Transformative capacities for navigating system change: a framework for sustainability research and practice

Area of Science:

• Sustainability Science
• Social-Ecological Systems
• Systems Thinking

Background:

• Urgent need for societal transformation due to climate change and ecological pressures.
• A significant gap exists between sustainability ambitions and the practical ability to enact transformative change.
• The relationship between sustainability transformations and the capacities enabling them is complex and indirect.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop an integrative framework clarifying the link between sustainability transformations and the capacities required for their realization.
• To conceptualize how transformations relate to enabling capacities within specific focal systems and change strategies.
• To address challenges in theorizing, identifying, and building transformative capacities.

Main Methods:

• Development of the integrative transformative capacities framework (TCF).
• Conceptualization of sustainability transformations through key features.
• Identification of change strategies and associated capacities for each feature.

Main Results:

• The TCF conceptualizes sustainability transformations by defining their features, associated strategies, and required capacities.
• The framework illustrates how to link desired change with the capacities needed to implement strategies.
• It provides a structured approach for researchers to articulate assumptions about systems change and actor contributions.

Conclusions:

• The TCF offers a valuable tool for researchers to be explicit about systems change, strategies, and capacity building.
• It helps in understanding and addressing the challenges of theorizing, identifying, and building transformative capacities.
• The framework supports meaningful contributions from diverse actors towards sustainability transformations.