Despite pleas for major change, there is still a lack of understanding of the mechanisms and patterns involved, and of the conditions under which critical transformations can emerge.This lack of understanding greatly decreases the chances for successfully navigating transformation and embarking upon sustainable trajectories. Research at Stockholm Resilience Centre focuses on bridging this gap.
Key findings
1. Transformations involve incremental as well as abrupt change at many different scales.
2. There are at least three recognizable phases of transformation in social-ecological systems.
3. Institutional entrepreneurship and transformational leadership play an important role in moving through these multiple phases.
4. There is a clear link between crisis and opportunity for creating radical shifts and transformations.
5. "Shadow networks" play an important role in experimenting and finding new solutions to global environmental problems.
6. Innovations can break self-reinforcing feedback loops that keep social-ecological systems on an undesired trajectory or in a lock-in trap.
7. Resilience thinking adds the social-ecological system perspective to transitions toward global sustainability.
