The multidimensional nature of ecological stability must be understood across two distinct levels: phenomenon and principle. At the phenomenal level, stability emerges as constancy, encompassing diverse forms of identity. At the principle level, it manifests as persistence, which can be deconstructed into resistance, resilience, as well as other stability-preserving dispositions. Clearly and consistently defining these concepts necessitates constructing a unified, systematic framework. The traditional framework based on dynamic system theory effectively delineates resilience. However, its inability to adequately represent the regulatory function of ecological units upon their surrounding environment hinders the effective delineation of resistance. To address this limitation, we develop a dual-coupling framework. The first level involves coupling between the ecological unit and its surrounding environment, which buffers and integrates external indirect disturbances, crucially creating a more suitable and stable relative environment for the unit itself. The second level comprises a dynamic system formed by interactions among elements within the ecological unit, governed by ecological principles, enabling it to cope with direct perturbations to its parameters and state variables. This novel framework provides a reasonable and consistent delineation of both resistance and resilience. Through further expansion, it promises to delineate other stability-preserving dispositions, such as adaptation and regeneration. Consequently, it deepens our understanding of ecological stability significantly and offers a robust interpretation for the enduring "complexity-stability" thesis.
Extensive livestock systems are vital livelihood strategies in arid and semiarid regions, yet are undergoing profound transformations driven by complex social, economic, and ecological changes. How these transformations are studied shapes not only scientific understanding but also problem diagnoses and policy responses. We conducted a systematic review of literature analyzing trends in extensive livestock systems in arid, semiarid, and Mediterranean regions over the past four decades (1980-2020). Using the coupled infrastructure systems framework, which distinguishes infrastructure and governance alongside ecological and social components, we examined research focus across five system components: resources, users, user private infrastructure, public infrastructure, and public infrastructure providers. We evaluated social-ecological, disciplinary, and biogeographic patterns. Our analysis reveals a fundamental mismatch: although socioeconomic disturbances (policy changes, market shifts, institutional transformations) are reported as the dominant drivers of change, research attention remains concentrated on biophysical components (livestock numbers, pasture condition), with social and institutional dimensions severely underrepresented. Integration across system components is limited, with most studies examining one or two components in isolation, missing critical feedbacks. Geographically, research concentrates on developing regions with increasing livestock, whereas developed-country systems undergoing destocking and degrading ecosystems remain understudied. These patterns reflect institutional and epistemic structures that privilege certain knowledge forms, reinforcing narrow framings centered on ecological degradation while obscuring social and institutional processes. Addressing these systems' challenges requires structural changes in funding, training, and collaboration that elevate social science perspectives and prioritize integration.
Scientific interest in adaptive and transformative governance has accelerated as social scientists have come to recognize that sustainability problems and dilemmas emerge from the dynamic interaction of complex social-ecological systems. A growing need and desire exists to understand the contextual and institutional factors that contribute to adaptive and transformative capacity, as well as societal decision-making, problem-solving, and innovation. Governments and governance play important roles, but these roles are complex and insufficiently understood to guide public policy and institutional design. This gap hinders the ability of societies and their stakeholders to design and maintain effective governance systems to achieve social-ecological resilience and sustainable development. The current special feature sought to inform and bridge this gap, using the concept of State-reinforced self-governance as a conceptual and analytical lens. This editorial synthesizes observations from the empirical case studies, highlighting important lessons learned, challenges, and future opportunities.
