TY - JOUR

T1 - Leverage points for sustainability transformations

T2 - nine guiding questions for sustainability science and practice

AU - Leventon, Julia

AU - Abson, Dave J.

AU - Lang, Daniel J.

N1 - This research was funded by the Volkswagen Stiftung and the Niedersächsisches Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kultur, grant number A112269. We would also like to thank all the members of the Leverage Points project team for the inspiration and thoughts that helped shape our understanding and Guido Caniglia for his helpful and constructive comments on an earlier version of the manuscript. This research draws on work undertaken in a large transdisciplinary research project (Leverage Points for Sustainability Transformation). The authors acknowledge and thank all project members for their ideas and input in the early stages of this work, even where they are not listed as authors. Full details of project members and their research are available at https://leveragepoints.org

PY - 2021/5

Y1 - 2021/5

N2 - The concept of leverage points offers great potential to consider how we can intervene in systems to create transformations for sustainability. In this special issue, we draw together a diverse collection of research that engages with this central idea. The papers cover three broad topics: (1) the use of a ‘leverage points lens’ for systems framings and understandings; (2) how individual interventions can be understood and critiqued from a leverage points perspective; and (3) the implications of a leverage points approach for research practice and action. Across these topics, we present the papers, and embed them within current critical debate in sustainability science. In doing so, we produce nine guiding questions to shape the research and practice of leverage points for sustainability transformation. These nine questions introduce conceptual clarity to untangle some of the deeper questions around which system we are engaging with, whose system counts, and whose sustainability we are seeking to create. They further shape how we deliver a leverage points research practice. We intend, therefore, that our guiding questions open up exploration across systems and worldviews, and help us to dance with systems.

AB - The concept of leverage points offers great potential to consider how we can intervene in systems to create transformations for sustainability. In this special issue, we draw together a diverse collection of research that engages with this central idea. The papers cover three broad topics: (1) the use of a ‘leverage points lens’ for systems framings and understandings; (2) how individual interventions can be understood and critiqued from a leverage points perspective; and (3) the implications of a leverage points approach for research practice and action. Across these topics, we present the papers, and embed them within current critical debate in sustainability science. In doing so, we produce nine guiding questions to shape the research and practice of leverage points for sustainability transformation. These nine questions introduce conceptual clarity to untangle some of the deeper questions around which system we are engaging with, whose system counts, and whose sustainability we are seeking to create. They further shape how we deliver a leverage points research practice. We intend, therefore, that our guiding questions open up exploration across systems and worldviews, and help us to dance with systems.

KW - Sustainability science

KW - Systems thinking

KW - Transdisciplinarity

KW - Transdisciplinary studies

KW - Sustainability Science

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85105367861&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/163aafac-c5e5-3836-a86f-4d5de4a55f9b/

U2 - 10.1007/s11625-021-00961-8

DO - 10.1007/s11625-021-00961-8

M3 - Other (editorial matter etc.)

AN - SCOPUS:85105367861

VL - 16

SP - 721

EP - 726

JO - Sustainability Science

JF - Sustainability Science

SN - 1862-4065

IS - 3

ER -