Sustainability transitions in consumption-production systems
The need for faster and deeper transitions toward more sustainable development pathways is now widely recognized. How to meet that need has been at the center of a growing body of academic research and real-world policy implementation. This paper presents the author’s perspective on some of the most powerful insights that have emerged from this ongoing work. In particular, they highlight insights on how sustainability transitions can be usefully conceptualized, how they come about and evolve, and how they can be shaped and guided through deliberate policy interventions.
The paper also highlights some of the many “how” questions that remain unresolved and on which progress would be especially helpful for the pursuit of sustainable development. The approach to these “how” questions on sustainability transitions draws on two strands of solution-driven research and policy advice: one emerging from studies of how human societies interact with nature and the other emerging from studies of how those societies interact with their technologies. Consumption-production-systems have been a focus of extensive work in both strands. To help build bridges between them, the authors recently brought together a cross-section of relevant scholars for a PNAS Special Feature on “Sustainability transitions in consumption- production systems.”
