Environment strategy: transformative changes for sustainability
Independent report by Professor Valerie Nelson on behalf of the Scottish Government to inform the development of the forthcoming Scottish Government environment strategy.
1. Introduction
Transformative change academic and policy discourse has grown in response to the perceived failures of previous sustainability interventions. There are numerous calls to action and policy propositions, in response to worsening and interconnected socio-ecological crises. However, definitions and understanding of how to achieve transformative change in practice remains contested.
In this report, we explore emerging theory and provide broad outlines of possible sustainability leverage points, drawing upon recent theory and practice. Evolving definitions are explained, drawing from inter-governmental assessments, bodies of social science and sustainability science literatures and several strands of Transformative Change theory. More recent, emerging perspectives which are less well recognised with respect to transformative change, but are highly influential in critical social sciences, humanities and arts are explored. The report concludes with some broad contours of transformative change leverage points in the context of worsening socio-ecological damages.