Videos

At an ‘Anthropocene Visioning Workshop’ hosted by the CST in November 2016, a diverse group of key thinkers in southern Africa − including artists, social entrepreneurs, researchers, and policy-makers, was [...]

This promo outlines the short course “Narrative-Based Transdisciplinary Research” on offer at The Sustainability Institute.

At an ‘Anthropocene Visioning Workshop’ hosted by the CST in November 2016, a diverse group of key thinkers in southern Africa − including artists, social entrepreneurs, researchers, and policy-makers, was [...]

At an ‘Anthropocene Visioning Workshop’ hosted by the CST in November 2016, a diverse group of key thinkers in southern Africa − including artists, social entrepreneurs, researchers, and policy-makers, was [...]

Trans-disciplinary Research Methodology using the Sensemaker tool.

The Learning Journey undertaken along the Stellenbosch River with the Stellenbosch River Collaborative. This was a key methodology used to connect the conceptual work with practice.

The resilience Action Dialogue was convened by the Centre for Complex Systems in Transition (CST) as a way to deepen understanding about the concept of resilience and its application in [...]

In order to help us understand what it is to build resilience, Ailsa Holloway from the Research Alliance for Disaster and Risk Reduction or RADAR (http://www.radar.org.za) identifies regional and global [...]

Dr Belinda Reyers from the Guidance for Resilience in the Anthropocene (GRAID) reflects on the challenges of working with the concept of resilience and bringing it from theory into practice.

Using the method of a World Café, a number of experiences of working with resilience were shared from practitioners from across southern and East Africa.

Professor Oonsie Biggs cautions about the dangers of building resilience in social-ecological systems that may potentially worsen the situation. Elsewhere she argues that Improving our ability to manage complex, rapidly [...]

Dr Rika Preiser presents the concept of complex adaptive systems and uses it to question traditional ways of thinking and working. In essence, she emphasises the opportunities of leading the [...]

On why scenario planning is a powerful tool to study complexity

On 4 November 2019 the Centre for Complex Systems in Transition http://www0.sun.ac.za/cst/, together with the Association of Professional Futurists https://www.apf.org/?, hosted an APF Africa regional gathering / Anthropocene Dialogue with world renowned [...]

After a two year long process of transdisciplinary research design, data collection and sense making, the researchers, academics and community change makers gathered to return the stories they had collected.

The second Resilience Action Dialogue (RADII) provided an opportunity for various actors- from research, policy and practice- to share how they have used resilience thinking to understand complex challenges in [...]

During our second Resilience Action Dialogue we explored ways to get a deeper understanding of some of the root causes of the challenges that we are facing in order to [...]

During the second Resilience Action Dialogue we shared perspectives on how to measure and monitor multiple dimensions of resilience through various resilience building activities that are being implemented across Africa. [...]

Over the years the Centre for Complex Systems in Transition (CST) has brought together a range of actors from research, policy and practice to explore how using a resilience lens [...]

The concept of resilience has recently become much more central to many donor calls and several government policies and strategies.

The Resilience Think Tank provided an opportunity to share and appreciate varying understandings (both positive and negative) of this concept from both a theoretical/academic and more practical perspective. In this [...]

While there have been shifts in the understanding of resilience over the past decade, there is still much debate, contestation and lack of clarity on what the term means, for [...]

Professor Gael Giraud is the Chief Economist of Agency Française de Développement (French Development Bank), a Professor at Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées (ENPC)/LISIS, Senior Researcher at CNRS, Professor [...]

In South and Southern African, more than half of the young people are ensnared in a complex and intractable unemployment crisis that is being driven, in part, by a transition [...]

Contemporary definitions of the notion of resilience highlights the fact that resilience is the capacity of a system, be it an individual, a forest, a city or an economy, to [...]

This series brings together scientists, practitioners and societal actors who use the frameworks of complexity and resilience thinking in their daily work to make sense of the complex dynamics of change and [...]

Callaghan and Swilling share their insights on the potential to build back better as we explore post-Covid economic realities.   

What are the impacts of Covid-19 and the resultant restrictions on tourism on the SA’s wildlife economy?

How can the COVID-19 crisis be used as an opportunity for building more resilient futures? An exploration of what we understand by resilience, how systemic resilience can be built, and [...]

How can we revive the relationships that mark our nature-culture-interactions? What methods and practices can be used to manifest that awareness?

This discussion focused on how the impacts of the Covid-19 public health crisis has revealed the deep fragility of the South African food system. There has clearly been a disruption, presenting a [...]

A discussion on trans-boundary governance responses to the impacts of the Covid-19 crisis. The discussants are experts in a diversity of capacities that relate to governing conservation, livelihood and human [...]

An exploration of the role of urban nature-based solutions in enhancing human well-being and resilience to climate change and other stressors in cities of the Global South. We reflect on lessons [...]

Mark Swilling and Tanya Brodie Rudolph from the CST and Philile Mbatha from UCT worked in collaboration with researchers from the Natural Capital Project, Stanford University, the Stockholm Resilience Centre, [...]

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 [...]

In this webinar the discussants present work on the sustainability and climate breakdown that highlights an ‘interregnum’ – the tense, uncertain period where old systems are dying but hold firmly to [...]