As urbanization intensifies, communities encounter increasing challenges in designing, planning, and managing urban green spaces. Co-design offers a just and participatory approach that can unite diverse interest-holders to identify challenges and devise transformative solutions to complex urban issues such as green space governance. However, while co-design is acknowledged for its potential to foster learning and systemic change, it largely remains anthropocentric, often overlooking multispecies perspectives in planning, policy, and academia. We present a case study from New York City that examines how a multispecies co-design approach may enhance social-ecological systems transformation by exploring participants' learning experiences and perceptual shifts. The paper begins by exploring the literature on co-design and multispecies thinking within social-ecological systems and their contribution toward transformations, establishing the conceptual groundwork for integrating non-human actors into urban planning. We then present a case study of a multispecies co-design process in New York City and explore how engaging with it contributes to systems transformation. Findings from the case study reveal key motivations for participation, drivers of learning during the process, and emergent transformative solutions. By analyzing these dynamics, this research illustrates how co-design, which integrates multispecies perspectives, may refine ecological decision making and encourage deeper engagement with urban nature. The study argues that integrating multispecies approaches into co-design practices is essential for fostering sustainable societies. The paper concludes with guiding principles for researchers and practitioners seeking to implement inclusive co-design processes in social-ecological systems, particularly in complex urban environments such as New York City.
. The resilience of European food systems is being put to the test by complex and unexpected shocks, disruptions, and discontinuities, recent examples of which include COVID-19 and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Owing to the complexity of the food system and the high degree of interdependence within it, the impacts of disruptions reverberate throughout the system, exposing vulnerabilities that were poorly recognized before the crisis. These cascading effects highlight the need to understand system-wide interconnections and to develop adaptive capacities that strengthen resilience under conditions of uncertainty. This study identifies the key variables that affect the ability of the Finnish food system to secure desired outcomes, as well as the key measures that can enhance its resilience. To achieve this, we interviewed nine experts on the Finnish food system and conducted a qualitative analysis to construct causal loop diagrams that visualize the system's dynamic interactions. These diagrams were further refined and validated during a researcher workshop. Building on this process, we identified four interlinked sub-systems, i.e., systems thinking and cooperation, flourishing rural areas, profitable and sustainable primary production, and diversified input and food markets, which shape resilience through distinct feedback mechanisms. Six key measures emerged as central to strengthening resilience: improved supply pool coordination, resilience-inspired policymaking, revitalization of rural areas, improved profitability, increased crop diversity, and reduced reliance on imported inputs. Together, these findings underscore the importance of systemic, cross-sectoral approaches that go beyond static indicators and address the dynamic nature of food system resilience.
Video games are one of the most significant global media, with a large impact on material economies and on collective imaginations and culture. Here, we map out a transition to a new paradigm for the games industry to unlock its potential to contribute to more sustainable futures. To do this, we organized a series of seven workshops with game developers, funders, and researchers in the games industry using a combination of the "seeds of good Anthropocenes" and X-curve methods to develop a transition pathway that informs a new paradigm for the industry. We first developed seeds of potential change through a series of workshop formats (workshops 1-3). We then focused workshops on funding a new regime (workshop 4), and on breaking down the existing system (workshops 5 and 6). In the final workshop (7), we took all results of previous workshops and mapped them onto different connections between X-curve dynamics using an adapted version of the X-curve that emphasizes these connections. In this final synthesis workshop, which is our focus here, four main themes emerged as aspects of a new paradigm for the games industry: unionization of the games sector, new sources of funding, new ways to connect games and societal action or activism, and new norms and practices around game aesthetics. The introduction of the X-curve in the final workshop allowed for greater focus on unmaking current systems, difficult transition phases, and the later stages of the transition. We discuss the value of developing a pathway toward a new sustainability paradigm for a creative sector such as the games industry, making a case for a greater focus on cultural sectors as drivers of societal change.
