000 years ago or the Industrial Revolution 250 years ago. This book helps readers make sense of our global crisis and the dynamics of transition that could result in a shift from the industrial epoch that we live in now to a more sustainable and equitable age. The global renewable energy transition that is already underway holds the key to the wider just transition. However, the evolutionary potential of the present also manifests in the mushrooming of ecocultures, new urban visions, sustainability-oriented developmental states and new ways of learning and researching.

Shedding light on the highly complex challenge of a sustainable and just transition, this book is essential reading for anyone concerned with establishing a more sustainable and equitable world. Ultimately, this is a book about hope but without easy answers. 

Table of contents:

PART I Points of Departure

1. Introduction – Change in the Age of Sustainability

2. Ukama: emerging metatheories for the twenty-first century

PART II Rethinking Global Transitions

3. Understanding our finite world

4. Global crisis and transition: a long wave perspective

5. Futuring, experimentation and radical incrementalism

6. Evolutionary Potential of the Present: Why Ecocultures Matter

PART III Making and Resisting Sustainability Transitions

7. Developmental states and sustainability transitions

8. Global energy transition, energy democracy and the commons

9. Resisting Transition: ElectroMasculinity and the rise of Authoritarianism

PART IV Transdisciplinary Knowing

10. Towards an evolutionary pedagogy of the present

11. Concluding reflections of an enraged incrementalist

Reviews:

"This is a brave and ambitious book from a pioneering activist scholar. Mark Swilling offers a persuasive account of our contradictory times—dangerous and hopeful—while pointing to clear steps to become part of a just transition to a more sustainable civilisation. This masterstroke deserves the widest possible audience within the academy and far beyond. This is what praxis-driven, decolonial and free thought sounds like in its purest expression." - Edgar Pieterse, African Centre for Cities, University of Cape Town, South Africa

“This book provides a sound basis for understanding the dynamic complexity of the challenges we are facing through a transdisciplinary lens." - Desta Mebratu, Stellenbosch University, South Africa, and former Deputy-Director of the Africa Regional Office of the United Nations Environment Programme

"New thinking beyond all variation of modernity is needed to govern the Anthropocene meeting the challenges of the 21st century. Mark Swilling taps into contemporary theories like system thinking, integral theory and theories of resonance to reflect the African experience, pre-colonial, colonial, and post-colonial, to contribute to, if not to lead, the relevant global discourses of sustainability and resilience looking for the more than needed new narrative." - Louis Klein, European School of Governance, Germany

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While the need for effective action toward a greener and socially inclusive economy has long been evident, health promotion in the context of sustainable development has faltered. Arguing that human health is the key factor to sustainable development, Development and Sustainability promotes a fresh, transdisciplinary approach to the eradication of extreme poverty. This ground-breaking book calls for new forms of cooperation which cross the traditional boundaries between social activism and science, and which are capable of harnessing the complex knowledge that such radical change requires. The contributions bridge the gap between those working for health and those working for sustainability science and the green economy, through developing the methodological and scientific means to deal with some of the most critical issues faced by humanity in the twenty-first century. 

Contents page:

Ch. 1: Development and sustainability science: transdisciplinary knowledge for positive social change - Alberto D. Cimadamore, Fungisai P. Gwanzura Ottemöller, Gro Therese Lie and Maurice B. Mittelmark

Ch. 2: Seeking wisdom: a transdisciplinary perspective on Australian Indigenous practices and planetary management - Mark G. Edwards

Ch. 3: Policies for poverty reduction in a Transformative Green Economy - Enrique Delamonica

Ch. 4: Health promotion and sustainable Development in Kazakhstan - Altyn Aringazina

Ch. 5: Children's literacy in health and sustainability - Neil Chadborn and Jane Springett

Ch. 6: Participatory research as a tool for change in ecosystem approaches to health and social equity - Jane Springett

Ch. 7: Connecting development and sustainability: empowering people to effective international cooperation - Cristine Koehler Zanella

Ch. 8: Sustainability and transdisciplinary knowledge: experience gained and challenges ahead - Gro Therese Lie, Alberto D. Cimadamore, Maurice B. Mittelmark, and Fungisai P. Gwanzura Ottemöller

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Current economic growth strategies around the world are rapidly depleting natural resources and eco-systems. Just Transitions provides an overview of these challenges from a Global South perspective. How do developing countries eradicate poverty via economic development, while encountering the consequences of global warming and dwindling supplies of clean water, productive soils, cheap oil, minerals and other resources? How do they address widening inequalities, as well as the need to rebuild ecosystem services and natural resources?

This book considers a just transition, which reconciles the sustainable use of natural resources with a pervasive commitment to sufficiency (where over-consumers are satisfied with less so that under-consumers can secure enough). It synthesises a range of different literatures to illuminate new ways of thinking from a sustainability perspective. It rethinks development with special reference to the greening of the developmental state, explores the key role that cities could play in the transition to a more sustainably urbanised world, highlights the neglect of soils and examines the potential of sustainable agriculture to feed the world. Case studies drawn from Africa detail the challenges, but they are set in the context of global trends. The authors conclude with their experience of building a community that aspires to live sustainably.

 [Note: A physical copy of this book is available in our library, shelf number 338.927091724 SWILL.]

