Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Re-Thinking Temporal Perspectives of Sustainability Transformation

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Economics and Sustainability

  • 323 Accesses

Abstract

The chapter discusses short-term perspectives’s inefficacy within sustainability research and practice. Large parts of the sustainability transformation will happen in a future that is characterized by worsening economic and ecological conditions, environmental and resource use conflicts, and social and ecological catastrophes. The sustainability process needs to be rethought as process that extends through different phases, with each fomenting continuous knowledge improvements and collective learning, expressly integrating short and long-term perspectives, and also applying different combinations of methods of knowledge production and application across the phases. Planning, projecting, imagining and anticipating potential futures and development paths requires radically different tools, such as scenario-writing and horizon scanning, with both of these also being combined with other cutting-edge methods in future research.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Adaman, F., Devine, P., & Ozkaynak, B. (2003). Reinstituting the Economic Process: (Re)embedding the Economy in Society and Nature. International Review of Sociology, 13(2), 357–374.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Allen, P. M. (2000). Knowledge, Ignorance, Learning. Emergence, 2(4), 78–103.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Amer, M., Daim, T. A., & Jetter, A. (2013). A Review of Scenario Planning. Futures, 46, 23–40.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Arora, N.K: (2019). Earth: 50 years challenge. Environmental Sustainability, 2(1),1–3.

    Google Scholar 

  • Archibugi, D., & Held, D. (Eds.). (1995). Cosmopolitan Democracy: An Agenda for a New World Order. Cambridge et al.: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ahvenharju, S., Minkkinen, M., & Lalot, F. (2018). The Five Dimensions of Futures Consciousness. Futures, 103, 1–13.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition (2016). Eating planet. Food and Sustainability: Building our Future. Parma, Italy (https://www.barillacfn/com/media/pdf/Barilla_Eating_planet2016_Eng_S_abstract.pdf)

  • Beck, U. (1992). Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beck, U., Giddens, A., & Lash, S. (1994). Reflexive Modernization. Politics, Tradition and Aesthetics in the Modern Social Order. Cambridge: Polity.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berkes, F., Colding, J., & Folke, C. (2003). Navigating Social-Ecological Systems: Building Resilience for Complexity and Change. Cambridge et al.: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Calvelli, J. (2015). The Future Is an Image: Unsustainability, Plasticity and the Design of Time. New York and Dresden: Atropos Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carson, R. (1991 [1951]). The Sea Around Us. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cash, D. W., Clark, W. C., Alcock, F., Dickson, N. M., Eckley, N., Guston, D. H., et al. (2003). Knowledge Systems for Sustainable Development. PNAS, 100(14), 8089–8091.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • de Senarclens, P., & Kazancigil, A. (Eds.). (2007). Regulating Globalization: Critical Approaches to Global Governance. Tokyo et al.: United Nations University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Drucker, P. F. (1993). Post-Capitalist Society. New York: HarperCollins.

    Google Scholar 

  • Edelman, M. (2001). Social Movements: Changing Paradigms and Forms of Politics. Annual Review of Anthropology, 20, 285–317.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Erb, K., Haberl, K., Krausmann, F., Lauk, C., Plutzar, C., Steinberger, J. K., et al. (2009). Eating the Planet: Feeding and Fuelling the World Fairly, Sustainably and Humanely – A Scoping Study. Social Ecology Working Paper 116. Vienna: Institute of Social Ecology.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gerst, M.D., Raskin, P.D., Rockström, J. (2014). Contours of a resilient global future. Sustainability, 6(1), 123–135.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haberl, H., Fischer-Kowalski, M., Krausmann, F., & Martinez-Alier, J. (2011). A Socio-Metabolic Transition to Sustainability? Challenges for Another Great Transformation. Sustainable Development, 19, 1–14.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hagens, N. J. (2020). Economics for the Future – Beyond the Superorganism. Ecological Economics, 169. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2019.106520.

  • Hahnel, R. (2012). Of the People, By the People: The Case for a Participatory Economy. AK Press Distribution.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hartmann, T. (2012). Wicked Problems and Clumsy Solutions. Planning Theory, 11(3), 221–241.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heilbroner, R. L. (1968 [1959]). The Future as History. New York et al.: Harper & Row.

    Google Scholar 

  • Held, D. (2010). Cosmopolitanism: Ideals and Realities. Cambridge, UK and Malden, MA: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Howkins, J. (2001). The Creative Economy. How People Make Money from Ideas. London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hubert, B., Rosegrant, M., van Boekel, M., & Ortiz, R. (2010). The Future of Food: Scenarios for 2050. Crop Science, 50, 33–50.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Institute for the Future (2011). Four Futures of Food: Global outlook alternative scenarios briefing. Palo Alto, CA (https://www.iftf.org/uploads/media/IFTF_SR1388_GFOFuturesFood.pdf).

