Advancing transformations to more sustainable and equitable futures. Read more.

Here you can download outputs from T2S networks and projects, and find videos, podcasts and other programme materials.

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Articles

Can science on transformation transform science? Lessons from co-design

‘Co-design’ is increasingly prominent as a key concept and approach in global change and sustainability research, in the scholarship on science–policy interactions, and an expressed expectation in research programmes and initiatives. This paper situates co-design and then synthesizes insights from real-life experiences of co-developing research projects under the Transformations to Sustainability programme seed grant phase. […]

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Knowledge briefs

The transformative potential of managed retreat in the face of rising sea levels

The effects of climate change – such as sea-level rise – are likely to provoke unprecedented movement of people over the coming decades. It is estimated that between 350 and 630 million people will be affected by sea-level rise over the next 80 years, and many of these people may relocate in search of safety, […]

Finding common ground in transformative sustainability narratives

It is widely acknowledged that global economic growth over the past half century, underpinned by a neoliberal capitalist discourse, has come at the cost of overexploitation of the world’s resources, severe ecological degradation and growing inequalities. Efforts to move rapidly towards a more environmentally sustainable and socially just future will depend on the emergence of […]

Three ways of understanding social transformations to sustainability

The enormity, complexity and urgency of the global targets enshrined in the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are widely acknowledged. However, even with calls for transformations to sustainability resounding around the globe, it is often not clear what should be transformed, by and for whom, and how. There are considerable gaps in […]

Promoting Indigenous knowledge and values for more sustainable water resource management

The beliefs and values of Indigenous peoples can provide important insights into human relationships with nature. Indigenous worldviews can offer alternative solutions to restoring degraded ecosystems and suggest new frameworks for building a more sustainable, holistic and equitable approach to the management of natural resources. However, Indigenous knowledge and beliefs have, until recently, been largely ignored […]

Green Microfinance: pitfalls, potential and pathways to transformation

The aim of Green Microfinance – as with microfinance – is to help financially excluded people, primarily in the Global South, to manage and reduce the insecurity of their income, including by empowering them to set up profitable micro-enterprises. Green Microfinance includes an additional focus, however: that of addressing environmental concerns while maintaining positive financial […]

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Newsletters

Newsletter June 2019

This final newsletter from the T2S programme includes details of findings and forthcoming publications from the Transformative Knowledge Networks, as well as a number of new initiatives. Read the June 2019 newsletter.  The Transformations to Sustainability newsletter ran between July 2016 and June 2019. Catch up on all the back issues here.

Newsletter March 2019

As the Transformative Knowledge Networks move into the final stages of their projects, the March 2019 newsletter highlights the ways in which their findings and approaches are being taken forward into new initiatives. It also reports on a new series of peer-reviewed papers on social transformations to sustainability to be published in the journal COSUST […]

Newsletter December 2018

The December newsletter focuses on the workshop which took place in Japan in September 2018, and which brought together researchers from the first (ISSC/ISC) Transformations to Sustainability programme and the second (Belmont Forum/NORFACE) programme of the same name. It also includes highlights from the final stages of the first programme’s research projects, events, publications and […]

Newsletter September 2018

The September newsletter focuses on the Living Aulas early-career research school, with an editorial by one of the co-organizers, Thomas Macintyre, and a number of blogs and videos resulting from the school. There’s an update from each of the T2S networks, including recent publications and new initiatives. It also features reading recommendations from the broad T2S […]

Newsletter July 2018

The July 2018 newsletter is a bumper issue, with updates on the new Belmont Forum-NORFACE T2S programme, the first T2S knowledge brief, a new digital forum on Just Transitions, and the usual updates, publications and events from the ACKNOWL-EJ, PATHWAYS and T-LEARNING networks. The editorial in this edition is by Mathieu Denis, Science Director of […]

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Podcasts

Podcast: Introduction To Transformations To Sustainability – Heide Hackmann

This recording was made at the first annual Transformative Knowledge Workshop, which took place in November 2014 in Potsdam, Germany. The overarching aim of the workshop was to lay the foundations for the global Transformations Knowledge Trust that is being developed through the ISSC’s Transformations to Sustainability Programme. At the time of recording, Heide Hackmann […]

Podcast: Science policy perspective – Klaus Töpfer

This recording was made at the first annual Transformative Knowledge Workshop, which took place in November 2014 in Potsdam, Germany. The overarching aim of the workshop was to lay the foundations for the global Transformations Knowledge Trust that is being developed through the ISSC’s Transformations to Sustainability Programme. Professor Klaus Töpfer is the founding Director […]

Podcast: Can transformations toward desired futures be facilitated, steered or managed? – Enrique Leff