Table of contents:

Introduction: on becoming visible

Part I. Complexity, sustainability and transition. Ch. 1. Complexity and sustainability

• Ch. 2. What is so unsustainable?

• Ch. 3. Crisis, transitions and sustainability

Part II. Rethinking development. Ch. 4. Greening the developmental state

• Ch. 5. Rethinking urbanism

• Ch. 6. Soils, land and food security

Part III. From resource wars to sustainable living.

• Ch. 7. Resource wars, failed states and blood consumption: insights from Sudan

• Ch. 8. Transcending resource and energy-intensive growth: lessons from South Africa

• Ch. 9. Decoupling, urbanism and transition in Cape Town

• Ch. 10. Pioneering liveable urbanism: reflections on an invisible way

Conclusion

Bibliography

Index

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The book refers to the UNESCO’s ESD for 2030 education program. Libraries, especially green and sustainable libraries, deserve prominent recognition as learning institutions and active driving partners for Education for Sustainable Development and which support their governments’ sustainability efforts. In line with the Berlin Declaration on ESD and the UNESCO program, the book focuses on innovative approaches and informal education projects, created and provided by green and sustainable libraries.  

Table of Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

About IFLA

Preface

Part I: General

• 1 Empowering Communities, Sustaining the Planet: The Role of Libraries

• 2 Library-led Education for Sustainable Development: A Paradigm Shift

• 3 Data Information Literacy for Sustainable Development with a Special Focus on Italy

• 4 Arts-based Sustainability: From New York to Malawi

• 5 Incentives for Open Science and Advancing Sustainability: A German Perspective

Part II: Public and School Libraries

• 6 Nurturing Young Environmental Stewards: A Citizen Science Corner in an Australian School Library

• 7 Creating Green Libraries in Colombia through Education for Sustainable Development

• 8 Cultivating Sustainability: Education and Action in Hungarian Public Libraries

• 9 Libraries Striding Towards a Sustainable Society in India

• 10 Beyond the Bookshelf: Green Libraries as Catalysts for Sustainability in Slovenia

• 11 Green Libraries Meet the Arts in Spain: Alliances Shift Feelings, Consciousness and Actions

Part III: Academic Libraries and LIS Education

• 12 Empowering Students for a Sustainable Future: Information Literacy in Academic Libraries

• 13 Championing Sustainable Development in Academic Libraries: Insights from East Africa

• 14 Implementing a Sustainability Agenda at Göttingen University Library

• 15 Inspiring a New Generation: Spanish University Libraries and Sustainability Education

• 16 Cultivating Change: Student-Driven Sustainability Projects

• 17 Leveraging Open Educational Resources to Foster Sustainable Educational Development in Switzerland

• 18 Integrating Education for Sustainable Development into Philippine Library and Information Science Education

Contributors

About the Series:

The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) is the leading international body representing the interests of library and information services and their users. It is the global voice of the information profession.

The series IFLA Publications deals with many of the means through which libraries, information centres, and information professionals worldwide can formulate their goals, exert their influence as a group, protect their interests, and find solutions to global problems. 

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The development landscape has changed significantly over the last few decades, becoming increasingly complex. Many of the issues we face today such as climate change, poverty and conflict, call for a new way of doing business. This guide shows leaders and development practitioners how to navigate this complexity and manage their initiatives/organizations successfully towards sustainable development impact. The Managing for Sustainable Development Impact (M4SDI) approach presented in this guide is an integrated, resultsoriented management approach, which can be used across a range of sectors and domains in a variety of contexts, and aims to contribute towards the Sustainable Development Goals. It addresses some of the most pressing concerns, such as engaging primary stakeholders, designing effective strategies and related M&E, focussing on capacity development, and responding to change in a complex context. Key features of M4SDI include its people-centred approach and how it seeks to integrate planning, monitoring and evaluation processes. 

This guide builds on the earlier work of Irene Guijt and Jim Woodhill in the 2002 IFAD publication Managing for Impact in Rural Development: A Guide for Project M&E, and incorporates the insights and feedback of CDI colleagues, partners and over 800 practitioners who have been trained in using the approach in English, French and Spanish. We all have a role to play in contributing to a more sustainable world and we hope this guide will inspire and spur you on to do your part.

Table of Contents:

1 . What M4SDI is about

• Introducing m4sdi

• Changing context of international development

• Summary

2 . Dealing with change in complex systems

• Understanding complexity

• A systems approach to dealing with complexity

• Making theories of change explicit

• Summary

3 . Key orientations

• People orientation

• Learning orientation

• Context orientation

• Summary

4 . Capacities and conditions

• Why are capacities and conditions important?

• Determining capacities and conditions using the 5Cs framework

• Competencies

• Summary

5 . Communication

• Introduction

• Role of communication in M4SDI

• Understanding communication

• Overcoming obstacles to communication

• Developing a communication strategy

• Summary

6 . Strategic guidance

• What strategic guidance involves

• Main building blocks in strategic guidance

• Situation analysis

• Theory of Change

• Logical framework matrix (logframe)

• Summary

7. Effective operations

• What do we mean by effective operations?

