Small Holds Sway: How Small Businesses Mobilize Knowledge to Support Action in Learning Processes for Sustainability Transformations

Transformations of the industrialized food sector toward more sustainable food production, manufacturing, and consumption take place through individual and collective learning processes. Achieving transformational change requires intra- and inter-organizational learning to embed alternative principles in business operation, foster new social arrangements, and develop creative strategies in support of sustainable food practices. Research has made much progress in conceptualizing transformation processes of the food sector – addressing definitional ‘what’ questions. Also, scholars have conducted thorough analyses of the underlying motivations that support businesses in pursuing organizational sustainability – addressing motivational ‘why’ questions. Yet, empirical research examining how businesses engage in learning processes that can lead to broader transformational change is still missing – that is, the research on the role of businesses in the food sector has not engaged with ‘how’ questions. This thesis responds to this gap by building on a dynamic conception of learning to empirically explore the relationship between transformations of the food sector and the contextual meaning-making, knowledge mobilizing, and procedural action through which businesses realize change for sustainability. More specifically, this thesis draws attention to the role that different forms of knowledge assume in supporting intra- and inter-organizational learning processes that allow businesses to purposefully take action for sustainability in complex situations. For the empirical research, I employ a mixed-methods approach (including semi-structured interviews, participant observations, analytic autoethnography, and document analysis) to examine how learning supports craft breweries – small, independently owned businesses that are inspired by non-industrial production methods – to collectively advance system change. I present the conducted research in three articles detailing how small businesses engage in and bring about transformational change for sustainability. While written as independent articles, they comprise a whole, as collectively, this work offers insights into how small businesses draw on knowledge as a resource to support action for sustainability. The first manuscript empirically demonstrates the importance of alternative narratives for learning as they enable small businesses to construct storylines of how they engage in sectoral transformations. I explore how craft breweries draw on alternative principles and actions to guide the construction of narratives that verbalize a new future into existence beyond industrialized and competitive markets. This research offers a nuanced understanding of the collective ability of small businesses to discursively construct new meanings and new stories that illustrate the need for and existence of alternative social arrangements to support sustainability transformations. The second manuscript elucidates how craft breweries that work in a concentrated and internationally connected industry, mobilize knowledge in support of collective action to construct sustainability niches in an otherwise hostile environment. The findings demonstrate how learning is supported by the translation between tacit and explicit forms of knowledge, so-called knowledge conversion. The research shows how small businesses challenge the conventional industry logics and practices by mobilizing knowledge conversion in support of sustainability experimentation. I offer a comprehensive conceptual framework and detailed empirical examination of how small businesses respond to and transform the context in which they operate, collectively formulate goals for directing change, and bring tangible assets into service of experimentation to realize emergent possibilities. The third manuscript systematically explores the learning processes through which entrepreneurs develop sustainability strategies while navigating the tensions and challenges involved in realizing sustainability within the host context. Building on conceptualizations of entrepreneurship as an evolutionary process, I empirically explore the learning process of two small businesses in the brewing industry. This research details how small businesses create and mobilize knowledge to intentionally design organizational change, develop shared agency for the support of appropriate interventions, and leverage context-specific resources for acting appropriately in complex situations. Moreover, I offer insights into how small businesses can engage leverage entrepreneurial actions to support learning processes for sustainability strategies. This thesis emphasizes the ability of small businesses as meaning-makers and proposes a dynamic approach for understanding the role of knowledge and action in transformations for sustainability. I offer empirical evidence of the learning processes through which businesses generate meaningful action for contextually realizing change, and reflexively and deliberately (re)align their actor roles with the so created alternative social arrangements. Knowledge plays a crucial role in this process as it supports small businesses to creatively and cooperatively shape future goals and direct change. Overall, this work can help to support small businesses in coordinating concerted efforts to create viable enterprises from bringing about change for sustainability. It draws attention to the agency of small businesses in crafting new narratives, alternative social arrangements, and sustainability strategies that help support transformations of the industrialized food sector

Redefining the role of urban studies Early Career Academics in the post-COVID-19 university

We are an international collective of Early Career Academics (ECAs) who met throughout 2020 to explore the implications of COVID-19 on precarious academics. With this intervention, our aims are to voice commonly shared experiences and concerns and to reflect on the extent to which the pandemic offers opportunities to redefine Higher Education and research institutions, in a context of ongoing precarity and funding cuts. Specifically, we explore avenues to build solidarity across institutions and geographies, to ensure that the conduct of urban research, and support offered to ECAs, allows for more inclusivity, diversity, security and equitability. *The Urban ECA Collective emerged from a workshop series described in this article which intended to foster international solidarity among self-defined early career academics working within urban research.ITESO, A.C

Capturing residents' values for urban green space: mapping, analysis and guidance for practice

Planning for green space is guided by standards and guidelines but there is currently little understanding of the variety of values people assign to green spaces or their determinants. Land use planners need to know what values are associated with different landscape characteristics and how value elicitation techniques can inform decisions. We designed a Public Participation GIS (PPGIS) study and surveyed residents of four urbanising suburbs in the Lower Hunter region of NSW, Australia. Participants assigned dots on maps to indicate places they associated with a typology of values (specific attributes or functions considered important) and negative qualities related to green spaces. The marker points were digitised and aggregated according to discrete park polygons for statistical analysis. People assigned a variety of values to green spaces (such as aesthetic value or social interaction value), which were related to landscape characteristics. Some variables (e.g. distance to water) were statistically associated with multiple open space values. Distance from place of residence however did not strongly influence value assignment after landscape configuration was accounted for. Value compatibility analysis revealed that some values co-occurred in park polygons more than others (e.g. nature value and health/therapeutic value). Results highlight the potential for PPGIS techniques to inform green space planning through the spatial representation of complex human-nature relationships. However, a number of potential pitfalls and challenges should be addressed. These include the non-random spatial arrangement of landscape features that can skew interpretation of results and the need to communicate clearly about theory that explains observed patterns

