Science with society in the anthropocene

Area of Science:

• Environmental science
• Sustainability science
• Social science

Background:

• Scientific knowledge alone is insufficient for sustainable transformations due to normative and value-related challenges.
• Complexities of coupled human-environmental systems (HES) require a systems perspective.
• Sustainable transitions often involve societal conflicts, necessitating interaction between science and society.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a framework for integrating scientific research with societal decision-making for sustainable transformations.
• To address the complexities and contested nature of sustainability transitions.
• To provide a basis for reorganizing scientific endeavors in the coming decades.

Main Methods:

• Adopting a systems perspective on coupled human-environmental systems (HES).
• Implementing transdisciplinarity (TD) as a thorough interaction between science and society.
• Developing structured and functional processes for science-society interaction.

Main Results:

• A systems perspective on HES is crucial for understanding complex environmental and societal interactions.
• Transdisciplinarity (TD) is essential for navigating normative issues and conflicts in sustainability transitions.
• Proposed HES-based TD processes offer a structured approach to reorganize science for sustainability.

Conclusions:

• Sustainable transformations demand an interdisciplinary approach that integrates scientific knowledge with societal values and complex systems thinking.
• Transdisciplinarity (TD) provides a vital framework for managing the interaction between scientific research and societal decisions in sustainability efforts.
• Reorganizing science through HES-based TD processes is proposed as a pathway to effectively address global sustainability challenges.