• Key areas of focus for effective operations

• Role of leadership in managing effective operations

• Summary

8 . Monitoring and evaluation for impact

• The role of M&E in decision-making and facilitating change

• M&E, strategic guidance, effective operations and key orientations

• Key competencies supporting M&E

• Goal of M&E, its use and influence

• A framework for monitoring and evaluation

• Summary

9 . m4sdi stories of change

• The power of M&E to bring about transformational change: the SRSP story, Pakistan

• My personal journey in institutionalizing m4sdi in NARO, Uganda

• Dealing with complex systems and power through engagement and learning: BENEFIT Partnership, Ethiopia

Annexes

• List of selected methods and approaches

• Making a difference with evaluations

• Recommended data analysis

• Glossary

• References

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Our environmental, economic, and social systems are currently facing a host of challenges, which if left unaddressed will have significant implications for the world in which we live. Tackling these challenges will require better-informed decision-making, which in turn requires models that are designed and developed with sustainable development considerations and objectives in mind. To support this need for better-informed decision making, this book brings together the insights and expertise of a dozen expert modellers and policy analysts, who completed this project on modelling for sustainable development in June 2019 using the "Book Sprints" method. 

This practical book:

• Outlines the different modelling approaches available; 

• Describes why model design and development matters for sustainable development; and 

• Explains how these models can contribute to decision-making processes.

The book is designed for decision-makers, model commissioners, model developers, model users, and students specializing in modelling and/or the different aspects of sustainable development. 

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All development is about people: the transformative process to equip, link, and enable groups of people to drive change and create something new to benefit society. Development can promote societies where all people can thrive, but the change process can be complex, challenging, and socially contentious.

Continued progress toward sustainable development is not guaranteed. The current overlapping crises of COVID-19, climate change, rising levels of conflict, and a global economic slowdown are inflaming long-standing challenges—exacerbating inequality and deep-rooted systemic inequities. Addressing these challenges will require social sustainability in addition to economic and environmental sustainability.

Social Sustainability in Development: Meeting the Challenges of the 21st Century seeks to advance the concept of social sustainability and sharpen its analytical foundations. The book emphasizes social sustainability’s four key components: social cohesion, inclusion, resilience, and process legitimacy. It posits that:

• Social sustainability increases when more people feel part of the development process and believe that they and their descendants will benefit from it.

• Communities and societies that are more socially sustainable are more willing and able to work together to overcome challenges, deliver public goods, and allocate scarce resources in ways perceived to be legitimate and fair so that all people may thrive over time.

By identifying interventions that work to promote the components of social sustainability and highlighting the evidence of their links to key development outcomes, this book provides a foundation for using social sustainability to help address the many challenges of our time.

​Contents page (summary):

Part 1: From Aspiration to Action

• Introduction

• Context

• Notes

• References

Part 2: What Is Social Sustainability?

• Overview and Literature Review

• Definitions and Conceptual Framework

• Strengthening the Empirical Foundations of Social Sustainability

  • Annex 2A Empirical Annex

  • Annex 2B Social Sustainability and Developmental Outcome Correlations, Controlling for Income

  • Notes

  • References

Part 3: Closing the ­Implementation Gap 

• Introduction

• Challenges in Operationalizing Social Sustainability

• What Has Worked to Promote Cohesion, Inclusion, and Resilience?

• Leveraging Process Legitimacy: How Things Are Done Matters

  • Notes

  • References

Part 4: Conclusion

• A Perfect Storm

  • References

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With Sustainability: A Comprehensive Foundation, first and second-year college students are introduced to this expanding new field, comprehensively exploring the essential concepts from every branch of knowledge – including engineering and the applied arts, natural and social sciences, and the humanities. Each chapter is written by a recognized expert in the field.

The content is intended to be useful for both a broad-based introductory class on sustainability and as a useful supplement to specialist courses which wish to review the sustainability dimensions of their areas of study. By covering a wide range of topics with a uniformity of style, and by including glossaries, review questions, case studies, and links to further resources, the text has sufficient range to perform as the core resource for a semester course.

It is our sincerest hope that this work is shared freely and widely, as we all struggle to understand and solve the enormous environmental challenges of our time. 

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This open access book presents multiple disciplinary perspectives on the challenges and opportunities for sustainable development in the South African mountain city of Phuthaditjhaba. 

These challenges are embedded in the complex environmental, socio-cultural and political contexts of the region. Established as the capital of the QwaQwa ‘homeland’ under Grand Apartheid, this city is now home to between 400,000 – 700,000 people but in many areas lacks formal infrastructure and services. 

Each chapter of this volume addresses a different aspect of the city’s development and all take the UN Sustainable Development Goals as a common framework to guide their reflections on potential sustainable futures for Phuthaditjhaba. While the circumstances in Phuthaditjhaba will be familiar to many researchers of informal and growing cities in developing regions, the mountain setting of the city brings its own set of challenges and opportunities linked to the rugged and steep terrain, remoteness and natural resources. 

This book serves to showcase the diverse research taking place in this emerging mountain city and provide reflections on how a sustainable future can be ensured for its environment and inhabitants.