While the dominant discourse on African entrepreneurship is about achieving momentum (sustained traction) and maturity (local intensity and density), there are emerging views that locals have a poor sense of [...]

Namibia faces very complex challenges hindering sustainable development. Poverty and income inequality  is rising coupled with other systematic issues such as water scarcity worsening with persistent droughts, land degradation and [...]

We live in the Anthropocene, a new geological era where the increasing scale, speed and connectivity of human activities are profoundly changing the functioning of the Earth. The economic, political [...]

Roberto Poli (PhD Utrecht) is Associate Professor of Philosophy of Science at the University of Trento (Italy) where he is Director of the master in “Previsione sociale” (Social Foresight) of [...]

Mark Swilling is Distinguished Professor of Sustainable Development in the School of Public Leadership, Stellenbosch University where he is also Academic Director of the Sustainability Institute and Co-Director of CST. He [...]

Brian Arthur is an economist and complexity thinker.He is best known for his work on network effects locking markets in to the domination of a single player. He is also one [...]

Jannie Hofmeyr is co-founder of the CST and emeritus professor of biochemistry and biocomplexity at Stellenbosch University. Over the past 35 years, he has conducted his research in the field of [...]

Jean Boulton is author of the best-selling book “Embracing Complexity: strategic perspectives for an age of turbulence” (2015). She is affiliated to both Bath and Cranfield universities. Her background in theoretical [...]

In this dialogue, Dr Jean Boulton (Department of Social and Policy Sciences at the University of Bath), lead author of Embracing Complexity, is in conversation with Prof Belinda Reyers (GRAID, [...]

In the exponential world in which we live, highly interconnected and impacted by many exponentialities (technological, societal, climat, geopolitical), we need to create our future, rather than try to control or [...]

In this webinar, Dr Mamohloding Tlhagale presents what new opportunities there are for promoting international collaboration in water and sanitation research, development and innovation. One of these is the newly [...]

Despite recognising the fluid, negotiated and complex nature of reality, there is still a propensity to overly rely on rigid and reductionist theories for sustainable development planning and practice. Although [...]

In this session, we reflect on more than fifteen years of Samual Njenga’s journey as a student of systems thinking. A key part of that journey has been a quest [...]

Recent evidence shows that better governance practices are helping to improve the overall performance of megaprojects. Despite the United Nations setting 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) to be achieved by [...]

Forty years after the mass famines of Ethiopia, conflict in the region has reemerged in the news. On November 4th 2020, the national government stationed its military in the northern [...]

Acknowledging the complex and adaptive nature of living systems, sustainability research calls for a more integrated approach for studying and engaging with the intertwined nature of human–environment relations. Complex adaptive [...]

This webinar focuses on lessons learnt from EDP practice, drawing on the example of the Western Cape Government Whole of Society Approach Project, to unpack the opportunities for, and challenges [...]

The presentation is based on the findings of the USAID funded Resilient Waters Program project assessing the impacts of Cyclone Idai  in Mozambique and Zimbabwe and possibilities to strengthen community resilience.

In this webinar, the coordinating team from CST and Brazil share reflections on the Youth Nature Futures project, as well as showcasing the wonderful and inspiring artworks that embody youth [...]

Make the Liebeek Matter is a campaign pitted against Amazon setting up headquarters on a unique heritage and ecologically sensitive riverine area along the Liesbeek River. Tauriq and Leslie are leaders [...]

Anticipatory governance is built on the understanding that complexity and uncertainty cannot be managed but can be better navigated through a systems approach that combines capacities for forecasting and foresighting, [...]

The Age of Sustainability: Just Transitions in a Complex World provides an interpretation of the global economic and ecological crisis from a distinct African perspective. Drawing on a relational epistemology and [...]

The Age of Sustainability: Just Transitions in a Complex World provides an interpretation of the global economic and ecological crisis from a distinct African perspective. Mark Swilling shares on Chapter 2: Ukama: [...]

In 2019, the Russia-Africa Summit heralded Russia’s renewed strategic interest in the continent, inviting African countries to rethink the global power dynamic. This discussion looks at: the key factors that [...]

Ukraine is among the top 5 world food exporters, with exports from Ukraine to African countries in 2021 amounting to USD 2 327 million – 13% of total exports of agricultural [...]

The prospects of a third world war, the potential use of nuclear weapons, the humanitarian crisis, and the unprecedented sanctions introduced by different governments raise significant challenges and opportunities to [...]

In this video, Dr Selomane discusses his co-authoring of a special issue in Science. Without rapid changes to agriculture and food systems, the goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate [...]

The IPBES values assessment provides guidance to navigate pathways for reconciling a good quality of life with that of life on Earth and advancing the intertwined economic, social and environmental [...]

On the 3rd of June it was 100 days since Russia invaded Ukraine. In response the CST and SAIIA are launching a series of webinars focusing on the implications of [...]

This session was presented by the coordinators of the Departmental Ethics Screening Committee (DESC) for the Centre for Sustainability Transitions (CST) and is dedicated to an overview of the ethics [...]

Glenda Eoyang works with public and private organizations to help them thrive in the face of overwhelming complexity and uncertainty. She is a pioneer in the applications of complexity science [...]