Exploring systems thinking competence of Finns in fostering sustainable transformation

Systems thinking competence is one of the key sustainability competences to make the future more sustainable by focusing on individuals’ capability to analyse sustainability problems across different sectors and scales. The other competencies to foster systems thinking are futures thinking competence, values and critical thinking competence, action-oriented competence, and collaboration competence. In this study, we examined Finnish people’s systems thinking competence and its connections to sustainable transformation. The survey data collected from Finns (n = 2006) were analysed using principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical regression analysis. The study showed that the sustainability component loaded reliably into principal components. In particular, the Cronbach’s alpha (0.91) and Spearman–Brown (0.90) were high for systems thinking competence. The hierarchical regression analysis showed that Finns’ values, critical thinking, and individual action-oriented competence predict their systems thinking competence. The results indicate that Finns’ ideas of climate change and biodiversity loss mitigation arise from their individual values and opinions that actions are implemented in an ethically just way

Taking planetary nutrient boundaries seriously: Can we feed the people?

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Local and social facets of planetary boundaries: right to nutrients

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Active sustainability actors: A life course approach

There is an increasing interest in the role of actors in the pursuit of sustainability transitions. In this paper, we adopt a life course perspective to explore active sustainability actors. To this end, we interviewed 16 professionals across private, public, and third sectors in Finland. The paper's main implication is in introducing a life course perspective to the study of active sustainability actors. Second, we propose a grounded model of active actors' sustainability engagement. The model details sustainability agency formation and maintenance dynamics. Going forward, our findings are a call for further research on sustainability agency, be it in its engagement, via life courses, or via the study of different actor types

System merits or failures? Policies for transition to sustainable P and N systems in the Netherlands and Finland

Nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) cycles are absolutely vital in maintaining sustainable food systems. Human activities disturb the natural balance of these cycles by creating enormous additional nutrient fluxes, causing eutrophication of waterways and pollution in land systems. To tackle this problem, sustainable nutrient management is required. This paper addresses sustainable nutrient management in two countries: The Netherlands and Finland. We adopt a critical perspective on resource politics, especially towards opportunistic policy strategies for the pollutant management of N and P. Two research questions are considered. First, what are the key systemic and policy failures that occurred in the N and P systems in the Netherlands and Finland between 1970 and 2015? And second, which lessons can be drawn when addressing the policy responses in the two countries to cope with these failures? The cases are analyzed within Weber and Rohracher’s framework that addresses “failures” preventing sustainable transitions. The results show that a number of failures occurred, besides market failures (over-exploitation of the commons, externalization of costs): lack of directionality, policy coordination, institutions, capabilities, infrastructure, demand articulation, and reflexivity. Policy responses in both countries resulted in ponderous policy frameworks that were adequate to tackle nutrient problems from the industrial sector and municipalities. However, both countries provided only a moderate response in terms of system-wide integrated policy frameworks to cope with sectoral-transcending issues. The agricultural use of N and P, in contrast to detergents, has not been subjected to strong regulatory measures

Ecological Sufficiency in Climate Policy : Towards Policies for Recomposing Consumption

According to the Paris Agreement, global warming is to be limited to well below 2 degrees. The largely prevailing emission reduction approach has been to improve ecological efficiency in production. Despite remarkable improvements, total emissions have not decreased but resulted in a multitude of rebound effects. Ecological sufficiency has been brought up as a necessary complementary approach to reach the climate targets. This article clarifies the role of ecological sufficiency in consumption-based climate policy and discusses it in relation Gough’s stages of decarbonisation: 1) ramping up eco-efficiency; 2) an intermediate stage of recomposing consumption; and 3) reducing consumption. A theoretical conceptualisation of the second stage, considered as a type of sufficiency, is described. Following previous studies, recomposing consumption entails systematically steering consumption away from identified carbon hotspots towards low-carbon options. The article identifies a number of policy measures to recompose consumption.peerReviewe

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