Speakers: Bruce Goldstein, Julia Leventon, Glenn Page, Chris Riedy, Nick Graham Join us for the opening session of the sixth Transformations conference, where scholars and practitioners from around the globe gather to exchange ideas and initiatives for fostering sustainable, regenerative, and equitable futures. We will hear from our main conference host in Sydney and discover how our global […]
Speakers: Bryan Jenkins, J. David Tàbara, Diego Galafassi, Jessica Böhme Presentations: Regenerative sustainability and transformative pathways. A relational perspective. J David Tàbara, Diego Galafassi Moving towards net-positive regenerative development pathways requires a cultural shift in the way we think about human agency, social-ecological systems and the relationships between both. In this talk, I introduce a relational, […]
Speaker: Tim Strasser This session will explore together with other practitioners, evaluators and academics how the distributed and highly diverse movement of community-led sustainability initiatives (that ECOLISE is seeking to steward, enable, and catalyse) can tell better stories of the collective impacts they can potentially have and are already making. That is in order to […]
Speakers: Simon Beaudoin, Christopher Ives, Angela Moriggi, Michael Bernstein, Per Olsson Presentations: Synergies for transformations Simon BeaudoinFifty years after the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment (UNCHE), a comprehensive environmental governance architecture is still needed. This article investigates the potential for adapting policies to synergies among socio-ecological issues. Aiming to identify promising avenues for transformative change, it presents […]
Speakers: Nithin Kuriakose, Sam Buckton, Julia Bentz, Anita Lazurko, Tani Khara Presentations Navigating Transitions: Exploring Emerging Design Attitudes forPluriverse Nithin Kuriakose Why do more complex problems arise the more we design? What are the design attitudes for societal transitions? How are they connected? This study explores why we need better design interventions and also evaluates, […]
Speaker: Bruce Goldstein, Jayne Bryant, Marilyn Mehlmann, Debbi Brock Panel discussion of the state of the field of systems education and the opportunities for developing its reach and impact Education for Sustainability Leadership - Supporting and Empowering Agents for Sustainability Transformations Jayne Bryant The global challenges of our time are unprecedented and urgent action for […]
Speaker: Amanda Jiménez-Aceituno, María D. López-Rodríguez Our session will focus on showing how transdisciplinary processes for imagining sustainable futures can be improved by combining conventional research approaches to knowledge co-creation (e.g., mental models and conceptual diagrams) with art-based research methods, specifically Theatre of the Oppressed techniques. We seek to spark the discussion about the advantages […]
Speakers: Glenn Page, Mark Cabaj, Kate McKegg, Mutizwa Mukute, Ian Goldman, Michael Quinn Patton, Bruce Goldstein Please join six of the global leaders in assessment in evaluation on Tuesday July 11th 14-15:30 CEST online - for an engaging dialogue on the current state of the practice of assessment and evaluation as applied to large scale […]
Speaker: Johan Schot, Magdalena Schneider, Steve Waddell, Bruce Goldstein Financing the transformation needed to respond to today’s polycrisis is grossly inadequate in scale and the processes to connect finance to systemic change work are almost non-existent. Current approaches to financing – philanthropic, governmental and private – are largely unaligned with the needs associated with financing […]
Facilitator: Peter Wells
Speaker: Bruce Goldstein, Russ Gaskin, Brendon Johnson, Liz Weaver, Nono Sekhoto, Kerstin Tebbe Panel discussion of the field of network leadership development
Speaker: Etrit Shkreli, Katherine Palmer, Manon Doran This interactive, thought-provoking, and action-oriented workshop centers around the question: 'As individuals, what can we do about climate change?' Our goal is to create momentum for collaboration and transform awareness into effective and tangible steps. We will all face challenges, so let us rediscover our shared humanity – […]
Speaker: Jim Best We live in a world of resilient complex adaptive social systems. Transformation in this realm requires tools of requisite complexity, a cognitive shift from systems-as-machines to systems-as-organisms, and a relational shift from ego-networks to eco-networks. Social system mapping is a powerful way to interact with, and perceive, systems. It is a community-engaging […]
