Role of sustainability science in promoting collaboration across disciplines and engagement

with stakeholders for implementing the SDGs

Third Symposium on Sustainability Science: Towards Guidelines on Research and Education

UNESCO, Paris, May 31 - 1 June 2017

Eduardo S. Brondizio

Department of Anthropology

Center for the Analysis of Social-Ecological Landscapes (CASEL)

Indiana University – Bloomington

Science Committee, Future Earth

Co-Chair, IPBES Global Assessment

Sustainability Sciences

Collaboration Across Disciplines

Implementation SDGs

Interdependent, complex and mutually reinforcing challenges

Appropriate knowledge

Solving problems, understanding dilemmas and trade-offs

Cooperation and complementarity

Academic freedom and academic responsibility

New capacities of individual scientists

Holistic view of human-environment interactions

Critical perspectives to Human-Environment analysis

New conceptual models linking dimensions and scales

New methodologies for data collection and analysis

Interdependence of multiples worldviews, values, meanings

Co-design - Co-production - Co-implementation

Key Principles

Evolving Conceptual Frameworks:Biophysical Systems

Social-Ecological SystemsMultiple Values

The Bretherton framework

The MA framework

The IPBES framework

Problem-OrientedMeta-Theoretical Tools Interdisciplinary CollaborationsProgressive understanding of complexityHypothesis testing and qualitative explorations

Multiplicity of Conceptual Frameworks

Sustainable Development GoalsBasic needs

Major inequality gapsSocial opportunities

Biophysical determinants

Multiplicity of Indicators vs. Framework for science-policy collaboration

17 Goals, 160 Targets, >230 Indicators

1. Broadening appreciation for complementary evidence

2. Critical view and historical understanding of development

3. System thinking with political ecology perspective

Sustainability Sciences

Collaboration Across Disciplines

Implementation SDGs

Challenges and Opportunities

Factual Subjective

Observation

Inference

Nat

ure

evid

en

ces

Nature of questions

Problem Questions Types of evidence Evaluative criteria

1. Broadening appreciation for complementary evidence

Factual Subjective

Observation

Inference

1. Broadening understanding of evidence and values

Agro-biodiversityAgronomic arrangements

BiogeochemestryLabor arrangements

ProductionImpact and benefits

Planting ritualsChoice of varieties

Social normsEcological knowledgeImpacts and benefits

Food preferenceChoice of variety

Ecological relationsImpacts and benefits

Aesthetics meaningSocial meaningSymbolic logic

Impacts and benefits

Geothermal plant, glass, hydrolectric

Logging, Biofuel plantations, REDD

National and global agendas, progress and reactions

Unsolved rural and urban inequalities

Urban growth and energy demand

2. Critical view and historical understanding of development

-Social sciences long-term reflection on colonialism and development ideology

BF-Deltas Project: Participatory landscape mapping of impacts and hazards: delta sub-regions and relevant hazards in the Amazon Estuary-Delta

Spaces for collective deliberations and discussions of multiple values

Co-design and Co-production

3. System thinking with political ecology perspective

Trade-offs focused on equity, justice, fairness VS.

Trade-offs based on food production, energy, conservation

Beyond Mystery House SyndromeSustainability Sciences as a framework to foster

collaboration and complementarities

Reference based on D. J. Watts Nature-Human Behavior (Jan 10, 2017)

THANKS!