African freshwater eels (Anguilla spp.) are an overlooked economic resource currently under threat. In South Africa, these populations have been in steady decline for over 60 years, yet we know remarkably little about their role in supporting local communities. Here, we seek to understand and explain the undocumented crisis facing these eels. Using a researcher-administered survey, our study investigated the importance of African freshwater eels linked to inland fisheries in KwaZulu-Natal Province across the uMngeni and uThukela catchments during 2021-2022. Survey results (n = 154) in urban and rural areas showed most users were male (n = 102; 66%), between 45 and 59 years of age (15%), and isiZulu-speaking (76%). Of the respondents, 75 (49%) were subsistence fishers; of these, 42 (56%) had caught freshwater eels, and 17 (41%) specifically targeted eels. African freshwater eels were utilized in fisheries across the study area. Fishers that targeted African freshwater eels depended on them for income because of the relatively high demand and value. The demand and value were from local and specialized markets, where some African freshwater eels were sold to traditional healers who use eels in medicinal products for various purposes, as well as to traders (local people, e.g., of Indian or European descent) and foreigners (e.g., East Asian). Our study documented the cultural and economic reliance of subsistence fishers on African freshwater eels. The social-ecological complexities and the localized decline of African freshwater eels have dire local and global implications for these species and associated fisheries. We establish the need for protecting African freshwater eels against the backdrop of global market demands. Proactive policy intervention is urgently needed to balance local subsistence with burgeoning international pressures.
Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPLCs) have been using their knowledge to cope with severe environmental change and promote sustainability at the local level in Africa. Their environmental conservation efforts through Indigenous practices are enabling positive social and environmental change. Such efforts respond to the growing consensus of a need to unpack how to enable positive change in Africa using Indigenous practices. However, there is sparse evidence of scientific research addressing the contribution of those practices through local initiatives to enable change in West Africa. This is a missed opportunity to explore the key role that IPLCs and their initiatives play in bringing about positive change in conservation at the local level. To fill the gap, this paper investigated the genesis of two locally led initiatives in the Mono Transboundary Biosphere Reserve (MTBR) in the Benin Republic, how they have been operating, and how they were used as a starting point to enable positive change at the local level in the reserve in West Africa. In total, among the 53 Indigenous practice holders interviewed through semi-structured interviews in four villages in the MTBR, only 18 mentioned Indigenous initiatives, which were subsequently included in the analysis. The findings show that Indigenous initiatives with their unique beliefs, customary laws, and associated knowledge have positive impacts on IPLC’s lives and benefit the quest for mangrove ecosystem sustainability in the Benin Republic. The initiatives helped protect aquatic resources from being harvested by many inhabitants in the reserve because of their Indigenous set of rules and practices and associated customary laws. Aspects of equity, social justice, and addressing conflict have also been managed since the establishment of the initiatives. However, this study suggests concerted efforts are still needed to bring about positive change at a larger scale. There is also a call to ensure that IPLCs, whose perspectives are underrepresented in conservation decision-making processes, are granted equal rights, heard, and empowered to act with support from fair and accessible funding systems.
Climate extremes, particularly the slow-onset climate stressors, pose a significant challenge to the vulnerable and marginalized communities that lack the capacity to adapt. Adaptation is a dynamic, socially embedded process shaped by our interpersonal relationships, experiences, the flow of information, and our ability to act collectively. We conceptualize transformational adaptation as changes that expand livelihood and institutional options beyond existing constraints. Yet adaptation outcomes vary widely, especially when state support is constrained. We argue that weak ties catalyze transformational adaptation in social-ecological systems, drawing on evidence from three villages of the Gulf of Kutch, Gujarat, India. Using mixed methods, we map family, friendship, and business networks among fishers and compute density, centralization, and clustering alongside qualitative interviews. The findings reveal that villages with high social capital, characterized by bonding ties, exhibit a cohesive social network but low business centrality, and rely largely on incremental coping and adjustments to address structural vulnerability and climate stress. In contrast, in communities with a greater prevalence of weak ties, fishers have better access to markets, boat-sharing arrangements, knowledge of policies and credit schemes, and support for diversified strategies, which expand their perceived options and future strategies despite similar hazards. Therefore, policies for transformational adaptation should promote cross-village exchanges and peer learning to strengthen weak ties.