Facilitators: Pål Dobrin, Therese Asplund This session is designed as a meditative practice and sharing of experiences among the online community at the Transformations Conference 2023. Based on the Buddhist tradition of the Four Immeasurables - loving-kindness (friendliness), compassion (willing to cease suffering), appreciative joy (feeling happy for others), and equanimity (calm based on wisdom) […]
Speakers: Ioan Fazey, Petr Jehlicka, Bruce Goldstein East European households’ resource-use practices: Learning from the epistemic periphery Petr Jehlicka
Speaker: Sam Wearne, Ella Hubbard, Krisztina Jónás, Maria Wilke Our research project has generated insights into how bioreigoining is emerging. It sheds light on a range of topics that we feel are of interest to a broad audience of sustainability researchers and practitioners. Specific insights that we’ll share in the first part of our session […]
Speaker: Franziska Marfurt, Sibylle Studer What is the role of research in sustainability transformations? Who acts as supporter, critical friend, integrator, midwife, … evidence provider? We believe that transformations gain effectiveness when roles are clarified. With the proposed practice we foster the capability to position oneself in a spectrum of roles. Furthermore, we provide a […]
Speaker: Lisa Grocott, Mia Perry, Sharifa Abdulla, Reagan Kandole, Alison Colwell-Matsuura This panel will open up a dialogic and practical space for considering the affordances of creative methods when it comes to supporting people to shift their mental models, worldviews, beliefs and habits of mind. The shiftwork we will do together sits where the theme […]
Speaker: Blane Harvey, Ying-Syuan (Elaine) Huang, Bruce Goldstein, Nick Graham The community of researchers, practitioners and policymakers working on global climate and sustainability challenges are faced with two competing challenges: First is an ever-expanding body of knowledge, networks, and initiatives generating new insights that should be shared. Second is the growing recognition that fly-in-fly-out conferencing […]
Speaker: Meredith Lewis ‘Throw away the light, the definitions, and say, what you see, in the dark.‘ —Wallace Stevens We have all been jolted out of time and psychosocial space due to Covid, climate and natural emergencies, growing inequality, and their attendant disruptions and griefs. What does this mean for us? The Bewilderment Game is […]
Leaders of transformation organizations will explore: What are transformations initiatives, and how do they differ from other social change initiatives? What have we learned about how to design and structure transformations initiatives? What are the principal challenges in building and sustaining transformations initiatives, and how can we address those challenges? Moderators: Bruce Goldstein (Transformations Community) […]
Speakers: Sofia Maniatakou, Nathalie Sänger, Jorge Martín Motta, Simone Sandholz, Laura Arévalos Presentations: Exploring the roles and capacities of large-scale actor coalitions for sustainability transformations Sofia Maniatakou Several transnational corporations, investors and philanthropic organizations have formed coalitions to respond to global social and environmental challenges of the Anthropocene. The COVID-19 pandemic has intensified calls for such partnerships to increase […]
Speakers: Julia Leventon, Zuzana Harmackova, Silja Zimmermann, Jan Christian Polanía Giese, Bruce Goldstein Panelists will describe their collaborative mapping processes, engage in dialogue about the similarities and differences in design, implementation, and purpose, and engage session attendees in exploring these questions related to how to engage diverse communities in identifying transformative outcomes and pathways, including […]
Speaker: Viola Hakkarainen, Joel Onyango, Gladys Kivati, Nora Ndege Viola Hakkarainen will introduce the concept of engaging with diverse ways of knowing for sustainability transformations, and Joel Onyango, Gladys Kivati, and Nora Ndege will provide an in-depth case study of Learning Libraries, an effort to decolonize institutionalized knowledge practices by developing culturally-embedded and non-elitist knowledge […]
Speaker: Jonathan Langdon, Blane Harvey, Maha Husain, Sangeeta Singh, Sheena Cameron, Tahnee Prior, Erika Xananine Calvillo Ramirez, Daniel Valdovinos Stories move people. Discussing transformations means moving people to transform; it is therefore crucial we focus on stories as central to a change agenda. This year’s conference theme of Transformative Partnerships for a Better World, as […]
Speakers: Pål Dobrin, Therese Asplund, Kira Cooper, Anne Taufen, Lakin Anderson Presentations: How can we cultivate individual wellbeing to support inner transformations? A wisdom tradition’s approach to personal sustainability transformations Pål Dobrin, Therese AsplundSince 2015 when the UN adopted 17 global goals to transform our world, research on sustainability transformations have increasingly attract attention in its […]
