{"title":"Regenerative sustainability. A relational model of possibilities for the emergence of positive tipping points","authors":"J. Tàbara","doi":"10.1080/23251042.2023.2239538","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Global environmental change problems are relational problems, so individual and collective actions aimed at dealing with them need to address fundamental changes about how we relate to social and biophysical systems. In this contribution, I suggest that current attempts to theorise and act on sustainability transformations would benefit from a relational perspective characterising individuals, organisations and societies as coupled social-ecological systems set in the context of accelerating global environmental change. Using a whole-life-systems’ non-exemptionalist worldview, a conceptual model is presented to help explore the theoretical possibilities for creating regenerative sustainability pathways. Learning to restore and improve the life-support conditions that ensure long-term sustainability will require enacting positive synergies between social and biophysical capitals as well as reframing anthropocentric conceptions of agency and of individual emancipation. In particular, regenerative sustainability pathways entail synergising different kinds and levels of agency in non-dualistic ways and tackle at the same time transformations in: social and institutional arrangements (S), energy and natural resources (E), information and knowledge systems (I) and accumulated environmental change (C) -the SEIC model.","PeriodicalId":54173,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Sociology","volume":"9 1","pages":"366 - 385"},"PeriodicalIF":2.4000,"publicationDate":"2023-07-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"1","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Environmental Sociology","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/23251042.2023.2239538","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 1
Abstract
ABSTRACT Global environmental change problems are relational problems, so individual and collective actions aimed at dealing with them need to address fundamental changes about how we relate to social and biophysical systems. In this contribution, I suggest that current attempts to theorise and act on sustainability transformations would benefit from a relational perspective characterising individuals, organisations and societies as coupled social-ecological systems set in the context of accelerating global environmental change. Using a whole-life-systems’ non-exemptionalist worldview, a conceptual model is presented to help explore the theoretical possibilities for creating regenerative sustainability pathways. Learning to restore and improve the life-support conditions that ensure long-term sustainability will require enacting positive synergies between social and biophysical capitals as well as reframing anthropocentric conceptions of agency and of individual emancipation. In particular, regenerative sustainability pathways entail synergising different kinds and levels of agency in non-dualistic ways and tackle at the same time transformations in: social and institutional arrangements (S), energy and natural resources (E), information and knowledge systems (I) and accumulated environmental change (C) -the SEIC model.
期刊介绍:
Environmental Sociology is dedicated to applying and advancing the sociological imagination in relation to a wide variety of environmental challenges, controversies and issues, at every level from the global to local, from ‘world culture’ to diverse local perspectives. As an international, peer-reviewed scholarly journal, Environmental Sociology aims to stretch the conceptual and theoretical boundaries of both environmental and mainstream sociology, to highlight the relevance of sociological research for environmental policy and management, to disseminate the results of sociological research, and to engage in productive dialogue and debate with other disciplines in the social, natural and ecological sciences. Contributions may utilize a variety of theoretical orientations including, but not restricted to: critical theory, cultural sociology, ecofeminism, ecological modernization, environmental justice, organizational sociology, political ecology, political economy, post-colonial studies, risk theory, social psychology, science and technology studies, globalization, world-systems analysis, and so on. Cross- and transdisciplinary contributions are welcome where they demonstrate a novel attempt to understand social-ecological relationships in a manner that engages with the core concerns of sociology in social relationships, institutions, practices and processes. All methodological approaches in the environmental social sciences – qualitative, quantitative, integrative, spatial, policy analysis, etc. – are welcomed. Environmental Sociology welcomes high-quality submissions from scholars around the world.