Title:	The role of crises in transformative change towards sustainability
Authors:	Pahl-Wostl, Claudia Odume, Oghenekaro Nelson Scholz, Geeske De Villiers, Ancois Amankwaa, Ebenezer Forkuo
ORCID of the author:	https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5220-3254 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2357-2410 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2294-6521
Abstract:	Path-breaking transformative change is needed in human-environment relations to move towards more sustainable development trajectories at local, national and global scales. Crises may trigger transformative change and learning in the short and in the long term. However, in particular, a short-term response to crises may also be reactive, strengthening established unsustainable practices and further perpetuating vulnerability and inequality rather than supporting transformative change towards a more sustainable path. To understand the nature and response to a crisis in the context of sustainability transformations, this paper elaborates on the following aspects of a crisis: What are the characteristics of a crisis? What and who shapes the narrative(s) of a crisis? What and who shapes the nature of the response to a crisis? Do responses to crises trigger higher levels of learning? Conceptual synthesis is complemented with an exploratory comparative analysis of the Cape Town water crisis and of the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa. To this end the paper analyzes the interplay between mobilizing individual, collective and relational agency and navigating and transforming power relations to challenge and profit from already weakened unsustainable structures. This approach proves to be promising to understand the role of crises in catalysing and supporting transformative learning to eventually replace unsustainable structures.
Citations:	Claudia Pahl-Wostl, Oghenekaro Nelson Odume, Geeske Scholz, Ancois De Villiers & Ebenezer Forkuo Amankwaa (2023): The role of crises in transformative change towards sustainability, Ecosystems and People, 19:1
URL:	https://doi.org/10.48693/469 https://osnadocs.ub.uni-osnabrueck.de/handle/ds-2024020210445
Subject Keywords:	Transformational learning; crises; sustainability transformation; COVID-19 pandemic; drought; Cape Town
Issue Date:	26-Mar-2023
License name:	Attribution 4.0 International
License url:	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Type of publication:	Einzelbeitrag in einer wissenschaftlichen Zeitschrift [Article]
Appears in Collections:	FB01 - Hochschulschriften Open-Access-Publikationsfonds

This item is licensed under a Creative Commons License