Long-term trends and a sustainability transition.

Area of Science:

• Environmental Science
• Sociology
• Economics

Background:

• Long-term global trends significantly influence the feasibility of sustainability transitions.
• These trends are often complex, contradictory, and not fully understood, creating challenges for analysis.
• Place-based sustainability studies require a comprehensive understanding of these overarching global dynamics.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze the multifaceted impact of long-term global trends on sustainability transitions.
• To highlight the complex and often contradictory nature of these trends.
• To provide a framework for considering global trends in local sustainability research.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of 10 distinct classes of global trends.
• Emphasis on the "multitrend" aspect, acknowledging concurrent, opposing forces.
• Development of a checklist for integrating global trends into place-based studies.

Main Results:

• Identified 10 classes of global trends impacting sustainability.
• Each trend class contains factors that both hinder and facilitate sustainability transitions.
• The interplay of these trends creates a complex landscape for achieving sustainability.

Conclusions:

• A holistic "multitrend" approach is essential for understanding sustainability transitions.
• The identified trends and their contradictions must be considered in place-based sustainability research.
• The developed checklist can guide researchers in incorporating global trend analysis into their studies.