The Guiers Lake Basin in Senegal has undergone intensive changes through numerous water development initiatives such as water treatment plants for the Dakar drinking water supply, agriculture, livestock breeding, and fishing. In the region, large-scale farming activities and agribusinesses have increasingly encroached on lands where subsistence family farming once dominated. This situation has significant implications for water quality, quantity, environmental health, and local livelihoods, thus potentially threatening the sustainability of the lake. In addition, stakeholders across the basin have been operating in isolation with little or no collaboration. We applied the transdisciplinary, complex social-ecological systems (CSES) based adaptive systemic approach (ASA) to examine and support transformation toward improved water security in the Guiers Lake Basin. The ASA is designed to shift complex challenges using participatory and adaptive processes, transformative social learning, and the integration of diverse knowledge systems. Our implementation combined extensive research into social and biophysical aspects of the basin with iterative multi-stakeholder engagements. To synthesize these findings, we employed causal loop diagramming as an analytical tool, systematically mapping system relationships, feedback mechanisms, and potential intervention levers based on a leverage points framework. We demonstrate how the ASA process has initiated a trajectory of change by building participatory governance capacity for multiple stakeholders through trust building, shared systems learning, and engagement to take action and support collaboration. Our analysis identifies key leverage points for strategic interventions, while acknowledging that sustainable transformation requires careful attention to existing power dynamics and institutional constraints. We conclude by examining conditions necessary for maintaining positive trajectories and addressing potential barriers to sustained change.
Challengers struggle against more powerful elites and authorities to resolve environmental problems driven by social forces, but can sustainability research contribute to such collective action while remaining scientific? After five years of movement-relevant sustainability research using Burawoy's extended case method, I seek to make three contributions. Empirically, I present strategic alliances and scale shifts within contentious politics at four scales adopted by Indigenous S & aacute;mi reindeer pastoralists to address the pasture availability problem. Theoretically, I show how the internal and external factors that shape such multi-scalar mobilization are influenced by ecological dynamics in forests. Methodologically, I suggest a multi-scalar approach that can help address concrete environmental problems aggravated by social drivers. With that, I seek to nurture dialogues between sustainability and social movement research and practice; discussing how scientific knowledge can help foster emergent properties for collective action for sustainability through analysis and engagements based on reflective sympathy and mutual integrity.
Li et al. (2023) published a timely and insightful contribution to the study of global sustainability through the development of a typology of transboundary flows within and between coupled human-natural systems. One of the article’s strengths is its detailed characterization of virtual flows, which capture the flow of resources that are not physically contained in traded products but considered virtually embedded due to their use in the production process. However, we note that the virtual flows of biodiversity-based ecosystem services, such as those provided by wild crop pollinators, are not fully developed in their typology. We present evidence supporting the inclusion of virtual biotic pollination flows as a distinct category of transboundary flows. Virtual biotic pollination flow can be quantified as the “proportion of overall crop production resulting from the ecosystem service provided by wild pollinators,” which is traded from producing to consuming regions. Virtual biotic pollination flow represents a distinct and measurable form of transboundary flow which highlight the often-overlooked interdependencies between the consumption of pollinator-dependent crops and biodiversity-rich crop production areas. Integrating virtual biotic pollination flows in the typology of transboundary flows would enhance the comprehensiveness and applicability of metacoupling frameworks and opens possibilities for developing innovative flow-based governance regimes for global sustainability.