Table of Contents:

Introduction

• Phuthaditjhaba: The Rise and Fall of a Homeland Capital

• Planning for the Expansion of Phuthaditjhaba CBD Through UN Sustainable Development Goals

• Using Local Spatial Biodiversity Plans to Meet the Sustainable Development Goals

• Beneficial Role of Pollination and Soil Fertility for Soybean Production in Mountainous Farming Conditions

• Surviving the Limits Imposed by a Changing Climate: The Case of Urban Drought and Water Supply Sustainability in Phuthaditjhaba

• Afromontane Community’s Dependence on the Water and Climate Change Nexus of the Maloti-Drakensberg Mountain Range: The Case of Phuthaditjhaba

• Planning for Effective and Sustainable Water Access and Provision in QwaQwa Through the UN Sustainable Development Goals

• Virtual Disclosures and Self-emancipations: The Female Body and Self-identity on Online Platforms in Phuthaditjhaba

• SDGs as Indicators of Holistic Small Town Tourism Development. A Case for Phuthaditjhaba South Africa

• Exploring the of Establishment of an Urban Forest in Phuthaditjhaba to Create a More Sustainable Future Urban Environment

• Imagining the Future Phuthaditjhaba—Vision 2121

Conclusion

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Editors and Affiliations:

• Afromontane Research Unit, University of the Free State, Phuthaditjhaba, South Africa

Andrea Membretti

• Afromontane Research Unit and Department of Geography, University of Free State, Phuthaditjhaba, South Africa 

Sue Jean Taylor

• Global Mountain Safeguard Research (GLOMOS), United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS), Bonn, Germany

Jess L. Delves

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This well-researched, important text argues a case for the use of Environmental Resource Economics (ERE) as an analytic framework for the conceptualisation and design of sustainable policy options. Sustainable options integrates economic theories and concepts on the one hand with social and environmental challenges on the other.

Applying ERE in a developing context, like that of South Africa, is critical given the country’s dependence on natural and environmental assets. The sustainability of the economy and the welfare of the country’s people are at stake.

Environmental management is, therefore, an economic concern. This is illustrated clearly in the first section of the book, which examines a broad range of welfare indicators, thus providing an overview of the macroeconomic performance of the South African economy.

Sustainable Options is not only for academics and students from the economic, political and biophysical sciences. The book’s hands-on approach and explicit linkages to the real world of economic development makes it invaluable for policy-makers and environmental practitioners faced with the dauting task of making trade-offs between developmental and environmental concerns.

Table of contents:

Part A: 

• Prelude

• Ch.1: A perspective on the South African economy; 

• Ch.2: Reflecting on economic growth; 

• Ch.3: The economics of the environment; 

• Ch.4: Economic valuation. 

Part B: 

• Interlude 

• Ch.5: Capturing the value of environmental services; 

• Ch.6: Economic impacts of climate change of South Africa - a preliminary assessment of unmitigated damage costs; 

• Ch.7: The cost of climate change - the case of malaria in South Africa; 

• Ch.8: Economic guidance on prioritising alien invasive clearing to achieve the preferred public land use in South Africa; 

• Ch.9: The economic value of water in South Africa; 

• Ch.10: A small-sample approach to hedonic valuation of the environment - a case study at Zandvlei, Cape Town; 

• Ch.11: Towards internalising the cost of water pollution; 

• Ch.12: The cost of a decline in air quality; 

• Ch.13: Integrating waste disposal management into energy policy: The case of landfill gas; 

• Ch.14: The cost of noise pollution; 

• Ch.15: Natural resource accounts and their application in South Africa; 

• Ch.16: Economics in impact assessment - the role of environmental and resource economics.

Part C: 

• Interlude.

• Ch.17: Economics, the natural environment and public policy-making;

• Ch.18: Towards an economic development ethic;

• Ch.19: Reflecting on: Sustainable options.

Glossary

Index

Reviews:

"I have a feeling that this book ... will act as a forerunner for adopting better measures of environmental and social risk in business and government." - Clem Sunter.

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Sustainable Property Management is a 150-page, peer-reviewed open textbook intended for students majoring in property management and real estate at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. It can be incorporated into an existing property management operations course or used for a stand-alone course focused on sustainable property management. Although sustainability, as used in the real estate context, is about preserving the environment, it is about more than that. In sustainable property management, sustainability encompasses three spheres—environmental, social, and economic. Sustainable property management is about reconciling these three spheres throughout the operations and maintenance phases of the building lifecycle in such a way that a balance is achieved between economic development and the protection of environmental and social resources.

This textbook explains how ecologically sustainable concepts may be implemented throughout the property management operation functions while also considering the other spheres of sustainability. It also incorporates the theme of sustainable building practices as a human science as well as a building science by highlighting motivations and impacts to various stakeholders. The author draws on industry examples to illustrate these concepts and provides many experiential activities through which students can apply these concepts.

Table of contents:

• Ch. 1: Introduction to Sustainable Property Management

• Ch. 2: The Three Spheres of Sustainable Property Management

• Ch. 3: Stakeholder Motivations for Sustainable Property Management Practices

• Ch. 4: Sustainable Building Maintenance and Repair Practices

• Ch. 5: The Intersection of Sustainable Property Management and Risk Management

• Ch. 6: Integrating Sustainable Practices into Marketing and Leasing

• Ch. 7: Financial Evaluation of Sustainable Building Initiatives

• Ch. 8: Human Health Considerations

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This book focuses on the contemporary challenges faced by rural areas across the globe. These include common efforts to address food production and security; engaging with climate change and the fundamental transformations in everyday practices that this requires; the exodus of young people from rural areas; an ageing farming population; and the growth of rural poverty. The common goal throughout is one of exploring ways in which environmental, economic and social goals need to be addressed in a cohesive way while being cognizant of the diversity of people, environments, economies and traditions that exist across rural space. 