Speakers: Florence Reed, Hedda Reich, Rita Golstein-Galperin, Maayan Agmon, Issabella Orlando Presentations Working Together to Create a Just and Sustainable World Through Transformative Farming Training that Nourishes Communities and the Earth Florence Reed Climate change and biodiversity loss threaten the very existence of human society, while hunger and poverty continue to plague humanity. Though conventional farming practices are a […]
Speakers: Gilbert Michaud, Flurina Schneider, Kajsa-Stina Benulic, Niko Schäpke Presentations Operationalizing Demand for Renewable Energy Projects in Laggard States Gilbert MichaudAs part of the unfolding energy transition from fossil fuels to renewables, large, utility-scale solar and wind projects are increasingly being deployed throughout the United States (U.S.). While smaller forms of renewable energy, such as rooftop solar […]
Speakers: Valerie Voggenreiter, Felix Beyers, Fanny Langner What does it take for a sustainable society? What is missing to rethink our future? Silence holds self-love, connection to one another and promotes resilience of social structures in times of radical change. Thus, solution-oriented approaches and answers can be found in silence. But where do we find […]
Speaker: Marcelle Holdaway Today’s postnormal times marked by ‘complexity, contradictions and chaos’ require wisdom to heal ourselves and the planet. There has long been various theories and practices applied to ‘expand’ consciousness to access wisdom, and we draw upon one practice. This workshop creates the opportunity to experience tools that can provide a pathway to […]
Speaker: Otto Scharmer Join us for a keynote session with Otto Scharmer, renowned author and expert in the field of transformative change. In his presentation, "Co-Sensing and Co-Creating the Future," Otto will guide us through an inspiring exploration of how we can collectively sense and shape the future we desire. Drawing from his […]
Speaker: Katy Roelich, Zuzana Harmackova Public sector decision making for sustainability transformations Katy RoelichThere is an emerging focus on how sustainability transformations might come about (Hajer et al., 2015; Willis, 2020) but current research focuses on the role of civil society or businesses in developing alternative visions and business models. This overlooks the crucial role […]
Speakers: Zoë Deskin, Blane Harvey, Clara Mosso, Morgane Batkai, Julius Rathgens Presentations: Critical Food Systems Education in University Student-run Food Initiatives: Learning Dynamics, Outcomes, and Opportunities for Food Systems Transformation Zoë Deskin, Blane Harvey Student-run Campus Food Systems Alternatives (CFSA) have been proposed as spaces which have the potential to advance Critical Food Systems Education (CFSE) – the objective […]
Speaker: Katie Ross, Betty O'Neill, Jane Slattery Many scholars, cultures, and spiritual leaders attribute the outwardly disparate challenges of our time to the seemingly ubiquitous and unconscious logic of separation. This paradigmatic logic or belief can permeate the ideas about who we are and how we should live and thus manifests in the actions and […]
Speaker: Seona Candy In July 2021, the European Commission launched the ‘Fit for 55’ climate policy package, designed to bring EU policies up to speed to achieve a 55% reduction in net greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. Recognising that these technical mitigation measures may have negative social impacts, current and previous policy announcements have also […]
Speakers: Flávia Guerra, Thieu Besselink, Ethan Gordon, Johanna Couvée, Bouchra Lamsyeh Presentations: How to assess and define enabling mindsets for sustainability transformations? Insights from the Transformative Urban Coalitions project Flávia GuerraThis presentation challenges the audience to find out what their climate mindset is through a BuzzFeed-type quiz. This user-friendly and fun quiz was designed based […]
Speakers: Victoria Shaw, Paloma Bernal Hernández This session will test the Pentagonal Map, an introductory Miro tool that features in the Transformative Innovation Policy Resource Lab: https://tipresourcelab.net/ The tool provides a process for system mapping through a transitions lens to identify a dominant sociotechnical 'regime', helping a group to consider the actors, materials and rules […]
Speakers: Luea Ritter, Allyson Quinlan, Anna Kovasna Resilience Assessment as Transformative Practice: Working across knowledge paradigms, scales and geographies to nurture local resilience and transformative capacity Anna Kovasna, Luea Ritter, Allyson QuinlanA close look at a multi-year assessment process that is underway for the Global Ecovillage Network, a multiscale place-based network of transformations initiatives.
