Browsing by Author "Norstrom, Albert V."

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    Chefs as change-makers from the kitchen : indigenous knowledge and traditional food as sustainability innovations
    (Cambridge University Press, 2019) Pereira, Laura M. (Laura Maureen), 1985-; Calderon-Contreras, Rafael; Norstrom, Albert V.; Espinosa, Dulce; Willis, Jenny; Lara, Leonie Guerrero; Khan, Zayaan; Rusch, Loubie; Palacios, Eduardo Correa; Amaya, Ovidio Perez
    Projections of a burgeoning population coupled with global environmental change offer an increasingly dire picture of the state of the world's food security in the not-too-distant future. But how can we transform the current food system to become more sustainable, more equitable and more just? We identify kitchens as sites of transformative innovation in the food system where cooks and chefs can leverage traditional food knowledge about local food species to create delicious and nutritious dishes. Achieving a sustainable food system is a grand challenge, one where cooks in particular are stepping forward as innovators to find solutions.
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    Key features for more successful place-based sustainability research on social-ecological systems : a Programme on Ecosystem Change and Society (PECS) perspective
    (Resilience Alliance, 2017) Balvanera, Patricia; Daw, Tim M.; Gardner, Toby A.; Martin-Lopez, Berta; Norstrom, Albert V.; Speranza, Chinwe Ifejika; Spierenburg, Marja; Bennett, Elena M.; Farfan, Michelle; Hamann, Maike; Kittinger, John N.; Luthe, Tobias; Maass, Manuel; Peterson, Garry D.; Perez-Verdin, Gustavo
    The emerging discipline of sustainability science is focused explicitly on the dynamic interactions between nature and society and is committed to research that spans multiple scales and can support transitions toward greater sustainability. Because a growing body of place-based social-ecological sustainability research (PBSESR) has emerged in recent decades, there is a growing need to understand better how to maximize the effectiveness of this work. The Programme on Ecosystem Change and Society (PECS) provides a unique opportunity for synthesizing insights gained from this research community on key features that may contribute to the relative success of PBSESR. We surveyed the leaders of PECS-affiliated projects using a combination of open, closed, and semistructured questions to identify which features of a research project are perceived to contribute to successful research design and implementation. We assessed six types of research features: problem orientation, research team, and contextual, conceptual, methodological, and evaluative features. We examined the desirable and undesirable aspects of each feature, the enabling factors and obstacles associated with project implementation, and asked respondents to assess the performance of their own projects in relation to these features. Responses were obtained from 25 projects working in 42 social-ecological study cases within 25 countries. Factors that contribute to the overall success of PBSESR included: explicitly addressing integrated social-ecological systems; a focus on solution- and transformation-oriented research; adaptation of studies to their local context; trusted, long-term, and frequent engagement with stakeholders and partners; and an early definition of the purpose and scope of research. Factors that hindered the success of PBSESR included: the complexities inherent to social-ecological systems, the imposition of particular epistemologies and methods on the wider research group, the need for long periods of time to initiate and conduct this kind of research, and power asymmetries both within the research team and among stakeholders. In the self-assessment exercise, performance relating to team and context-related features was ranked higher than performance relating to methodological, evaluation, and problem orientation features. We discuss how these insights are relevant for balancing place-based and global perspectives in sustainability science, fostering more rapid progress toward inter- and transdisciplinary integration, redefining and measuring the success of PBSESR, and facing the challenges of academic and research funding institutions. These results highlight the valuable opportunity that the PECS community provides in helping build a community of practice for PBSESR.
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    Programme on Ecosystem Change and Society : knowledge for sustainable stewardship of social-ecological systems
    (Resilience Alliance, 2017) Norstrom, Albert V.; Balvanera, Patricia; Spierenburg, Marja; Bouamrane, Meriem
    No abstract available
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    Social-ecological resilience and biosphere-based sustainability science
    (Resilience Alliance, 2016) Folke, Carl; Biggs, Reinette, 1979-; Norstrom, Albert V.; Reyers, Belinda; Rockstrom, Johan
    Humanity has emerged as a major force in the operation of the biosphere. The focus is shifting from the environment as externality to the biosphere as precondition for social justice, economic development, and sustainability. In this article, we exemplify the intertwined nature of social-ecological systems and emphasize that they operate within, and as embedded parts of the biosphere and as such coevolve with and depend on it. We regard social-ecological systems as complex adaptive systems and use a social-ecological resilience approach as a lens to address and understand their dynamics. We raise the challenge of stewardship of development in concert with the biosphere for people in diverse contexts and places as critical for long-term sustainability and dignity in human relations. Biosphere stewardship is essential, in the globalized world of interactions with the Earth system, to sustain and enhance our life-supporting environment for human well-being and future human development on Earth, hence, the need to reconnect development to the biosphere foundation and the need for a biosphere-based sustainability science.