Towards Transformative Change

The many faces of transformation

The IPBES define transformative change as “a fundamental, system-wide reorganization across technological, economic and social factors, including paradigm, goals and values.” While there is general agreement on the need for transformative change, there is much less agreement on how we should go about changing, and what goals and values should guide us.

Overall, there are three general approaches to the idea of transformation [2]:

• Systems Approach: A focus on locating key points in society that can kick-start a domino effect that changes the way people, nature, and society interact.

• Structural Approach: A focus on reorganizing relations of power within society to challenge dominant ways of doing and seeing things.

• Enabling Approach: A focus on improving people’s capacity to act differently, especially individuals and communities that have been historically marginalized and disempowered.

In addition to these different approaches to transformation, there are also different ways to think about the speed (fast vs slow) and size (incremental vs fundamental) of change. So far, there has been a strong push, especially from the scientific community, for rapid, fundamental changes that reflect the urgency of our situation.

Indeed, the state of biodiversity loss and environmental degradation is serious. However, we mustn’t let the urgency of the situation blind us to the transformative potential of different scales and types of change. Rapid, fundamental changes may effectively transform society yet unintentionally lead to exclusive and inequitable outcomes for already vulnerable communities [3].

Instead of urgency, we need another idea to guide the way: justice.

Justice: The heart of transformation

“You say we need to change, but to what ends? How? For you, me, or them?”

These questions, at their core, are about justice. While there are many viable ways to change society — slow, fast, incremental or fundamental — transformations must improve the livelihoods of the communities, places and environments that have suffered from social injustice.

So far, most discussions about transformative change focus on effectiveness rather than justice. This framing has negatively impacted many communities and their local environment [4]. We need to think of biodiversity loss and climate related disasters as not only technological or scientific problems. They are also social justice problems.

The concept of transformative change has the potential to steer society towards a better future, but in order to get there, we must place justice at the helm.

In the Naturescapes project, justice occupies a central role in how we understand transformative change. Our research will explore what justice means in transformative change and how interventions (like nature-based solutions) can promote a move towards new, more ethical relationships and institutions that benefit both nature and society.