TY - JOUR

T1 - Interconnected place-based social–ecological research can inform global sustainability

AU - Balvanera, Patricia

AU - Calderón-Contreras, Rafael

AU - Castro, Antonio J.

AU - Felipe-Lucia, María R.

AU - Geijzendorffer, Ilse R.

AU - Jacobs, Sander

AU - Martín-López, Berta

AU - Arbieu, Ugo

AU - Speranza, Chinwe Ifejika

AU - Locatelli, Bruno

AU - Harguindeguy, Natalia Pérez

AU - Mercado, Ilse Ruiz

AU - Spierenburg, Marja J.

AU - Vallet, Améline

AU - Lynes, Laura

AU - Gillson, Lindsey

PY - 2017/12/1

Y1 - 2017/12/1

N2 - Global sustainability initiatives are gaining momentum and impact, and place-based research can provide complementary insights to strengthen them. Here, we explore the current and potential role of place-based research into informing global sustainability initiatives by assessing the strengths, challenges, and opportunities. We show that place-based research allows for a better understanding of global social–ecological dynamics, and that transformations towards sustainability are often triggered at the local scale through the co-construction of local solutions. We discuss that the very nature of place-based research can hinder its transferability because its global integration faces temporal, spatial and governance scale mismatches, and we identify some of the key challenges of scaling-up its findings. We highlight new opportunities to mainstream place-based research that are emerging from first, long-term networks of place-based research, second, new institutional research settings that contribute with conceptual comprehensive frameworks and capacity building tools, third, a global community of practice, and fourth, the concept of region as a bridge between local and global sustainability initiatives. We believe that the time is ripe to promote the role of place-based social–ecological research as a key contributor to achieve global sustainability goals.

AB - Global sustainability initiatives are gaining momentum and impact, and place-based research can provide complementary insights to strengthen them. Here, we explore the current and potential role of place-based research into informing global sustainability initiatives by assessing the strengths, challenges, and opportunities. We show that place-based research allows for a better understanding of global social–ecological dynamics, and that transformations towards sustainability are often triggered at the local scale through the co-construction of local solutions. We discuss that the very nature of place-based research can hinder its transferability because its global integration faces temporal, spatial and governance scale mismatches, and we identify some of the key challenges of scaling-up its findings. We highlight new opportunities to mainstream place-based research that are emerging from first, long-term networks of place-based research, second, new institutional research settings that contribute with conceptual comprehensive frameworks and capacity building tools, third, a global community of practice, and fourth, the concept of region as a bridge between local and global sustainability initiatives. We believe that the time is ripe to promote the role of place-based social–ecological research as a key contributor to achieve global sustainability goals.

KW - Sustainability Science

KW - Sociology

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85034579746&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.cosust.2017.09.005

DO - 10.1016/j.cosust.2017.09.005

M3 - Scientific review articles

VL - 29

SP - 1

EP - 7

JO - Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability

JF - Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability

SN - 1877-3435

ER -