Publications

The GRIN Meeting: A ‘third place’ for managers and scholars of social-ecological systems

The Garden Route Interface and Networking (GRIN) Meeting was initiated in 2017 with the aim of creating a third place for dialogue on, and advancement of, research and practice dealing with the interactions between natural and social systems, and with how those interactions affect the challenge of sustainability. Held in the Garden Route over 3 days during September–October of each year

Exploring resilience capacities with food innovators: a narrative approach

We interviewed grassroots food innovators in South Africa to explore the diverse ways in which their narratives expressed different capacities for resilience, such as dealing with surprise and shaping desirable change. We drew on key resilience themes of rootedness, resourcefulness and resistance (the 3Rs) as lenses through which to view their personal stories and efforts to build resilience and reshape the future. We used narrative and interpretative methods to connect the personal and context-specific experiences of food innovators to the 3Rs, exploring a new approach to uncovering resilience capacities. We suggest that this approach could be usefully employed to understand potential resilience capacities that could help address diverse sustainability challenges around the world.

Systems approaches to food and nutrition security and urban resilience: Lessons from Cape Town, South Africa and Kumasi, Ghana

As part of the Inclusive Metabolism project, researchers and city officials from Cape Town, South Africa, and Kumasi, Ghana, shared their perspectives on how improving food systems can have wider socio- economic benefits for society, building resilience to shocks. Important approaches included adopting a food-water-energy nexus approach and embracing the value of informality to build resilience in city food systems.

Scenarios for Just and Sustainable Futures in the Miombo Woodlands

Drawing on data and information from numerous studies conducted in the last 20 years, the book presents a comparative analysis of policy changes and management experiences in the countries concerned.

Imagining transformative biodiversity futures

Biodiversity research is replete with scientific studies depicting future trajectories of decline that have failed to mobilize transformative change. Imagination and creativity can foster new ways to address longstanding problems to create better futures for people and the planet.

The relevance of ecosystem services to land reform policies: Insights from South Africa

In this perspectives paper, we highlight why land reform programmes could benefit from considering ecosystem services in their planning processes, to better achieve their goals of socioeconomic development and equity.

Social capital reduces vulnerability in rural coastal communities of Solomon Islands

This study seeks to measure attributes of social capital in five marine dependent communities of Solomon Islands.

The Ocean Transition: What to Learn from System Transitions

This paper proceeds from the assumption that the ocean is a commons. The problem this paper seeks
to address is the complex challenge of governing the ocean as a commons. Governance systems since the
dawn of modernity have evolved to govern city-states nation-states and international relations. But the
transformations to sustainability require governing interlinkages and interactions that have not previously
existed across sectors, and scales with multiple actors.

TRANSFORMATIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE for Development of a Wellbeing Economy in Africa

African countries face unprecedented challenges of defining a future development pathway in a resource- and carbon-constrained world. This book addresses this challenge, with special reference to the set of infrastructure that most African countries require to meet the sustainable development goals and fulfil the aspirations of Agenda 2063. Infrastructure is a key factor that determines how resource and energy flow and transform through socio-economic systems.

Decisions made today by African countries on their infrastructural configuration will determine the inclusivity, resource intensity and climate resilience of their development pathways for decades to come. This book is a product of a two‑year research conducted by a group of African scholars who have an extensive academic and practical experience on the development of key infrastructure sectors in Africa.

Towards nature-based resilience in infrastructure development and assessment

Infrastructure is critical to Africa’s development and its ability to address poverty. Achieving Africa’s development aspirations hinges on ensuring equitable access, not only to basic infrastructure such as water and sanitation systems, new electricity lines, roads and storm water drainage; but also to enhanced access to telecommunications and modern agricultural technologies for food security.

Exploring resilience through the stories of food innovators in the Western Cape, South Africa

This book explores ‘storymaking’ as a way of unpacking some of the different capacities that social innovators in the food system of the Western Cape, South Africa, are drawing on in their efforts towards resilience.

Impacts of a trophy hunting ban on private land conservation in South African biodiversity hotspots

In southern Africa, where many PLCAs rely on trophy hunting as an income-generating strategy, a
potential ban on trophy hunting locally or abroad holds unknown consequences
for the future conservation of these lands. In this study, we investigate the consequences of a potential trophy hunting ban in private land conservation areas in two biodiversity hotspots in South Africa’s Eastern and Western Cape provinces.

Advancing understanding of natural resource governance: a post-Ostrom research agenda

In our current context of global environmental change, the need for effective institutions (i.e., formal laws, rules, norms and customs) to moderate human impacts, through environmental governance and management, has never been greater.

Adopting process-relational perspectives to tackle the challenges of socialecological systems research

In this paper, we demonstrate that adopting a process relational perspective, which focuses on nonequilibrium dynamics and relations between processes, provides novel opportunities to advance SES research.

Using A Social‐ecological Regime Shift Approach to Understand the Transition from Livestock to Game Farming in the Eastern Cape, South Africa

This study explored the shift in land use from livestock farming to game farming in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, from a social‐ecological regime shift perspective.