Cultivating collective imagination beyond crisis

What might be required for us to inhabit a present defined by crises and collectively imagine a hopeful future? This paper explores some of the ways in which the dominance of crisis framings in contemporary life might shape our ability to ‘imagine together’, and identifies a burgeoning body of work aligned with the concerns of spiritual ecology, that endeavours to cultivate the field of our collective imagination as an act of deep meaning-making. I identify a set of interlinked themes or qualities that resonate throughout and animate this work, and argue that these may gesture towards ways of cultivating spaces rich with imaginative potential to enable us collectively to imagine ‘beyond crisis’. These include a recognition of the ways in which Western scientific modernity continues to shape spaces of imaginative possibility; a resurgence of contemporary animism and a ‘re-membering’ of humans in broader kinship with the animate earth; challenges to temporalities of crisis; the honouring of emotions such as joy, hope, and grief; and the reconnection with somatic wisdom and ritual.</p

Will solar radiation management enhance global security in a changing climate?

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Climates of suspicion: ‘chemtrail’ conspiracy narratives and the international politics of geoengineering

Concurrent with growing academic and policy interest in ‘geoengineering’ the global climate in response to climate change, a more marginal discourse postulating the existence of a climate control conspiracy is also proliferating on the Internet. Here, the term ‘chemtrails’ is used interchangeably with the term geoengineering to describe the belief that the persistent contrails left by aeroplanes provide evidence that a secret programme of large scale weather and climate modification is on-going. Despite recent calls for greater appreciation of the diverse ways in which people conceive of and relate to ideas of climate control, and widespread acknowledgement of the importance of democratic public engagement in governance of geoengineering, the chemtrail conspiracy narrative has received very little attention in academic work to date. This paper builds on work highlighting the instability of the distinction between ‘paranoid’ and ‘normal’ views, and examines the chemtrail conspiracy narrative as a discourse rather than a pathology (either psychological or sociological). The analysis finds that while some elements of the chemtrail narrative do not lend themselves to democratic processes of deliberation, and potential for engagement with more mainstream discourse appears to be low, nevertheless certain elements of the discourse (such as the moral outrage at the idea of powerful elites controlling the climate, or the importance of emotional and spiritual connections to weather and climate) highlight concerns of relevance to mainstream geoengineering debates. Furthermore, the pervasive suspicion that characterises the narrative and its reminder of the key role that trust plays in knowledge creation and the justification of beliefs, signals what is likely to be a perennial issue in the emerging international politics of geoengineering

Anatomy of a buzzword: the emergence of ‘the water-energy-food nexus’ in UK natural resource debates

The existence of a water-energy-food ‘nexus’ has been gaining significant attention in international natural resource policy debates in recent years. We argue the term ‘nexus’ can be currently seen as a buzzword: a term whose power derives from a combination of ambiguous meaning and strong normative resonance. We explore the ways in which the nexus terminology is emerging and being mobilised by different stakeholders in natural resource debates in the UK context. We suggest that in the UK the mobilisation of the nexus terminology can best be understood as symptomatic of broader global science-policy trends, including an increasing emphasis on integration as an ideal; an emphasis on technical solutions to environmental problems; achievement of efficiency gains and ‘win-wins’; and a preference for technocratic forms of environmental managerialism. We identify and critique an ‘integrative imaginary’ underpinning much of the UK discourse around the concept of the nexus, and argue that attending to questions of power is a crucial but often underplayed aspect of proposed integration. We argue that while current efforts to institutionalise the language of the nexus as a conceptual framework for research in the UK may provide a welcome opportunity for new forms of transdisciplinary, they may risk turning nexus into a ‘matter of fact’ where it should remain a ‘matter of concern’. In this vein, we indicate the importance of critique to the development of nexus research

Sustainability in turbulent times: lessons from the Nexus Network for supporting transdisciplinary research

Since its launch in June 2014, the ESRC Nexus Network has worked to support transdisciplinary research at the food-water-energy-environment nexus, and to create meaningful links between communities of researchers, policymakers, business leaders and practitioners. Through its activities, the Network has shown that social science is vital. The language of the nexus highlights the need for interconnected thinking between natural and social sciences, and between the research community and decision makers. This report summarises and reflects on those activities

What constitutes a successful biodiversity corridor? A Q-study in the Cape Floristic Region, South Africa