The panel continues our consideration on how transformations practitioners design, manage, and facilitate transformations initiatives, with a focus on highly engaged evaluation practices. Adam Hejnowicz will begin by exploring how evaluation must play a central role in driving and shaping transformative change, and how urgent adjustments are needed for evaluation to become an integral part […]
Facilitator: Tica Lubin
Transformative educators and process facilitators reflect on their experience engaging in transformative leadership development and discuss how to cultivate and support effective and inclusive leadership of transformations initiatives. Table discussion will consider: How do we cultivate and support effective, inclusive, and adaptive transformative leadership necessary for these types of organizations/initiatives? What are we doing right […]
Speakers: Justus Wachs, Uri Yitzchak Noy Meir Presencing Stories - Sensing into deeper forms of organizational collaboration Justus Wachs, Uri Yitzchak Noy Meir Many organizations tackle systemic crises while remaining "under-resourced, fragmented and marginal" (Waddock et al., 2022, p. 78). To increase the organizations' transformative agency, Waddock et al. (2022) call for the establishment of 'Transformation […]
Speakers: Federico Robledo, Thieu Besselink, Lindsay K. Campbell, Stefan Partelow Presentations Co-production of knowledge to facilitate access to climate information: the case of Argentina My Climate Risk Hub Federico Robledo Scientific institutions have a strategic role in generating knowledge and capacities based on the definition of social and environmental public policies, since they impact the […]
Speaker: Luea Ritter, Nancy Zamierowski, Johann-Justus Wachs We offer systems sensing (Ritter & Zamierowski, 2021) as a practice to foster transformative leadership culture and partnership across sectors and places. Systems sensing can be understood as including a visceral aptitude involving the felt senses, intuition, and emotions that draw on innate human capacities for being in […]
Speakers: Luciano Villalba, Ailén Acosta, Velázquez Diego, Marcelo Stipcich, Simone Sandholz, Nathalie Sänger, Patrick Sanady, Tania Vachon, Christina Eisenbarth Presentations: Transformative innovation for climate adaptation in vulnerable neighbourhoods of Argentina Luciano Villalba, Velázquez DiegoThe Sixth Assessment IPPC report states clearly that climate adaptation in vulnerable regions is a matter of action that requires urgent and just […]
Speaker: David Pendle Otto Scharmer (2023) observes activating collective capacities towards systemic sustainability, is a primary deficit in many attempts at complex systemic transformations. Scharmer advocates awareness based systems change. Thus this highly interactive experiential workshop aims to offer a promising socio-cultural practice, in redirecting collective attention towards the spaces where these mostly dormant, shared […]
Speakers: Bobby Fishkin, Saskia Verraes, Mark Smith How do we know what we hope for is possible? How do we build a community that can work backward from the most inspirational examples that could possibly be drawn upon? There are many degrees of positive deviance. Our narrative of the Great Library of Positive Deviance is that we […]
Facilitators: Pål Dobrin, Therese Asplund This session is designed as a meditative practice and sharing of experiences among the online community at the Transformations Conference 2023. Based on the Buddhist tradition of the Four Immeasurables - loving-kindness (friendliness), compassion (willing to cease suffering), appreciative joy (feeling happy for others), and equanimity (calm based on wisdom) […]
