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A pluralistic and integrated approach to action-oriented knowledge for sustainability

Nature Sustainability volume 4, pages 93–100 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

Sustainability science needs more systematic approaches for mobilizing knowledge in support of interventions that may bring about transformative change. In this Perspective, we contend that action-oriented knowledge for sustainability emerges when working in integrated ways with the many kinds of knowledge involved in the shared design, enactment and realization of change. The pluralistic and integrated approach we present rejects technocratic solutions to complex sustainability challenges and foregrounds individual and social learning. We argue that research institutions devoted to sustainability should focus more on creating the conditions for experimenting with multiple kinds of knowledge and ways of knowing to foster sustainability-oriented learning.

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Acknowledgements

G.C. thanks the Marie-Curie Individual Action (grant no. 752135) for supporting the project ‘What Epistemology for Sustainability Science? Experiments and Theories for Social Transformations’. D.J.L. thanks the Volkswagen Foundation and the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture for funding the project ‘Leverage Points for Sustainable Transformations: Institutions, People and Knowledge’ (grant no. A112269). G.C., D.J.L. and M.D.L. thank the Volkswagen Foundation and the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture for funding the project ‘Complexity or Control: Paradigms for Sustainability Science’ (grant no. A112135) and the Smart Family Foundation for support. We thank researchers in the Faculty of Sustainability at Leuphana University for engaging in critical and constructive conversations that have inspired many of the thoughts and arguments in this Perspective.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research, Klosterneuburg, Austria

    Guido Caniglia

  2. Faculty of Sustainability, Leuphana Universität Lüneburg, Lüneburg, Germany

    Guido Caniglia, B. Martín-López, H. von Wehrden & D. J. Lang

  3. Faculty of Environment, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

    C. Luederitz

  4. Desautels Faculty of Management, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

    C. Luederitz

  5. Dutch Research Institute for Transitions, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    T. von Wirth

  6. Department of Environment and Geography, University of York, York, UK

    I. Fazey

  7. Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences, University of Luxembourg, Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg

    K. Hondrila & A. König

  8. Department of Space, Earth and Environment, Division of Physical Resource Theory, Chalmers University of Technology, Göteborg, Sweden

    N. A. Schäpke

  9. School of Complex Adaptive Systems, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA

    M. D. Laubichler

  10. Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM, USA

    M. D. Laubichler

  11. Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin, Germany

    M. D. Laubichler

Authors
  1. Guido Caniglia
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  2. C. Luederitz
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  4. I. Fazey
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  6. K. Hondrila
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  7. A. König
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  8. H. von Wehrden
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  9. N. A. Schäpke
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  10. M. D. Laubichler
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  11. D. J. Lang
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Contributions

G.C. with the support of C.L. developed the idea, laid the conceptual foundations and led the writing and revision process. T.v.W., I.F. and D.J.L. contributed to the development of the main arguments and to the writing. B.M.-L., K.H., A.K., H.v.W., N.A.S. and M.D.L. contributed to the conceptual development, to some of the writing, and to improving the structure and style.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Guido Caniglia.

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Caniglia, G., Luederitz, C., von Wirth, T. et al. A pluralistic and integrated approach to action-oriented knowledge for sustainability. Nat Sustain 4, 93–100 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-020-00616-z

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