Publications

The Southern African Program on Ecosystem Change and Society: an emergent community of practice

This paper reflects on experiences in building the SAPECS community, with the aim of supporting the development of similar networks elsewhere in the world, particularly in the Global South.

Assessment Report on Diverse Values and Valuation of Nature

Decisions based on narrow set of market values of nature underpin the current global biodiversity crisis. 

Many opportunities exist to embed the diverse values of nature into decision making for navigating towards more just and sustainable futures.

Managing biodiversity in the Anthropocene: discussing the Nature Futures Framework as a tool for adaptive decision‐making for nature under climate change

This article discusses how conservation approaches to social-ecological systems have historically prioritised preserving nature for its instrumental societal benefits, neglecting the complex relationship between humans and nature and the impact of climate change. The Nature Futures Framework (NFF) offers an alternative perspective, which emphasises the diverse positive values of nature and its contribution to people.

How can diverse national food and land‐use priorities be reconciled with global sustainability targets? Lessons from the FABLE initiative

How can countries satisfy their demands while jointly delivering the required transformative change to achieve global sustainability targets? Here, we present a collaborative approach developed with the FABLE—Food, Agriculture, Biodiversity, Land, and Energy—Consortium to reconcile both global and national elements for developing national food and land-use system pathways.

Insights for food systems transformation from southern Africa Outcomes of the Southern African Resilience Academy

This insights brief presents key themes and recommendations that emerged from the SARA activities and discussions that were convened over the course of 2021 in order to explore ways of addressing barriers and unlocking key actions to transform food systems in southern Africa.

Insights for food systems transformation from southern Africa: Overview of southern African context

This report contextualises the actions of the Southern African Resilience Academy (SARA) in 2021, a year covering many pivotal events towards food systems transformation.

Leveraging the potential of wild food for healthy, sustainable, and equitable local food systems: learning from a transformation lab in the Western Cape region

Preserving biocultural diversity is central to ensure the nutrition, resilience, and adaptive capacity of indigenous peoples and local communities who collectively maintain the longest ongoing human experiences with the provision of food under environmental change; a core component of global food security.

Climate change and the urgency to transform food systems

Climate change poses one of the greatest threats to human societies, demanding immediate and coordinated actions across all sectors. Food systems are one of the most important contributors to climate change and could compromise efforts to achieve the 2015 Paris Agreement targets. At the same time, food systems themselves will also need to further adapt to climate change impacts.

Using Synergic Methods for Being Methodologically Agile (SM4BMA)

The main goal in this paper is to further develop the notion
of methodological agility at the methodical level.
The need for being methodologically agile is rooted in the
global challenges we are facing today in the context of the
Anthropocene – which has been described as a
new human-induced geological epoch introduced / caused by
the net effect of multiple socio-technical human
actions since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution in the 18th
Century in the global north.

Towards an understanding of corporate (dis)engagement with social justice advocacy

There is increasing focus worldwide on the role of business in society today. Globally, sustainability concerns and shifting value systems are re-shaping expectations of socially responsible business, as seen with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), global corporate initiatives such as the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), and leading standards such as the King IV Report on Corporate Governance

Methodological Agility for Doing Transformative Transdisciplinary Research on Sustainability Transitions in the Context of the Anthropocene

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) call for mobilization across global and local levels, and involves
academic actors and societal agents in an emergency response to the planetary challenges facing us in the context of the Anthropocene. Never before in human history have we been required to mobilize ourselves globally around a common set of goals, whilst facing the consequences of our own human actions on a truly planetary scale.

South Africa’s contested transition to energy democracy

Centre for Complex Systems in Transition: 2015 – 2020

A 5 year review of the history and work of the CST.

The complex challenge of governing food systems: The case of South African food policy

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) reflect a growing global consensus on the need to address sustainability challenges. SDG 2 aims to end hunger, achieve food security, improve nutrition, and promote
sustainable agriculture. This outcome requires change across multiple domains, including health, development, and agriculture. Achieving this goal requires transformative change across the food system and the political will to effect such changes to recognize the integrated nature of food systems. In essence, food governance has to underpin the
ability of present and future generations to meet their food and nutrition needs under extraordinary environmental pressures.

Youth Nature Futures for Southern Africa

To capture visions of nature-futures as imagined by youth from the Global South, the CST facilitated a series of online events in 2021 with youth organizations and networks operating in southern Africa.