Suchergebnisse

The complex and multidimensional nature of coastal erosion risks makes it necessary to move away from single‐perspective assessment and management methods that have conventionally predominated in coastal management. This article explores the suitability of participatory multicriteria analysis (MCA) for improving the integration of diverse expertises and values and enhancing the social‐ecological robustness of the processes that lead to the definition of relevant policy options to deal with those risks. We test this approach in the Mediterranean coastal locality of Lido de Sète in France. Results show that the more adaptive alternatives such as "retreating the shoreline" were preferred by our selected stakeholders to those corresponding to "protecting the shoreline" and the business as usual proposals traditionally put forward by experts and policymakers on these matters. Participative MCA contributed to represent coastal multidimensionality, elicit and integrate different views and preferences, facilitated knowledge exchange, and allowed highlighting existing uncertainties.

El cultivo y la comercialización de Organismos Agrícolas Modificados Genéticamente (0MG) es origen de multitud de importantes polémicas sociales, económicos y ecológicas, en cuya resolución a menudo se reclama la incorporación del principio y de prácticas de precaución. Este artículo introduce y analiza algunas de estas discusiones a partir de la perspectiva aportada por el proyecto europeo Precautionary Expertise for GM Crops (PEG) sobre la aplicación de la precaución en el desarrollo y la comercialización de OMG agrícolas. A partir del material recogido en el caso español, los autores argumentan que gran parte de los desacuerdos que surgen de en la interpretación y aplicación de la precaución con relación a los OMG derivan de la adopción de una perspectiva más o menos reduccionista, o más o menos sistémica, tanto en la evaluación y regulación de los riesgos como en la bondad, los costes o los beneficios de su utilización. Por ello es posible detectar analíticamente, paro el caso español, una clara oposición entre aquellas interpretaciones de la precaución caso por caso, de aquellas que sostienen la necesidad de aplicar prácticas de evaluación y de gestión basadas en una precaución sistémica, más cercano a los principios y los postulados políticos de la sostenibilidad. ; The debate over GMO crops and their commercialisation becomes the source of a large number of conflicts with important social, economic and ecologic consequences the resolution of which often calls for the application of a precautionary approach and of the precautionary principle. This article introduces and analyses such discussions, and does so within the framework provided by the EU project Precautionary Expertise for GM (PEG). Based on first material gathered for the Spanish case study, the authors argue that a large majority of the disagreements around practical application of precaution which is to a different degree more or less reductionist or systemic while assessing risks or benefits of their use. Thus, analytically, is it possible to observe a rather clear-cut division between those discourses, interpretations and practices which promote a case by case kind of precaution against those who orient their discourses and practices on the basis of a systemic precaution, closer to the conceptual and political framework of sustainability

Chapter 1. The Tipping+ Project Journey -- Chapter 2. Tipping Points Emerge in the Interaction Between Narrative and Reality -- Chapter 3. Tipping Points: Deep Roots and Contemporary Challenges in Psychology -- Chapter 4. Transformations, Agency and Positive Tipping Points: a Resilience-based Approach -- Chapter 5. Principles for a Case Study Approach to Social Tipping Points -- Chapter 6. Post-war Development Energy Scenarios for Ukraine -- Chapter 7. Exploring Transition in Coal- and Carbon-intensive Regions Through an Interdisciplinary Lens -- Chapter 8. Social Tipping Processes in the Transformation of Civitavecchia's Socio-energy System -- Chapter 9. Realizing Alternative Energy Futures: From the Promise of a Petroleum Future to Imagining Lofoten as the Green Islands -- Chapter 10. Exploring the Role of Identities and Perceptions of the Future in a Post-coal Mining Region. The Demolition of Andorra Coal-fired Cooling Towers (Spain) as a Tipping Point -- Chapter 11. Narrative-network Dynamics in Tipping Processes Towards Low-carbon Energy Futures: the Case of Indonesia -- Chapter 12. Situated Knowledge and Energy Transformations: a Socioanthropological Exploration -- Chapter 13. Tipping Away From Coal?: Exploring Narratives and Tipping Dynamics in the Phaseout of Coal on Svalbard -- Chapter 14. Confronting Local and Global Tipping Narratives: Green Energy Development in the Arctic and Why Greenland is Not for Sale -- Chapter 15. Assessing Macroeconomic Effects of a Carbon Tax as a Tipping Intervention in Economies Undergoing Coal Phase-out: the Cases of Poland and Greece -- Chapter 16. Transformative Emergence. Research Challenges for Enabling Social-ecological Tipping Points Toward Regional Sustainability Transformations.

This open access book provides the first comprehensive review of the state of the art of social tipping points applied to energy systems from a social interdisciplinary perspective. It does so by presenting a novel theory of systemic and transformative change, linking it to empirical cases assisted with relevant assessment methodologies, including modeling. The authors unveil the narratives and visions, the transformative capacities as well as deliberate strategies and collective actions that at one point in time have been able - or were prevented - to tip a given social-ecological system towards low-carbon, sustainable trajectories in diverse high-intensive carbon regions around the world. This volume shows that self-reinforcing learning feedbacks connecting transformative solutions and strategies across scales and domains can be induced by targeted policy interventions both in local and regional contexts. It further indicates how changes in behavioral patterns, supported by good governance of disruptive technologies, carbon (dis)investment and finance processes as well as new forms of civic engagement, can create the necessary transformative enabling conditions for the emergence of positive tipping points towards low-carbon sustainable futures. The book is a must-read for students, researchers, and scholars, as well as policy-makers and practitioners interested in a better understanding of sustainability, climate, and energy issues and in assessing the potential impacts and effectiveness of strategic interventions aimed at accelerating just sustainable decarbonization processes.

In this paper we analyse the role played by cross-border organisations in the Guadiana river basin in Iberia, and the extent to which new emerging institutional arrangements carry on adaptive management practice as a response to mounting climate change risks in the river basin. Particular attention is paid to the new transboundary agencies, as promoted by the EU INTERREG programmes, and their potential for mainstreaming climate change considerations into Guadiana river basin development strategies. Results indicate that the penetration of climate change concerns into regional development policies requires a better integration of different policies and improved connectivity and coordination between multiple actors operating across sectors, and at different spatial scales. We argue that the emergence of new transboundary agencies capable of performing these bridging functions is a vital ingredient for building climate adaptive capacity in these cross-border regions.

We present and analyze 10 case studies of participatory river-basin management that were conducted as part of the European HarmoniCOP project. The main theme was social learning, which emphasizes the importance of collaboration, organization, and learning. The case studies show that social learning in river-basin management is not an unrealistic ideal. Resistance to social learning was encountered, but many instances of social learning were found, and several positive results were identified. Moreover, 71 factors fostering or hindering social learning were identified; these could be grouped into eight themes: the role of stakeholder involvement, politics and institutions, opportunities for interaction, motivation and skills of leaders and facilitators, openness and transparency, representativeness, framing and reframing, and adequate resources. Promising topics for further research include the facilitation of the social learning processes, the role of power, and interactions in political and institutional contexts.