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This book aims to provide a comprehensive and integrated analytical framework that promotes the understanding of transformation towards sustainability. The analysis of this book is built upon negotiative perspectives to help define, design, and facilitate collective actions in order to execute the principles of sustainability.

It is shown that sustainable low carbon development is a transformative process that constitutes the shifting from the initially chosen or taken pathway to another pathway as goals have been re-visited and revised to enable the system to adapt to changes. However, shifting entails transition costs that are accrued through the effects of lock-ins that have framed decisions and collective actions. The uncertainty about these costs can be overwhelming or even disruptive.

Dr Dr Ariel Macaspac Hernandez is currently a researcher at the German Development Institute belonging to the research cluster knowledge cooperation and environmental governance. He was/is also a lecturer on negotiations, conflict and resource management, sustainability politics, environmental governance, climate change policies, development aid and sustainable energy systems in various universities in Germany, Philippines, Jamaica, Estonia, Spain and Mexico.

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In this book, edited by Henrik Skaug Sætra, a range of experts address the potential of technology to both solve and exacerbate pressing global issues. 

Technological change is at the core of all major disruptions in human history, and revolutions, wars, and general development are regularly connected to some sort of technological change. However, not all development is beneficial. While technology has fueled great innovations and rapid development, the notion of sustainable development has gained prominence as we now experience serious social, economic, and environmental challenges.

This book examines whether technology can be used to fix the very problems caused by technology, as the various chapters examine different aspects related to how technology has brought us where we are today (which some will say is the best place humanity’s been at according to a range of metrics), and whether technology helps or hinders us in our efforts to solve the challenges we currently face. The issues discussed cover the three sustainability dimensions and include topics such as the materiality of AI, technology in education, AI for gender equality, innovation and the digital divide, and how technology relates to power, the political system, and capitalism. The chapters all build on the theoretical backdrop of technological change, sustainable development, and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals are actively used throughout this book, both to examine how these goals capture or overlook central elements of sustainable development, and also to facilitate and create a common framework of engagement between the chapters.

This book provides a novel combination of traditional theories that are explored through different case studies, providing the ground for a better understanding of how and when technology can – and cannot – be the enabler of sustainable development. It is thus an important resource for students of all disciplines, technologists, and those developing and applying new technologies. It is also a valuable resource for politicians and regulators attempting to harness the power of technology for good, while limiting its negative potential.

The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons [Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND)] 4.0 license. Funded by Østfold University College.

Table of Contents

Ch. 1 - Introduction: The Promise and Pitfalls of Techno-solutionism

Ch. 2 - Key Concepts: Technology and Sustainable Development

Ch. 3 - Artificial Intelligence, Artificial Solutions: Placing the Climate Emergency at the Center of AI Developments

Ch. 4 - Sustainable Climate Engineering Innovation and the Need for Accountability

Ch. 5 - Shinigami Eyes and Social Media Labeling as a Technology for Self-care

Ch. 6 - Lessons to Be Learnt? Education, Techno-solutionism, and Sustainable Development

Ch. 7 - Virtual Reality and Autism

Ch. 8 - The Technologically Sustained Digital Divide

Ch. 9 - Spot on SDG 5: Addressing Gender (In-)equality Within and With AI

Ch. 10 - A Legal Sustainability Approach to Align the Order of Rules and Actions in the Context of Digital Innovation

Ch. 11 - Governing Toward Sustainable Development: From a Path-Dependent Transition to a Disruptive One

Ch. 12 - Capitalism, Sustainability, and Democracy

Ch. 13 - Nudging Policy or Crowding It Out? Green Nudges as Ideational Technologies

Ch. 14 - The Fallacy of Disruptive Technologies and the Primacy of Politics: Sustainable Development Goals as an Example

Ch. 15 - Technology and the Distribution of Power

Ch. 16 - What Does Data Valuation Literature Tell Us About Methods and Dimensions? Implications for City Data Marketplaces

Ch. 17 - Techno-solutionism Facing Post-liberal Oligarchy

Ch. 18 - The Role of Technology in Alternatives to Growth-Based Sustainable Development

Ch. 19 - Conclusion: The Promise and Pitfalls of Techno-solutionism for Sustainable Development

Reviews:

"The widely celebrated benefits of technological development during the past two centuries are now overshadowed by evidence of grave troubles in society, economics, politics, and Earth’s climate, ones often delivered, alas, by the very same set of technical wonders. How are we to think about these astonishing contrasts? The writings gathered in this collection offer rigorous, insightful methods for exploring the major challenges that vex world society today. A treasure chest of theories and case histories, the book offers sustenance for all of those seeking fruitful alternatives."

--Langdon Winner, Professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, author of "Autonomous Technology: Technics-out-of-control as a theme in political thought", and "The whale and the reactor: A search for limits in an age of high technology".

"An interesting collection of chapters that reflect on the role of technology vis-à-vis sustainable development. Highly relevant against the backdrop of the imminent risks created by climate change, and rightly critical of technosolutionist approaches, the contributions to this volume helpfully highlight the political aspects of this challenging conundrum. Not to be missed."

--Mark Coeckelbergh, Professor at the University of Vienna, author of "AI Ethics", "Green Leviathan", and "The Political Philosophy of AI."