  • Keil, F., & Stieß, I. (2007). Wissen was wir nicht wissen: Umweltforschung als gesellschaftlicher Lernprozess. GAIA, 16(3), 193–199.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Korten, D. (2009). Agenda for a New Economy. From Phantom Wealth to Real Wealth. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Krausmann, F., Fischer-Kowalski, M., Haberl, H., & Eisenmenger, N. (2008). The Global Sociometabolic Transition: Past and Present Sociometabolic Profiles and Their Future Trajectories. Journal of Industrial Ecology, 12(5–6), 637–656.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leopold, A. (1949). A Sand County Almanac. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lorey, I., & Neundlinger, K. (Eds.). (2012). Kognitiver Kapitalismus. Wien.

    Google Scholar 

  • Luhmann, N. (1976). The Future Cannot Begin: Temporal Structures in Modern Society. Social Research, 43(1), 130–152.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mason, P. (2015). Post Capitalism: A Guide to Our Future. London: Allen Lane.

    Google Scholar 

  • Millennium Institute (2013). Global Food and Nutrition Scenarios: Final report. Washington DC: Millennium Institute (http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/wess/_bg_papers/bp_wess2013_millennium_inst.pdf).

  • Miller, R. (Ed.). (2018). Transforming the Future: Anticipation in the 21st Century. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moore, J.W. (Ed.). (2016). Capitalism in the Web of Life: Ecology and the Accumulation of Capital. Oakland: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Munoz-Erickson, T. A. (2014). Co-Production of Knowledge-Action Systems in Urban Sustainable Governance: The KASA-Approach. Environmental Science and Policy, 37, 182–191.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Popa, F., Guillermin, M., & Dedeurwaerdere, T. (2015). A Pragmatist Approach to Transdisciplinarity in Sustainability Research: From Complex Systems Theory to Reflexive Science. Futures, 65, 45–56.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Popper, K. (1957). The Poverty of Historicism. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ramirez, R., Mukherjee, M., Vezzoli, S., & Kramer, A. M. (2015). Scenarios as a Scholarly Methodology to Produce “Interesting Research”. Futures, 71, 70–87.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Raskin, P., Electris, C., Rosen, R. (2010). The Century Ahead: Searching for Sustainability. Sustainability, 2(8). https://doi.org/10.3390/su2082626.

  • Reckwitz, A. (2020). The Society of Singularities. Cambridge: Polity.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rieckmann, M. (2011). Schlüsselkompetenzen für eine nachhaltige Entwicklung der Weltgesellschaft: Ergebnisse einer europäisch-lateinamerikanischen Delphi-Studie. GAIA, 20(1), 48–56.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Robertson, T. (2012). The Malthusian Moment: Global Population Growth and the Birth of American Environmentalism. Rutgers University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Robinson, W. I. (2009). Saskia Sassen and the Sociology of Globalization: A Critical Appraisal. Sociological Analysis, 3(1), 5–29.

    Google Scholar 

  • Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Online). (2020). Article “Ignorance”. Retrieved February 20, 2020, from https://www.rep.routledge.com/articles/thematic/ignorance/v-1.

  • Saritas, O., & Smith, J. (2011). The Big Picture – Trends, Drivers, Wild Cards, Discontinuities and Weak Signals. Futures, 43, 292–312.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schaffartzik, A., Mayer, A., Gingrich, S., Eisenmenger, N., Loy, C., & Krausmann, F. (2014). The Global Metabolic Transition: Regional Patterns and Trends of Global Material Flows, 1950–2010. Global Environmental Change, 26, 87–97.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schaubroeck, T., Baustert, P., Elorri Igos, E., & Benetto, E. (2020). Is a Sustainability Assessment a Shot in the Dark? How to Deal with Its Nonquantified Uncertainty? Environmental Science & Technology, 54, 2051–2053.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schneidewind, U. (2013). Transformative Literacy. GAIA, 22(2), 82–86.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schutz, A. (1967). The Phenomenology of the Social World. Ivanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schutz, A., & Luckmann, T. (1973). The Structure of the Life-World. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sousa, W. (1984). The Role of Disturbance in Natural Communities. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 15, 353–391.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Srnicek, N., & Williams, A. (2015). Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and a World Without Work. London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Taleb, N. (2007). The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable. New York: Random House.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thissen, W.A.H. & Walker, W. (Eds). (2013). Public Policy Analysis: New Developments. New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tilly, C. (1997). Roads from the Past to Future. Lanham et al.: Rowman & Littlefield.

