Lucy Rist supports the Seeds of Good Anthropocenes project with a focus on sustainable food systems and local peace building initiatives

Rist supports the development of the Seeds of Good Anthropocenes project, a collaboration led by McGill University in Canada, the Stockholm Resilience Centre at Stockholm University in Sweden, and the Centre for Complex Systems in Transition (CST) at Stellenbosch University in South Africa.

This initiative aims to provide a counterbalance to many of the current dystopic visions of Earth and humanities shared future. This is done by gathering and sharing examples of novel alternatives “SEEDS” which challenge this vision. Examples of people and communities successfully inspiring and creating alternatives which are radically different from what is more commonly found in the world as people know it today.

The project also draws on the characteristics of such SEEDS to explore alternative, plausible “Good Anthropocenes”, positive visions of futures that are socially and ecologically desirable, just, and sustainable.

Rist works on development of the analytic frameworks supporting this work as well as working more specifically on SEEDs in relation to both sustainable food systems in Sweden and local peace building initiatives internationally.

Rist has a diverse background in inter- and trans- disciplinary research which fostered a strong tendency to initiate collaborative projects. Originally trained in tropical ecology she worked for many years in natural resource management contexts in India, Indonesia and the Seychelles, often in partnership with both local researchers and national policy and management processes.

From 2010 onwards she moved over to work on boreal systems, particularly forest management and mining in the Swedish mountains. She has an enthusiasm for understanding the world view through which we engage with sustainability and natural resource management, including the philosophies and bodies of knowledge that influence how we both frame our questions and use the outcomes of research.

Rist has also spent time out of academia working in the non-profit sector. In 2015 she founded a charity using sport as a tool for social change which then went on to win innovation awards for its work with leadership, as well as with empowering girls through sport and outdoor activities.