This book draws upon diverse approaches and understandings of sustainability transformations, social transitions and environmental accountabilities. It presents case studies that highlight real-world consequences of changing ideas about how best to achieve effective and durable sustainability transformations and examines how environmental accountabilities and social transitions influence sustainability transformations. Each chapter provides insights regarding how new knowledge and perspectives matter for whether, when, and how people, governments, corporations and international organisations seek and pursue solutions to social-ecological challenges and sustainability dilemmas. It pays sustained attention to whether and how understandings and applications of accountability can improve international sustainability transformations. The chapters presented in this book consider some pressing questions concerning social transitions and environmental accountabilities: how can they contribute to sustainability transformations, how do they influence the scalability of sustainability transformations, and, how can such sustainability transformations become durable?
Author(s): Beth Edmondson
Series: Palgrave Studies in Environmental Transformation, Transition and Accountability
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 347
City: Cham
Acknowledgements
Funding Support Acknowledgements
Contents
Notes on Contributors
List of Figures
List of Tables
List of Boxes
1 Sustainability Transformations, Social Transitions and Environmental Accountabilities: Past and Present Entanglements
2 Evaluating Transformation Means Transforming Evaluation
Transforming Evaluation
Five Overarching Evaluation Transformations
From Project Thinking to Systems Thinking
From Theory of Change to Theory of Transformation
From Closed-System Linear Thinking to Open-System Complexity Understandings
From Evaluation Silos to Cross-Silos Integration
From Evaluation Independence and Neutrality to Skin in the Game
Five Principles For Evaluation Agility
An Ethical Framework for Transformational Evaluation
Equity
Sustainability
Interdependence of Equity and Sustainability
Utilisation-Focused Evaluation
Conclusion
Evaluation and Evaluators as Part of the Transformation Process
References
3 The Net-Negative Ethic: Rationalisation and National Carbon Footprint Programs
Introduction
Theoretical Frameworks and Methods
National Carbon Programs
Costa Rica
France
Italy
Japan
New Zealand
South Korea
Sweden
Thailand
UK
Discussion
Conclusion
Future Research
References
4 Nature, Democracy, and Sustainable Urban Transformations
Sustainability Transformations, Governance, and Democracy
Nature-Based Solutions: More Democratic, More Innovative?
NBS and Sustainability
More Democratic?
More Innovative?
‘Re-Naturing’ Cities with NBS
Knowledge, Context, and Inclusion
Innovation, Efficiency, and Scale
Co-Production and Accountability
Reorientation and Examination
New Content, or just New Packaging?
Urban Challenges and Ecological Scales
Leveraging the Potential of NBS
References
5 Sustainability Transformations and Environmental Accountability
References
6 Accountable Solar Energy Transitions in Financially Constrained Contexts
Introduction
An Accounting of Environmental Accountabilities During just Transitions
An Analysis of Solar Rollout in Two Financially Constrained Contexts
Rajasthan
Portugal
Accountable Solar Energy Transitions in Financially Constrained Contexts
References
7 Overcoming Segregation Problematics for Environmentally Accountable and Transformative Policy in a Changing Climate: The Case of Australia’s EPBC Act
Introduction
Environmental Accountability for Biodiversity Conservation in a Changing Climate
Examining the EPBC Act
Design and Operation of the EPBC Act
The EPBC Act and Environmental Accountabilities
Three Problematics
Between Human and Ecological Cultures
Between Science, and Policy and Practice
Between Sectoral Scopes of Policy
Steps Towards Overcoming Problematics for Environmental Accountability
References
8 Accountable Environmental Outcomes: Bridging Disciplinary Traditions on Collaborative Governance, Coproduction, and Comanagement for Organising Just and Effective Sustainability Transformations
Introduction: Governance, Collaboration, Accountability, and Sustainability
Coproduction and Comanagement—Defining, Differentiating, and Relinking Concepts
Coproduction: Descriptive and Normative Understandings
Collaborative Knowledge Production: Science in Service of Society
Comanagement: Extending from Coproduction into Implementing Collaborative Governance
Comanagement and Coproduction
Methods
Case Descriptions
Kayan Mentarang National Park (KMNP), East Kalimantan, Indonesia
Kutai National Park (KNP), East Kalimantan, Indonesia
White Mountains Stewardship Project (WMSP), Arizona, USA
Four Forest Restoration Initiative (4FRI), Arizona, USA
Results
Discussion
Conclusion
References
9 Navigating Local Pathways to Sustainability Through Environmental Stewardship: A Case Study in East Gippsland, Australia
Introduction
Background
Enabling Sustainability Transformations
What Role for Environmental Stewardship?
What Role(s) of Researchers?
Case Study: Enabling Local Action and Stewardship in a Rural Coastal Community
Contextual Setting
Living Bung Yarnda
Experiments in Mobilising Local Action and Place-Based Knowledge
Preparation and Network-Building
Co-creating Shared Understandings
Generating and Harnessing Place-Based Knowledge
Working Across Boundaries
Reflections on Enabling Local Sustainability Transformations
Understanding Existing Socio-Ecological Relations
Making Pathways for Action Visible
Leadership, Humility and Adaptability
Conclusion
References
10 Tackling the Environmental and Climate Footprint of Food Systems: How “Transformative” Is the EU’s Farm to Fork Strategy?
Introduction to the EU Farm to Fork Strategy
Exceptionalism and Post-exceptionalism in EU Agricultural Policy
The Effects of Incrementalism: Can F2F Transform the EU Agri-Food Sector?
Conclusions: Imagining the Future of the EU Agri-Food Sector for Both Farmers and the Environment
References
11 Just Transitions in the Context of Urgent Climate Action
Introduction
Can Transitions Be ‘Just’?
The Global Agenda and Socio-Ecological sustainability—A Place for Smart Specialisation?
Transition and Smart Specialisation in Gippsland
Smart Specialisation, Just Transitions and the Sustainability Agenda
References
12 Sustainability Transformations, Social Transitions and Environmental Accountabilities: Emerging Opportunities
Reference
Index
