Transformative Pathways to Sustainability Learning Across Disciplines, Cultures and Contexts

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. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9780429331930/transformative-pathways-sustainability-pathways-network, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license

SECTION 1 Introduction 1 Introduction Adrian Ely 2 The ‘Pathways’ transformative knowledge network Adrian Ely and Anabel Marin SECTION 2 Emerging themes across the transformative knowledge network 3 Transformations: theory, research and action Adrian Ely 4 Transdisciplinary methods and T-Labs as transformative spaces for innovation in social-ecological systems Laura Pereira, Per Olsson, Lakshmi Charli-Joseph, Olive Zgambo, Nathan Oxley, Patrick Van Zwanenberg, J Mario Siqueiros-García and Adrian Ely SECTION 3 Insights from different international contexts 5 Towards a more sustainable food system in Brighton and Hove, UK 6 Adrian Ely, Elise Wach, Rachael Taylor, Ruth Segal and Rachael Durrant 6 Bioleft: a collaborative, open source seed breeding initiative for sustainable agriculture Anabel Marin, Patrick Van Zwanenberg and Almendra Cremaschi 7 Kenya: making mobile solar energy inclusive Victoria Chengo, Kennedy Mbeva, Joanes Atela, Rob Byrne, David Ockwell, and Aschalew Tigabu 8 China: the economic shock of a green transition in Hebei Lichao Yang and Chulin Jiang 9 Wetlands under pressure: the experience of the Xochimilco T-Lab, Mexico Hallie Eakin, Lakshmi Charli-Joseph, Rebecca Shelton, Beatriz Ruizpalacios, David Manuel-Navarrete and J. Mario Siqueiros-García 10 Enabling transformations to sustainability: rethinking urban water management in Gurgaon, India Dinesh Abrol and Pravin Kushwaha SECTION 4 Conclusion: transformative pathways to sustainability 11 Reframing sustainability challenges Fiona Marshall, Patrick Van Zwanenberg, Hallie Eakin, Lakshmi Charli-Joseph, Adrian Ely, Anabel Marin, and J. Mario Siqueiros-García 12 Emerging insights and lessons for the future Adrian Ely, Anabel Marin, Fiona Marshall, Marina Apgar, Hallie Eakin, Laura Pereira, Lakshmi Charli-Joseph, J Mario Siqueiros-García, Lichao Yang, Victoria Chengo, Dinesh Abrol, Pravin Kushwaha, Edward Hackett, David Manuel-Navarrete, Ritu Priya Mehrotra, Joanes Atela, Kennedy Mbeva, Joel Onyango and Per Olsson

The Pathways Network conducts action research into transformations to sustainability in six hubs across the world. Since 2015, it has been co-led (with Anabel Marin) by the editor, Adrian Ely, a Reader in Technology and Sustainability at SPRU and the STEPS Centre, University of Sussex, UK.