    Google Scholar 

  • van Dorsser, C., Walker, W. E., Taneja, P., & Marchau, V. A. W. J. (2018). Improving the Link Between the Futures Field and Policymaking. Futures, 104, 75–84.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van Rij, V. (2010). Joint Horizon Scanning: Identifying Common Strategic Choices and Questions for Knowledge. Science and Public Policy, 37(1), 7–18.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van Wuren, D. P., Bijl, D. L., Bogaart, P., Stehfest, E., Biemans, H., Dekker, S., et al. (2019). Integrated Scenarios to Support Analysis of the Food-Water-Energy Nexus. Nature Sustainability, 2, 1132–1141.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vogt, W. (1948). Road to Survival. New York: William Sloane Associates.

    Google Scholar 

  • Voros, J. (2003). A Generic Foresight Process Framework. Foresight, 5(3), 10–21.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Voß, J.-P., Bauknecht, D., & Kemp, R. (Eds.). (2006). Precaution, Foresight and Sustainability: Reflection and Reflexivity in the Governance of Science and Technology. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.

    Google Scholar 

  • Walker, W. E., Marchau, V. A. W. J., Kwakkel, J. H. (2013). Chapter 9: Uncertainty in the Framework of Policy Analysis. In: Thissen, W.A.H., Walker, W.E., eds. Public Policy Analysis: New Developments. New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • World Economic Forum (2017). Shaping the Future of Global Food Systems: A Scenarios Analysis. Geneva, Switzerland (http://www3.weforum.org/docs/IP/2016/NVA/WEF_FSA_FutureofGlobalFoodSystems.pdf)

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Karl Bruckmeier

Authors
  1. Karl Bruckmeier
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Appendices: Further Information and Material

Appendices: Further Information and Material

1.1 1. Questions and Individual Exercises

The chapter described and discussed attempts to deal with the future and how it can be influenced through knowledge and action strategies for the long process of global sustainability transformation. Much of this discussion is connected with the development and application of methods for creating knowledge about the future.

Read about the methods for future studies and for future literacy in one or several of the following articles and discuss them in groups. The guiding questions for the discussions are: Which methods help to create new knowledge that can be applied in the transformation processes in sustainability policy and governance? Which methods create visions, utopias and speculative forms of thinking about the future, for which it is difficult to describe their functions in the sustainability process?

Amer, M., Daim, T. A., & Jetter, A. (2013). A Review of Scenario Planning. Futures, 46, 23–40.

Ahvenharju, S., Minkkinen, M., & Lalot, F. (2018). The Five Dimensions of Futures Consciousness. Futures, 103, 1–13.

Popa, F., Guillermin, M., & Dedeurwaerdere, T. (2015). A Pragmatist Approach to Transdisciplinarity in Sustainability Research: From Complex Systems Theory to Reflexive Science. Futures, 65, 45–56.

van Dorsser, C., Walker, W. E., Taneja, P., & Marchau, V. A. W. J. (2018). Improving the Link Between the Futures Field and Policymaking. Futures, 104, 75–84.

van Wuren, D. P., Bijl, D. L., Bogaart, P., Stehfest, E., Biemans, H., Dekker, S., et al. (2019). Integrated Scenarios to Support Analysis of the Food-Water-Energy Nexus. Nature Sustainability, 2: 1132–1141.

1.2 2. Further Reading Suggested: Deepening, Thematically Specialised

Miller, R. (Ed.). (2018). Transforming the Future: Anticipation in the 21st Century. London: Routledge.

Voß, J.-P., Bauknecht, D., & Kemp, R. (Eds.). (2006). Precaution, Foresight and Sustainability: Reflection and Reflexivity in the Governance of Science and Technology. Cheltenham UK: Edward Elgar.

Scientific journals (international, peer reviewed):

“Ecology and Society”, “Economics of Disasters and Climate Change”, “Earth System Governance”, “Environmental Sustainability”, “European Journal of Futures Research”, “Futures”, “Global Environmental Change”, “Global Environmental Governance”, “International Journal of Social Ecology and Sustainable Development”, “International Journal of Disaster Risk Science”, “International Journal of Sustainable Development and World Ecology”, “Journal of Futures Studies”, “Journal of World-Systems Research”, “Review of Environmental Economics and Policy”

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Bruckmeier, K. (2020). Re-Thinking Temporal Perspectives of Sustainability Transformation. In: Economics and Sustainability. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-56627-2_9

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-56627-2_9

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-56626-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-56627-2

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation