Sustainable agriculture: Recognizing the potential of conflict as a positive driver for transformative change

Transformative changes in agriculture at multiple scales are needed to ensure sustainability, i.e. achieving food security while fostering social justice and environmental integrity. These transformations go beyond technological fixes and require fundamental changes in cognitive, relational, structural and functional aspects of agricultural systems. However, research on agricultural transformations fails to engage deeply with underlying social aspects such as differing perceptions of sustainability, uncertainties and ambiguities, politics of knowledge, power imbalances and deficits in democracy. In this paper, we suggest that conflict is one manifestation of such underlying social aspects. We present an original conceptualization and analytical framework, wherein conflict is recognized as an important motor for redistribution of power and leverage for social learning that—if addressed through a conflict transformation process—could potentially create a step-change in agricultural transformation towards greater sustainability. Our analysis, building on an extensive literature review and empirical case studies from around the world, suggests a novel approach to guide future transdisciplinary research that can support agricultural transformations towards sustainability

Scale: The Universal Laws of Growth, Innovation, Sustainability, and the Pace of Life in Organisms, Cities, Economies, and Companies

National audienc

An adaptation pathways approach to water management and governance of tourist islands: the example of the Southern Aegean Region in Greece

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Social-ecological dynamics and water stress in tourist islands:the case of Rhodes, Greece

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On the ‘complexity turn’ in planning: An adaptive rationale to navigate spaces and times of uncertainty

Complexity sciences have been long ago acknowledged to be useful at conceptualizing a variety of phenomena relevant to planning. Nevertheless, the actual mechanisms that will prove adequate to tackle complex planning issues are still under debate. Considering that in today’s so-called era of the Anthropocene such planning issues are more present and evident than ever, the need for further investigating the implications of complexity sciences into building planning approaches becomes very relevant. In this article, we use the concept of complex systems as an analytical framework challenging our understanding of planning and we argue in favour of a ‘complexity turn’ in planning through the adaptive rationale. We define the adaptive rationale as an additional, both normative and analytical, trajectory in planning theory, in the interplay between certainty and uncertainty. Finally, to assimilate this rationale into planning mechanisms capable to respond to contemporary social and ecological challenges, we call for issue-driven adaptive planning approaches conceptualized through normative sustainability and nourished by post-normal science.status: publishe

Does community resilience decrease social–ecological vulnerability? Adaptation pathways trade-off in the Bolivian Altiplano

Worsening climate change impacts and environmental degradation are increasingly supporting policies and plans in framing a linear understanding of resilience building and vulnerability reduction. However, adaptations to different but interacting drivers of change are unclear in the mix of opportunities and threats related to increasing connections, emerging technologies, new patterns of dependency and possible lock-in effects. This paper discusses a more open-ended understanding of the relationship between resilience and vulnerability, highlighting emerging trade-offs among adaptive capacities and exposures to different (and new) threats as they relate to social–ecological sustainability. The transition of the Southern Bolivian Altiplano, from being a remote rural area of subsistence farming to a global leader in quinoa production and exportation, has been taken as a study case. Results from 18 workshops organised within different communities provide insights about a range of trade-offs between community resilience attributes and social–ecological vulnerability induced from land use changes, livestock strategies, communities’ behavioural change and institutions’ emerging policies. The main theoretical advances of the paper relate to the need for critically framing multiple threat exposures and adaptive capacity trade-offs, contributing to arguing the usually positive meaning of resilience, and taking into account “to whom or to what is positive which adaptation” and “which trade-off should be accepted, and why”. Framing adaptive pathways through these questions would serve as a tool for addressing sustainable development goals, while avoiding lock-ins or unsustainable path dependencies

Spatial planning and the sciences of complexity. The example of climate change adaptation practices

Εθνικό Μετσόβιο Πολυτεχνείο. Μεταπτυχιακή εργασία. Διεπιστημονικό - Διατμηματικό Πρόγραμμα Μεταπτυχιακών Σπουδών (Δ.Π.Μ.Σ.) "Αρχιτεκτονική - Σχεδιασμός του Χώρου : Πολεοδομία - Χωροταξία (Κατ. Β')

Operational plan for the management of a part of the South- Western Attica's coastal area (SEF-Pikrodafnis stream)

228 σ.Στόχος της παρούσας διπλωματικής εργασίας, είναι η προδιαγραφή και εκπόνηση ενός Επιχειρησιακού Προγράμματος για τη Διαχείριση τμήματος της παράκτιας ζώνης της Νοτιοδυτικής Αττικής. Πρόκειται για την περιοχή που ορίζεται δυτικά από το Στάδιο Ειρήνης και Φιλίας στο Νέο Φάληρο και, ανατολικά, από το ρέμα της Πικροδάφνης στο Παλαιό Φάληρο. Η περιοχή μελέτης, όπως έχει οριστεί στο 4ο Κεφάλαιο, αποτελεί μία ολοκληρωμένη γεωγραφική ενότητα. Αυτή όμως η ενότητα είναι τμήμα μιας ευρύτερης, η οποία εκτείνεται από τον Φαληρικό Όρμο έως τη Βουλιαγμένη και είναι γνωστή ως "η παράκτια ζώνη της Αθήνας". Ως εκ τούτου, ο προτεινόμενος σε αυτή τη μελέτη Σχεδιασμός λαμβάνει υπόψη το γενικότερο πλαίσιο στο οποίο η υπό μελέτη περιοχή εντάσσεται. Η συγκεκριμένη περιοχή επιλέχτηκε για το ενδιαφέρον που παρουσιάζει καθώς: 1) Είναι η φυσική διέξοδος της πόλης προς τη θάλασσα (που διεκόπη σταδιακά) 2) Αντιμετωπίζει σημαντικά περιβαλλοντικά προβλήματα (που αναλύονται παρακάτω) Για να προκύψει βέβαι το Επιχειρησιακό Πρόγραμμα ήταν απαραίτητο να προηγηθεί μελέτη του φυσικού και ανθρωπογενούς περιβάλλοντος της περιοχής έτσι ώστε να εντοπισθούν τα κρίσιμα σημεία του ζητούμενου σχεδιασμού.The main aim of this thesis is the configuration of an Operational Plan for the management of a part of th South-western Attica's coastal area. It is a region that is positioned between the Peace and Friendship Stadium in Neo Faliro in the West, and by the Pikrodafnis stream in Palaio Faliro in the East. In order to make this Plan, a proper preliminary stuady of the natural and human environment was essential, so as to identify the critical points of the design required.Ειρήνη-Μαρία Π. Σκριμιζέ

The development-climate change nexus in Morocco: Roadmap for the Belgian Development Cooperation

At a glance Morocco clearly illustrates an internationally recognized imperative of conciliating development programmes and actions with the environment and climate change ones. According to the country’s ‘Projet de Stratégie Nationale de Développement Durable 2030’, Morocco faces interconnected socio-environmental challenges, social vulnerabilities and rising inequalities in a context of acute climatic variability and change. The Belgian Development Cooperation has embarked on the challenge to work together with Moroccan actors towards addressing intertwining socio-environmental issues and as such giving a renewed relevance to its development agendas in the country. In this context, ADAPTtoDEVELOP, acronym for this PSR project, applied a participatory research methodology to co-produce a roadmap defining Morocco’s priorities in terms of the development-climate change nexus, and related strategic and operational steps for the Belgian Development cooperation. This roadmap is presented throughout this policy brief. Contents ▪ What is and how to navigate the development-climate change nexus? ▪ Principles to operationalise the development-climate change nexus ▪ The development-climate change nexus in Morocco ▪ Focal areas for development-climate change action in Morocco ▪ Strategic & operational entry points for the Belgian Development Cooperatio

Advancing Food System Transformation and Addressing Conflicts Through Transdisciplinary Methodologies: Strengths and Limitations of the Community Voice Method, T-Labs, Film-Making and the Miracle Question

International audienceFood systems are changing through various socioeconomic and policy processes. For example, in France, following concerns over the effects of pesticides on ecosystems and health, the French government launched the “Ecophyto II+” plan in 2019 that aims for a 50% reduction in the use of pesticides by 2025. This top-down food system transformation is leading to conflicts between stakeholders over how to enact such a policy, and its implications for farmers and their practices. By adopting a transdisciplinary research approach, we explore conflicts linked to food system transformations in the context of three case studies in France. The case studies revolve around conflicts over pesticide use and reduction in three agricultural settings in Bourgogne Franche-Comté, namely (a) water management near Auxerre, (b) apiculture-agriculture relations in the Jura, and (c) viticulture-local resident relationships near Macon. We use four innovative transdisciplinary techniques to integrate inclusively the viewpoints of diverse stakeholders with the aim of generating actionable responses to transform food systems. First, the Community Voice Method (CVM) includes filmed semi-structured interviews and integrates a number of opportunities for participation and successive rounds of data analysis. Second, the interviewees were asked a “miracle question” that encouraged them to step back from conflicts and practices toward their ideal vision of agriculture and food systems. Third, the CVM resulted in the production of four films that relate the visions and perception of each case study interviewees in their own words and in their own setting. Finally, Transformation Labs (T-Labs) conveyed the main results of the CVM knowledge synthesis through the films produced and opened a dialogue toward the development of solutions. We review the four techniques, how they were implemented in the three case studies, and with which outcomes. Thus the aim of this paper is to offer reflections and lessons learnt from different transdisciplinary processes as a means of strengthening their application in other contexts. We argue that such methodologies, whilst resource-consuming, are essential to fully understand the complexity of food system transformations from the often-conflictual perspectives and competing knowledge claims of the multiple actors involved. In addition, we highlight the role of these techniques in building long-term trust between researchers and other stakeholders, and the benefits in terms of opening up dialogue and developing long-term solutions, as determined by the stakeholders themselves