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Transformations to sustainability are increasingly the focus of research and policy discussions around the Sustainable Development Goals. However, the different roles played by transdisciplinary research in contributing to social transformations across diverse settings have been neglected in the literature. Transformative Pathways to Sustainability responds to this gap by presenting a set of coherent, theoretically informed and methodologically innovative experiments from around the world that offer important insights for this growing field.

The book draws on content and cases from across the ‘Pathways’ Transformative Knowledge Network, an international group of six regional hubs working on sustainability challenges in their own local or national contexts. Each of these hubs reports on their experiences of ‘transformation laboratory’ processes in the following areas: sustainable agricultural and food systems for healthy livelihoods, with a focus on sustainable agri-food systems in the UK and open-source seeds in Argentina; low carbon energy and industrial transformations, focussing on mobile-enabled solar home systems in Kenya and social aspects of the green transformation in China; and water and waste for sustainable cities, looking at Xochimilco wetland in Mexico and Gurgaon in India. The book combines new empirical data from these processes with a novel analysis that represents both theoretical and methodological contributions. It is especially international in its scope, drawing inputs from North and South, mirroring the universality of the Sustainable Development Goals.

The book is of vital interest to academics, action researchers and funders, policy makers and civil-society organisations working on transformations to sustainability.

Table of contents:

SECTION 1: Introduction 

1 Introduction 

2 The ‘Pathways’ transformative knowledge network 

SECTION 2: Emerging themes across the transformative knowledge network 

3 Transformations: theory, research and action 

4 Transdisciplinary methods and T-Labs as transformative spaces for innovation in social-ecological systems

SECTION 3: Insights from different international contexts 

5 Towards a more sustainable food system in Brighton and Hove, UK 

6 Bioleft: a collaborative, open source seed breeding initiative for sustainable agriculture

7 Kenya: making mobile solar energy inclusive 

8 China: the economic shock of a green transition in Hebei 

9 Wetlands under pressure: the experience of the Xochimilco T-Lab, Mexico  

10 Enabling transformations to sustainability: rethinking urban water management in Gurgaon, India  

SECTION 4: Conclusion: transformative pathways to sustainability 

11 Reframing sustainability challenges

Reviews:

"This book – over five years in the making – clearly illustrates the powerful potential of internationally-networked, transdisciplinary research. It marks an important step forward in the study of social transformations for sustainability, and is a key resource for those who concern themselves with today’s important challenge of transforming science."

— Heide Hackmann, PhD, Chief Executive Officer, International Science Council (ISC)

"There is a proliferation of studies about the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), but this well written and structured book goes to the heart of the debate: the necessary transformations for addressing the SDGs. What emerges is an important tapestry of theories and rich selection of local experiences that can be used to understand transformations and work with stakeholders using Transformation-Lab methodologies. It is an exemplary and compelling account of an exciting collective and global transdisciplinary research adventure. A must-read for anyone, academic and practitioners, engaged with the deep challenges of our time."

— Johan Schot, Professor of Global History and Sustainability Transitions at the Utrecht University Centre for Global Challenges and Academic Director of the Transformative Innovation Policy Consortium (TIPC)

"In this potentially decisive decade for human well-being and planetary health, the question of how systemic or transformative change happens remains critical. How do we transition to social and economic pathways that ensure prosperity for all without cataclysmic environmental and climatic consequences? What role can transdisciplinary research play in identifying and helping to resolve structural barriers to transformative change? In this moment of unusual opportunities and challenges, this mould-breaking book tackles these questions head on. It is a timely and welcome challenge to the global development, research and policy communities to think and act differently."

— Dr. Cosmas Milton Obote Ochieng, Global Director, Governance, Poverty and Equity, World Resources Institute

"This book offers rich insight into how transformative change happens. It is the output of an established global community of researchers and practitioners working to enhance the ways in which research and innovation improves the lives of those facing critical social, economic and environmental challenges. It is a hugely valuable resource for others in that growing community who share the ambitions and motivations of the authors."

— Prof Joanna Chataway, Head of Department of Science, Technology, Engineering and Public Policy (UCL STEaPP), University College London

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From fall 2020 onward, coinciding with the 5-year anniversary of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), MDPI is publishing a series of volumes on each SDG. The book series is intended to reach beyond disciplinary, even academic boundaries.

In 17 volumes, Transitioning to Sustainability examines each of the 17 SDG in its dynamic and multifaceted nature. Each volume will present approaches to, achievements of, and challenges for the respective SDG. Considering the complex links among the SDGs, each volume also highlights complementarities to, as well as tradeoffs with, other goals. To reflect the diversity of positions, each volume may include theory chapters, chapters presenting empirical research, position pieces, progress on important research programmes, and stakeholder initiatives.

With this new Open Access book series MDPI pursues environmentally and socially relevant research which contributes to efforts toward a sustainable world. Transitioning to Sustainability aims to add to the conversation about regional and global sustainable development according to the 17 SDGs.