In the second-largest continuous tropical rainforest in the world, the Congo Basin, climate change affects biodiversity as well as forest-dependent local communities. In the region, the lack of historical biophysical data prevents a comprehensive analysis of climate change impacts on its biophysical systems. In this context, local ecological knowledge, building on local communities' long history of interactions with their environment, can improve the understanding of interwoven environmental changes linked with climate change and biodiversity loss. This study focused on four villages, ranging from seasonally flooded to terra firma forests, involved 80 semi-structured interviews, 111 structured interviews, and eight focus groups to document local climatic changes, biophysical impacts, and perceived drivers of change through the knowledge of local communities. We also classified adaptation strategies into different categories according to their potential impacts on biodiversity. Results suggest that a wide range of climate change impacts are already apparent in the area, including changes in temperature and precipitation and the intensification of flooding events. Associated impacts on local biodiversity have also been observed, ranging from increased tree mortality, disrupted fish reproduction, disrupted migratory patterns in mammal species, and reduced fruit production. Our study filled an important knowledge gap, investigating both the direct impacts of climate change on biophysical systems, and its indirect impacts arising from adaptation in human behavior. Our results highlight the importance of integrating local ecological knowledge in rapid biodiversity change assessments.
Social-ecological system (SES) frameworks have become essential tools for analyzing human-nature relationships, yet they often overlook the role of power dynamics, particularly in their discursive forms. This study addresses this gap by proposing a conceptual framework that integrates the interplay of power and knowledge into SES analysis. Drawing from evolutionary governance theory and sustainability transition studies, the conceptual framework aims to capture how discursive power shapes knowledge systems, institutional configurations, and governance outcomes. Through an empirical case study of the Senegalese ecovillage network, the research examines how discourses influence social-ecological transition processes and resilience practices in rural communities. Results highlight divergent uses of the ecovillage concept and implementation approaches, leading to contrasting impacts upon people’s livelihoods. By highlighting the embeddedness of knowledge in power relations, the study underscores the importance of understanding discursive forms of power to avoid depoliticized and normative governance prescriptions. This work contributes to bridging resilience thinking with critical social theory, calling for greater interdisciplinary engagement to reveal hidden power structures and foster more reflective and pluralistic SES research.
The ecological impact of free-ranging dogs has garnered significant interest in the scientific community over the past two decades. However, a comprehensive, interdisciplinary approach to managing this issue, particularly concerning feral dogs, remains elusive. To explore the discourse surrounding feral dogs within society, we compiled a dataset of 1052 tweets from X spanning 15 years (2006-2021) of debate in Chile, a country where keeping unconfined dogs is a common practice. We codified this dataset using inductive text analysis, resulting in 13 thematic codes. Predominantly regular people (70.2%) engaged in the debate, while politicians and scientists (both <5%) were under-represented. X users employed a broad range of dog categories, including metonyms, but primarily emphasized unrestricted movement rather than strict independence from human subsidy, a criterion associated with the scientific definition of ferality. Key discussion themes included (1) dog-wildlife interactions (56% of 336 threat mentions), (2) legal hunting (43% of 323 expressed disagreement), and (3) policy-related concerns (40% of 155 expressed disappointments with policy). Notably, accounts with high engagement (followers, likes, retweets) often presented ambivalent viewpoints, such as animal rights versus conservation. We conclude that effective policy solutions for dog management necessitate a more active role by scientists and the implementation of participatory public debate instruments to prevent allowing polarized framings to dominate. This approach should prioritize addressing the conflicting ethical assumptions underlying differing worldviews (e.g., zoocentric versus ecocentric) and respect the cultural fundamentals of dog confinement.
Collaborative research approaches, such as Participatory Action Research, respond to complex environmental problems through a suite of principles that include, to varying extents, the integration of local and scientific knowledge. Yet, the differences in how researchers and participants in Participatory Action Research understand and act in the world are often overlooked and simplified. Such simplification can result in the unintended and unexpected marginalization of worldviews. Reflecting on Participatory Action Research for agroecology, in this short perspective, I interrogate how world-making practices that do not fit with the fundamental assumptions of modern science are assimilated. Moreover, I examine how so called “ontological openings”—as methodological devices in anthropology and Science and Technology Studies to reflect on the presuppositions and assumptions that come with chosen methods, concepts, and theories—might enhance the practice of Participatory Action Research. I argue that ontological openings can be opportunities to reflect on the assumptions of research collaborations, especially to avoid the unintended simplification of different understandings of the world.
