Research in short | 2024-03-19

From implicit to explicit: Enhancing our causal understanding of social-ecological systems

Social-ecological systems are complex and the different ways in which scientists causally reason about them are extraordinarily diverse.

Research news | 2023-11-13

New research maps 14 potential evolutionary dead ends for humanity and ways to avoid them

Humankind risks getting stuck in 14 evolutionary dead ends, ranging from global climate tipping points to misaligned artificial intelligence, chemical pollution, and accelerating infectious diseases

Research news | 2022-04-22

How to visualize cause and effect

Study examines the strengths and weaknesses of different visualizations that can be used to illustrate causality in social-ecological systems

Research news | 2022-03-09

Why crop-residue burning is part of a bigger problem

Burning in northern India affects millions of people across South Asia. But the farmers doing it are stuck in a vicious cycle

Research news | 2022-03-09

Innovative ways of theorizing in sustainability science

Study suggests four modes of building theories in sustainability science and the notion of ‘ecologies of theories’

Research news | 2021-10-17

How environmental change is forcing us to change how we do science

Responding to rapid change requires researchers to master the fields of governance, law and science – all in one

Research news | 2021-07-03

Groundbreaking book on methods to study social-ecological systems

Open-access book covers 28 broad groups of methods, featuring contributions from almost a hundred authors in 16 countries

Research news | 2020-09-21

A tipping point alone will not guarantee a transformation, what comes afterwards is crucial

A successful transformation goes through phases, and each phase must be navigated carefully

Research news | 2020-06-17

How covid-19 undermines sustainability

The tragic pandemic seems to have given the planet a bit of respite. But doubts remain whether it will be a lasting change

Research news | 2020-03-10

Why constant change is more important than stability

We talk and think in terms of things and entities that are stable and unchanging. This is understandable, but misguided, researchers argue

Research news | 2020-02-05

New book on governance, institutions and policy in face of complexity

Offers insights into successful governance in a rapidly changing world

Research news | 2019-12-30

Case studies, models and complexity

Time to go from simply describing social-ecological systems to explaining how their complex interactions generate observed outcomes

Research news | 2019-12-19

More complex than the sum of its parts

New framework for analysing emergent properties and dynamics in social-ecological systems tested on seven case studies

Research news | 2019-08-28

Practice makes perfect

Why the idea that scientific expertise rests on the strict application of pre-determined technical methods is misplaced

Research news | 2019-05-17

The right tree at the right place

Why regreening the Sahel is more than just creating a wall of trees and why one initiative may actually succeed

Research news | 2019-05-02

Dancing on the volcano

Humanity is at a crossroads. We need to understand the underlying drivers of human behaviour to avoid collapse of the biosphere and our global civilization

Research news | 2019-02-05

A deep dive into societal causes and responses to ocean acidification

While we know that ocean acidification is a problem, we know less about how society is driving this environmental change, and how we can respond to it

Research news | 2018-11-28

Reimagining development practice

The seventh in a series of seven "deep dives" looking into the connections between resilience and development

Research news | 2018-11-20

Why global perspectives matters for local development

The sixth in a series of seven "deep dives" looking into the connections between resilience and development

Research news | 2018-11-15

Our intertwined planet: New understandings for development

The fifth in a series of seven "deep dives" looking into the connections between resilience and development