Volumes in the series (book titles):

Transitioning to No Poverty  -  https://www.mdpi.com/books/pdfview/edition/1404 [published]

Transitioning to Zero Hunger  -  https://www.mdpi.com/books/pdfview/edition/1311  [Expected Date of Publication: Nov 2023]

Transitioning to Good Health and Well-Being  -  https://www.mdpi.com/books/pdfview/edition/1245  [published]

Transitioning to Quality Education  -  https://www.mdpi.com/books/pdfview/edition/1226  [published]

Transitioning to Gender Equality  -  https://www.mdpi.com/books/pdfview/edition/1296  [published]

Transitioning to Clean Water and Sanitation  -  https://www.mdpi.com/books/pdfview/edition/1230  [published]

Transitioning to Affordable and Clean Energy  -  https://www.mdpi.com/books/pdfview/edition/1231 [published]

Transitioning to Decent Work and Economic Growth  -  https://doi.org/10.3390/books978-3-03897-779-7  [published]

Transitioning to Sustainable Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure  -  https://www.mdpi.com/books/pdfview/edition/1734  [Expected Date: Dec 2023]

Transitioning to Reduced Inequalities  -  https://www.mdpi.com/books/edition/6778-transitioning-to-reduced-inequalities   [published]

Transitioning to Sustainable Cities and Communities  -  https://www.mdpi.com/books/pdfview/edition/1312  [Expected Date of Publication: Oct 2023]

Transitioning to Responsible Consumption and Production  -  https://doi.org/10.3390/books978-3-03897-873-2 [published]

Transitioning to Climate Action  -  https://www.mdpi.com/books/pdfview/edition/1295  [Expected Date of Publication: Dec 2024]

Transitioning to Sustainable Life below Water  -  https://www.mdpi.com/books/pdfview/edition/1405 [published]

Transitioning to Sustainable Life on Land  -  https://www.mdpi.com/books/pdfview/edition/1406 [published]

Transitioning to Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions  -  https://www.mdpi.com/books/pdfview/edition/1244  [Expected Date of Publication: Dec 2024]

Transitioning to Strong Partnerships for the Sustainable Development Goals  - https://doi.org/10.3390/books978-3-03897-883-1 

                                                                                                                                     [published]                                                                           

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This book offers critical perspectives on post-apartheid South Africa's "sustainable development" experience, and on the neo-liberal, market-oriented strategies, adopted by central government and most municipalities since democracy dawned in 1994. Bond and his co-authors have researched and campaigned on behalf of social and environmental justice for years: offering alternatives to a minerals smelter at Coega, opposing the Lesotho mega-dams, helping township activists end disconnections of their electricity and water, and campaigning for free lifeline services. Grassroots protest movements are rising everywhere: against globalization, privatization, unemployment, poverty, the denial of healthcare and social services, and ecological degradation. Market forces that ignore social and environmental degradation are scrutinized and critiqued, and alternative proposals are examined in this book.

Table of Contents

Preface and acknowledgements............................................................xiv

Introduction: A world in one country

   1. Introduction ....................................................................1

   2. The conquest of nature ...................................................................7

   3. Unsustainable Johannesburg........................................  9

   4. Learning from cholera...................................................................15

   5. Environment and development? ...................................................18

PART ONE: AN UNSUSTAINABLE LEGACY

Chapter one: The environment of apartheid-capitalism: discourses and issues

                                        with David Hallowes

   1. Introduction  ...............................................................25

   2. Discourses of environment and development..............................27

   3. Green business versus critical ecology.........................................33

   4. Water  ........................................................................35

   5. Energy  .......................................................................37

   6. Waste  ........................................................................39

   7. Land use ......................................................................40

   8. Industrial and mining pollution ....................................................41

   9. Conclusion ......................................................................45

PART TWO: UNSUSTAINABLE PROJECTS

Chapter two: The development of underdevelopment in Mandela Metropole: Coega's economic, social, and environmental subsidies

                                       with Stephen Hosking

   1. Introduction  ...............................................................51

   2. The case against the Coega port/IDZ ............................................54

   3. Rethinking Coeganomics ..............................................................62

   4. Should Coega consume so much water, air and power? ..............84

   5. Another Eastern Cape is possible..................................................97

   6. Another Coega is possible...........................................................106

   7. Conclusion   .......................................................................109

Chapter three: Lesotho's water, Johannesburg's thirst: communities, consumers, and mega-dams

   1. Introduction  ..................................................................... 127

   2. Costs, benefits, and politics.........................................................133

   3. The political context ...................................................................138

   4. The green critique....................................................................... 143

   5. The brown critique ....................................................................148

   6. The limits of the sustainable development discourse ................161

   7. Conclusion  ........................................................................165

PART THREE: UNSUSTAINABLE POLICIES

Chapter four: Eco-social injustice for working-class communities: the making and unmaking of neoliberal infrastructure policy

                 with George Dor, Becky Himlin, and Greg Ruiters

   1. Introduction   ................................................................... 5

   2. Government's inheritance ..........................................................193

   3. Government's mandate ...............................................................197

   4. The post-apartheid municipal services debate ..........................201

   5. Municipal services 'partnerships' ..............................................209

   6. Environmental implications of infrastructure.............................225

   7. Sabotaging free services..............................................................233

   8. Conclusion   ........................................................................242

Chapter five: Droughts and floods: water prices and values in the time of cholera