Speaker: Filia Garivaldis, Annette Bos Aha learning moments, or Eureka moments, are defined as moments of sudden understanding, when learners begin to see connections that they were previously oblivious to (Pilcher, 2016). Associated with these moments are feelings of excitement, deeper understanding, realisation, and a change in perspective (Pilcher, 2016). These moments have been recognised […]
Speakers: Diana Lopez and Arwen Bailey, Fern Wickson, Carlos Álvarez Pereira CGIAR Community of Practice on Gender-Transformative Research Methodologies: Combining Feminist Approaches with CoP Praxis to Foster Transformation Diana Erika Lopez Ramirez, Arwen BaileyAdopting a gender-transformative agenda that embraces a feminist ethos can be challenging in certain organizational cultures, especially those whose primary focus is not […]
Speaker: Anaïs Sägesser, Naveen Shamsudhin Societal transformation is a complex process that involves personal transformation, social equity, and systemic change. Central to this process is the recognition and acceptance of vulnerability - a ubiquitous aspect of living beings and ecosystems. In this workshop, we aim to explore how the cultivation of safe spaces can facilitate […]
Speaker: Anna Schwachula, Tatjana Reiber Redirecting pathways towards sustainable development requires substantive transformations throughout our societies. To find solutions for complex sustainability challenges, actors of different social groups and sectors need to cooperate. Competencies for transformation comprise of different types of knowledge, skills and attitudes. In the workshop proposed, we focus on practicing the competencies […]
Speaker: Sabrina Schork We know from former research that we need to develop self-effective individuals and self-organized groups that think and act sustainably as well as digital. The need to transform our society into a pro-actively shaping one that stays resilient (optimistic, solution-oriented, self-responsible, networked, and future shaping) in an unstable, volatile, ambidextrous, and complex […]
Speakers: Genta Konci, Mariana Zafeirakopoulos, Glory Dee Romo Presentations Promoting paradigm shifts towards a climate-resilient world: Lessons from evaluations of the Green Climate Fund Genta Konci Most multilateral development agencies aim for change that is ‘transformational’ or that shifts the ‘paradigm’. In many ways transformation has become the holy grail in development assistance, with most […]
Speaker: Curtis Ogden, Karen Spiller This session will entail a closer look at Food Solutions New England (FSNE), a 12 year old network advancing a more just, sustainable, resilient and democratic regional food system in the Northeastern United States. We will consider the importance of network weaving and development, core values including equity, and structures/roles […]
Our objective is to collectively explore what environments can foster commitment, heart-centered connections to humans and non-humans, and trust, which together are defined as a “transformative relationality”. Building on insights from a workshop on “relational transdisciplinarity” organized last February by the tdAcademy in Leuphana University, the session will provide all participants with insights into the […]
Speakers: Marco Billi, Christina Zurbriggen, Roxana Bórquez, Anahí Urquiza, Silvana Juri Presentations: Discussing structural, systemic and enabling approaches to socio-environmental transformations: Stimulating an interdisciplinary and plural debate within the social sciences Marco Billi In recent decades, the social sciences have engaged more deeply with the evolving interconnection and interdependence between the social and the […]
Speakers: Susanne Moser; Bruce Goldstein Closing Session: Join your community for an invigorating closing session that focuses on turning inspiration into action! Hear from sensemakers cross the 300 sessions as we move into tangible transformations. Have your say on what stands out as most impactful, and shape the steps we’ll take moving forward. We’re honored […]