Sustainability Science

Ariane König is a Senior Researcher in the Research Unit for Education, Cognition, Culture and Society at the University of Luxembourg.Jerome Ravetz is an Associate Fellow at the Institute for Science, Innovation and Society, University of Oxford.

"Transforming our world into one that is sustainable and desirable and that achieves the UN Sustainable Development Goals is the overarching challenge for humanity today. This book is an important and innovative guide to sustainability science as a transformative, whole system learning process that is essential to achieving this goal." — Professor Robert Costanza, The Australian National University, Australia"This book will certainly promote the debate on the role of scientific knowledge in sustainability transitions. It convinces by its enlightened perspective on appropriate forms of knowledge production in the 21st century." — Professor Uwe Schneidewind, Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy, Germany"This book provides a powerful set of concepts and methods that have proved very effective for the participatory development of new perspectives and actionable knowledge on sustainability in practice, on campus and beyond. Whether for course-work or for practice – this book gives clear guidance. It is a gem!" — Associate Professor Maki Ikegami, Hokkaido University, Japan

• IntroductionChapter 1. Sustainability science as a transformative social learning process Ariane KönigChapter 2. Flowers of resistance: Citizen science, ecological democracy and the transgressive education paradigm Arjen E.J. Wals, Michael A. PetersPart I. Embracing complexity and alternative futures: Conceptual tools and methodsChapter 3. Systems approaches for transforming social practice: Design requirements Ariane KönigChapter 4. Cognitive pitfalls in dealing with sustainability Philipp SonnleitnerChapter 5. Escaping the complexity dilemma Barry Newell, Katrina ProustChapter 6. Exploring alternative futures with scenarios Gerard Drenth, Shirin Elahi, Ariane KönigChapter 7. Social technology and Theory U: Co-creating actionable knowledge for leadership Isabel PageChapter 8. Staging design-thinking for sustainability in practice: Guidance and watch-outs Kilian Gericke, Boris Eisenbart, Gregor WaltersdorferPart II. What might transformations look like? Sectoral challenges and interdependenceChapter 9. Can ecosystem services help agricultural transitions? Nicolas Dendoncker, Emilie CrouzatChapter 10. Food systems and human ecology: An overview Federico Davila, Robert DyballChapter 11. Energy: Physical and technical basics Susanne SiebentrittChapter 12. Urban energy transitions from innovations in green building Julia Affolderbach, Bérénice Jung-Preller, Christian Schulz Chapter 13. Democratising renewable energy production: A Luxembourgish perspective Kristina Hondrila, Simon Norcross, Paulina Golinska, Vladimir Broz, Aydeli Rios, Jules MullerChapter 14. Community-based monitoring for improved water governance Kim Chi Tran, Ariane KönigPart III. Tracking, steering and judging transformationChapter 15. Sustainability indicators: Quality and quantity Jerome Ravetz, Paula Hild, Olivier Thunus, Julien BollatiChapter 16. Complex learning Sebastian ManhartChapter 17. Uncertainty as a key to sustainability economics Jerome Ravetz Chapter 18. Post-Script: Heuristics for sustainability science Jerome RavetzChapter 19. Outlook: The changing relationship between citizens and science in the Anthropocene Ariane König