‘Success’ is a vigorously debated concept in conservation. There is a drive to develop quantitative, comparable metrics of success to improve conservation interventions. Yet the qualitative, normative choices inherent in decisions about what to measure — emerging from fundamental philosophical commitments about what conservation is and should be — have received scant attention. We address this gap by exploring perceptions of what constitutes a successful biodiversity corridor in the Cape Floristic Region, South Africa, an area of global biodiversity significance. Biodiversity corridors are particularly illustrative because, as interventions intended to extend conservation practices from protected areas across broader landscapes, they represent prisms in which ideas of conservation success are contested and transformed. We use Q method to elicit framings of success among 20 conservation scientists, practitioners and community representatives, and find three statistically significant framings of successful corridors: ‘a last line of defence for biodiversity under threat,’ ‘a creative process to develop integrative, inclusive visions of biodiversity and human wellbeing,’ and ‘a stimulus for place-based cultural identity and economic development.’ Our results demonstrate that distinct understandings of what a corridor is — a planning tool, a process of governing, a territorialized place — produce divergent framings of ‘successful’ corridors that embody diverse, inherently contestable visions of conservation. These framings emerge from global conservation discourses and distinctly local ecologies, politics, cultures and histories. We conclude that visions of conservation success will be inherently plural, and that in inevitably contested and diverse social contexts success on any terms rests upon recognition of and negotiation with alternative visions

Collaboration, creativity, conflict and chaos: doing interdisciplinary sustainability research

How do the social dynamics within interdisciplinary research teams shape sustainability research? This paper presents a case study of interdisciplinary research projects at the University of Sussex, as part of a programme aimed at encouraging collaborative work to address intersections between the Sustainability Development Goals. Using data gathered during a series of participatory workshops at the start and end of the projects, combined with non-participant observation and analysis of project discussions during the lifetime of the projects, we examine the diverse ways in which research teams configure themselves to navigate the terrain of interdisciplinary sustainability research and the kinds of social and discursive dynamics that shape projects. In particular, we relate the emergence of distinct project team configurations to diverse problem framings, and aspirations for collaboration within these teams. We examine some of the challenges facing researchers attempting to work in these ways, and explore implications of these dynamics for knowledge production for sustainability. We conclude by drawing out and addressing some of the challenges for institutions funding and supporting interdisciplinary sustainability research

Transforming imaginations? Multiple dimensionalities and temporalities as vital complexities in transformations to sustainability

Through interlinked theoretical and empirical analysis, this paper explores some important but neglected questions concerning efforts to achieve sustainability. To what extents do currently dominant forms of academic study and policy visions in this field, satisfactorily address the full political depth and scope of vital complexities in pathways for emerging social transformations? Are there dangers that common simplifications in mainstream ways of thinking about transformation, inadvertently help invisibly to reproduce entrenched patterns of privilege and power that drive focal problems of unsustainability? In particular, does a ‘monothetic’ focus on circumscribed sites or sectoral formations with notionally few clear-cut dimensions of distinction before and after, risk missing more multiple and messy ‘polythetic’ dimensionalities in which power and privilege can hide? What are the implications of common assumptions that pathways for change proceed ‘monotonically’ – neatly and cumulatively in a particular direction, if real world transformations actually unfold according to more plural, undulating and unruly ‘non-monotonic’ temporalities? In order to investigate these questions, the paper employs the concept of sociotechnical imaginaries to explore the constituting dimensions of contrasting understandings of ‘urban transformations’ in Kenya and ‘the nuclear renaissance’ in the UK. Q method and in-depth interpretive policy analysis are used to test patterns in relationships between imagined transformations and their unfoldings over time. The findings suggest that current mainstream approaches may indeed unduly simplify vital complexities in the ways these political dynamics play out – with potentially important practical implications.</p

Transforming Imaginations? Multiple dimensionalities and temporalities in transformations to sustainability

This paper examines some key issues around the core roles played by ‘sociotechncial imaginaries’ in the shaping of ‘sustainability transformations’. As part of a wider project on ‘the governance of sociotechnical transformations’ (GOST), this research examines prospective transformations and associated imaginaries of cities in Kenya and energy infrastructures in the UK (and, less so, Germany). Although currently only interim, these developing ideas and findings may hold significant implications for onward research and policy actions

Transforming Imaginations? Multiple dimensionalities and temporalities in transformations to sustainability

This paper examines some key issues around the core roles played by ‘sociotechncial imaginaries’ in the shaping of ‘sustainability transformations’. As part of a wider project on ‘the governance of sociotechnical transformations’ (GOST), this research examines prospective transformations and associated imaginaries of cities in Kenya and energy infrastructures in the UK (and, less so, Germany). Although currently only interim, these developing ideas and findings may hold significant implications for onward research and policy actions