PIVOT

PIVOT (www.gopivot.org) amplifies the voices of small business owners across Canada as they transition to the low-carbon economy. It was conceived by researchers from the McGill Sustainability Systems Initiative and the National Film Board of Canada. PIVOT harnesses the power of stories to document—online and in real-time—the growing movement of SMEs (small- and medium-size enterprises) that are future-proofing their businesses and setting themselves up for success in a changing world. As an action research project, PIVOT’s goal is to use social networks and peer support to accelerate the large-scale adoption of sustainable business practices throughout the country. PIVOT provides a space for SME leaders to tell stories about future-proofing their businesses, share their achievements, challenges, motivations, goals and desires, and support and inspire each other

Local levers for change: Mainstreaming ecosystem-based adaptation into municipal planning to foster sustainability transitions

Unprecedented global challenges demand wide-reaching societal modification to ensure life support functions and human well-being. In the absence of adequate international responses to climate change and the need for place-based adaptation, local governments have a pivotal role in fostering sustainability transitions. In this context, the importance of ecosystem-based adaptation is increasingly recognized as a multi-benefit approach that utilizes ecosystem services to harmonize human-environment systems. Although research advocates the mainstreaming of ecosystem-based adaptation to advance sustainable planning, the pathways for its systematic implementation are missing and it remains unclear how local authorities can best integrate this new approach into their core work. The purpose of this study is to increase knowledge of the potential ways to mainstream ecosystem-based adaptation into municipal planning. We investigate four coastal municipalities in southern Sweden (Malmo, Helsingborg, Lomma and Kristianstad) and examine, based on vertical and horizontal integration processes, the key characteristics of existing mainstreaming strategies. Results show that, although ecosystem service planning and climate change adaptation planning together establish the conceptual foundation for ecosystem-based adaptation, related activities are often implemented separately and are rarely comprehensive. We illustrate how combined mainstreaming strategies can reinforce and complement each other and how strong leadership in the integration of processes has the ability to compensate for a lack of guidance or supporting legislation from higher decision-making levels. Finally, we conclude that systemic mainstreaming of sustainability issues is a promising avenue for initiating and promoting sustainability transitions and has the potential to address the criticism that other mainstreaming topics have faced. On this basis, we specify the core characteristics necessary to ensure its effective and meaningful application. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Theorizing how the Three Horizons approach supports transformative learning: insights from advancing climate action in a Canadian Biosphere Reserve

For society to make progress on sustainability requires businesses, alongside governments and non-government organizations, to take ambitious actions. Engaging small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is crucial in this context, as they represent one of the most common organizations in many economies and collectively contribute significantly to greenhouse gas emissions. In response, this research investigates how the Three Horizons approach (THA) can support SMEs through transformative learning to explore opportunities for climate actions in the Mont-Saint-Hilaire Biosphere Reserve (Canada). Using interviews and workshops, we examine the extent to which the THA leads to changes in assumptions and perspectives among SME owners. Our results demonstrate that in each horizon, participants went through transformative learning phases in a sequential order, i.e., developing assumptions based on experiences followed by challenging perspectives and transformation of perspectives. Furthermore, employing the THA (1) enabled participants to make sense of challenging situations, (2) generated experiences that helped participants to question established perspectives, and (3) created an innovation space conducive to producing action-oriented knowledge. Building on these findings, we theorize how the THA supports transformative learning processes and create conditions conducive for sustainability transformations

A pluralistic and integrated approach to action-oriented knowledge for sustainability

Sustainability science needs more systematic approaches for mobilizing knowledge in support of interventions that may bring about transformative change. In this Perspective, we contend that action-oriented knowledge for sustainability emerges when working in integrated ways with the many kinds of knowledge involved in the shared design, enactment and realization of change. The pluralistic and integrated approach we present rejects technocratic solutions to complex sustainability challenges and foregrounds individual and social learning. We argue that research institutions devoted to sustainability should focus more on creating the conditions for experimenting with multiple kinds of knowledge and ways of knowing to foster sustainability-oriented learning

A review of urban ecosystem services: six key challenges for future research

Global urbanization creates opportunities and challenges for humanwell-being and transition towards sustainability. Urban areas are human-environment systems that depend fundamentally on ecosystems, and thus require an understanding of the management of urban ecosystem services to ensure sustainable urban planning. The purpose of this study is to provid easy stematic review of urban ecosystem sservices research, which addresses the combined domain of ecosystem services and urban development. We examined emerging trends and gaps in how urban ecosystem services are conceptualized in peer-reviewed case study literature, including the geographical distribution ofresearch,the development and use of the urban ecosystem services concept,and thei nvolvement of stakeholders. We highlight six challenges aimed at strengthening the concept's potential to facilitate meaningful inter-and transdis ciplinary work for ecosystem services research and planning. Achieving a cohesive conceptual approach in ther esearch field will address(i)the need for more extensive spatial and contextual coverage,(ii) continual clarification of definitions, (iii)recognition of limited datat ransferability,(iv)more comprehensive stakeholder involvement,(v)more integrated research efforts,and(vi)translation of scientific findings into actionable knowledge,feeding information back into planning and management.We conclude with recommendations for conducting further research while incorporating these challenges