                             with Greg Ruiters and Robyn Stein

   1. Introduction ....................................................:................... 255

   2. The water delivery crisis .............................................................263

   3. World Bank water management .................................................270

   4. Water decommodification through the law?...............................277

   5. Conclusion .........................................................................284

Chapter six: Power to the powerful: energy, electricity, equity, and environment

                     with Maj Fiil-Flynn and Stephen Greenberg

   1. Introduction .....................................................................301

   2. Eskom power and the minerals-energy complex .......................303

   3. Soweto's Operation Khanyisa strikes a nerve ............................315

   4. Energy and environment.............................................................328

   5. Conclusion   .....................................................................340

PART FOUR: ENVIRONMENT, DEVELOPMENT, AND SOCIAL PROTEST

Chapter seven: Conclusion: environmentalism, the WSSD, and uneven political development

                       with Michael Dorsey and Thulani Guliwe

   1. Introduction   ..................................................................357

   2. Top-down or bottom-up regional eco-development?..................366

   3. The WSSD's commodification of nature and life..........................381

   4. The uneven politics of environment and development .............406

   5. Conclusion  ..................................................................420

References  ....................................................................... 428

Index  ...........................................................................439

Reviews:

"Patrick Bond's hard-hitting book on environment and development in post-apartheid South Africa is both personal and provocative. ... Bond provides a critical and eye-opening account, using a great deal of information and research to support his argument. The book is dense and multi-layered, which perhaps illustrates the complexities of the environment-development debate at local, national and international level. A great deal of information is presented, which makes the book difficult to digest on a first reading. However, it provides a useful source of information on sustainability issues in South Africa. In places Bond does not support the statements he makes with enough substantive evidence and this makes the reader question whether these are personal or empirically sound judgements. In his analysis, Bond has tended to focus more on social justice and basic human rights issues rather than the strong links between the natural environment and social problems (although these are covered as well). ... In adopting an eco-socialist discourse and in questioning the sustainability of South Africa, he needed to consider the intrinsic value and rights of the natural environment too, thereby addressing the red, the brown and the green.

Perhaps the greatest warning provided by the book is the role of individuals in promoting or undermining sustainability in South Africa. Bond makes the critical point that it is the officials who adopt sustainable development and speak within a neo-liberal strategy; the consultants who implement the weak sustainability approach, focusing on their own agenda and interests; South Africa's growing tradition of' captive regulators'; and ministers who push unsustainable development for their own political careers and power, that are responsible for environmental destruction and the resultant social problems of South Africa. He clearly believes silence is a form of consent. ... As individuals and collective groups we can make a difference: we need to be part of and support the rise of civil society in securing social, ecological and environmental justice in South Africa."

--Catherine Oelofse and Victoria Lubke, in Transformation (53), 2003.

"Bond and his ten co-authors have achieved a tour de force with this refreshing volume. Their rich analysis of social policy choices made in South Africa by the postapartheid government is a courageous contribution to the corpus of literature linking society, environment and development in that country. ... One  of  the  most impressive features  of the  book  is the  researchers' ability to  apply their academic  training and knowledge  effectively to  the policy  domain  and  to  champion  realistic  solutions  that  would  benefit underserved communities. ... There  are  two  shortcomings  to  the  book,  though  neither  is  fatal. Because he is appalled by social injustice, Bond has, by his own admission, written a fierce critique of the neoliberal policies pursued by current government  officials. His thesis is most incontrovertible when rooted in and supported  by detailed research rather than ideology.  For the non-Marxist, the anticapitalist  rhetoric  can become  tiring.  The  second  flaw dovetails with the  first. Any reshaping  of government  policy requires dialogue  with the appropriate parties. If the authors are serious about reform, they could look  to  the deft  strategies employed  by the Treatment Action  Campaign (TAC)  under Zackie Achmat's  exemplary leadership. ...  The  case  studies demonstrate  the array of  development  options,  the missed opportunities, and the tight interconnections  between  the economic,  social, and environmental  spheres,  particularly in  middle-income  countries  such  as  South Africa, and the implications of policy choices for each. 

This account of controversial subject matter is a valiant contribution to the literature on South Africa's socioeconomic  development.  Bond  and  his  ten  colleagues  have written a work of considerable  value. "

--Courtenay Sprague, Carnegie Corporation, New York, in African Studies Review, 23 May 2014.

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This book offers the first overview of the ‘wicked problems’ literature, often seen as complex, open-ended, and intractable, with both the nature of the ‘problem’ and the preferred ‘solution’ being strongly contested. It contextualises the debate using a wide range of relevant policy examples, explaining why these issues attract so much attention.

There is an increasing interest in the conceptual and practical aspects of how ‘wicked problems’ are identified, understood and managed by policy practitioners. The standard public management responses to complexity and uncertainty (including traditional regulation and market-based solutions) are insufficient. Leaders often advocate and implement ideological ‘quick fixes’, but integrative and inclusive responses are increasingly being utilised to recognise the multiple interests and complex causes of these problems. This book uses examples from a wide range of social, economic and environmental fields in order to develop new insights about better solutions, and thus gain broad stakeholder acceptance for shared strategies for tackling ‘wicked problems’.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction

• Debates in Public Policy—Problem Framing, Knowledge and Interests

• The Rise of ‘Wicked Problems’—Uncertainty, Complexity and Divergence

• Political Governance of Wicked Problems

• Complexity, Crises and Coping Strategies

• Managing Environmental and Sustainability Challenges

• Improving Social Well-Being and Social Equity

• Policy Innovation in Turbulent Times

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