This recording was made at the first annual Transformative Knowledge Workshop, which took place in November 2014 in Potsdam, Germany. The overarching aim of the workshop was to lay the foundations for the global Transformations Knowledge Trust that is being developed through the ISSC’s Transformations to Sustainability Programme. Enrique Leff is Senior Researcher/Professor in political […]

Podcast: How do transformations look? What are their characteristics? – Frans Berkhout

This recording was made at the first annual Transformative Knowledge Workshop, which took place in November 2014 in Potsdam, Germany. The overarching aim of the workshop was to lay the foundations for the global Transformations Knowledge Trust that is being developed through the ISSC’s Transformations to Sustainability Programme. Frans Berkhout is Professor of Environment, Society […]

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Programme materials

Transformations to Sustainability poster

Download the programme poster as a JPEG (3.4 MB) If you wish to print a copy of the poster, please contact us for a copy of the high-resolution print files.

T2S logotype

The T2S logo is available to download as an .eps, .png and .jpeg file. Grant holders are requested to acknowledge the ISC, the Transformations to Sustainability programme and its funders, and its partners (where appropriate), in any programme materials or publications with the following text: This work is based on research supported through the Transformations to […]

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Reports

Living Aulas Research School Long report Final December 2018

The Report of the Living Aulas Research School for early-career T2S researchers, which took place between 5 and 9 June 2018 in Colombia, was prepared by Thomas Macintyre. The Report sets out the process of designing the school, its objectives, activities undertaken, results and lessons learnt.

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Slides

Transformation Laboratories as spaces for co-designing socio-ecological transformation: learning from different contexts and approaches

These slides were used in introduction to a workshop of the same name which took place on 15 October 2019 in Santiago, Chile, on the sidelines of the Transformations 2019 conference. They include an introduction to the programme and to Transformation laboratories (T-labs), and outline the objectives of the workshop (in Spanish). A final slide sets […]

Restructuring the field of sustainability research for sustainable and secure futures

This presentation was given as part of the 2018 World Social Science Forum session to launch the new Belmont Forum-NORFACE Transformations to Sustainability projects. Each of the twelve new international, interdisciplinary research projects was presented, and slides relating to each project are enclosed in this slide pack. The session opened with a keynote address by […]

Understanding and encouraging transformations to sustainability

This presentation was given by Melissa Leach, Director of the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), UK, as a keynote address to the 2018 World Social Science Forum session to launch the new Belmont Forum-NORFACE Transformations to Sustainability projects. Leach stressed that questions of equity, fairness and justice must be integral to any discussion on sustainability […]

Impact, Outcomes and Sustainability

This presentation was given by Adrian Ely, co-lead of the T2S PATHWAYS network, on 23 September 2018, during the 2018 Transformations to Sustainability workshop. The 2018 workshop included a session on ‘Impact, outcomes and evaluation’, which had been suggested by members of the T2S research community partly in response to the challenges of monitoring and […]

PATHWAYS update, September 2018

This update from the PATHWAYS Transformative Knowledge Network (TKN) was presented on 22 September 2018 at the Transformations to Sustainability workshop in Fukuoka, Japan. It asks ‘what have we learned about research on/for social transformation?’ and presents learnings from the network’s case studies, including in Mexico, Argentina and India.

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Videos

Animation: What are Pathways to Sustainability?

This short animation introduces the approach of the PATHWAYS network, and how it’s been used in research around the world. You can find out more about PATHWAYS here, and on the STEPS Centre website.

Video: Injairu Kulundu on decolonizing education in Africa (All Woman TV)

In this brief interview for All Woman TV (South Africa), Injairu Kulundu, from the T-LEARNING network, talks about decoloniality and transgressive learning, which is the focus of her PhD study on surfacing contemporary liberatory pedagogy in Africa. This video was filmed for All Woman for their YouTube channel. 

Transformations methods: Neema Pathak Broome on the Alternatives Framework

Neema Pathak Broome introduces the Alternatives Framework, which can be used by alternative and resistance movements to explore how holistic their alternatives movement is – in terms of how it addresses the environmental, social, economic, political and cultural spheres – and to address any gaps that may be leading to problems such as environmental degradation […]

Video: Understanding transformations – Dylan McGarry on transgressive learning

What is transgressive and transformative learning? How can art and creativity help to transform towards greater sustainability? T-LEARNING network member Dylan McGarry of the Environmental Learning Research Centre (ELRC) at Rhodes University, South Africa, on how transgressive and transformative learning (t-learning) can help lead to greater sustainability. This video was filmed at the Transformations 2017 […]

Video: Transformations methods – Million Belay on participatory mapping

What is participatory mapping? How can this kind of mapping help create transformations towards greater environmental sustainability? T-LEARNING network member Million Belay of the Stockholm Resilience Centre and Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) introduces his participatory mapping work with local communities, and explains how mapping can help to facilitate transformations towards greater environmental […]