title: Leverage points for sustainability transformation.
abstract: Despite substantial focus on sustainability issues in both science and politics, humanity remains on largely unsustainable development trajectories. Partly, this is due to the failure of sustainability science to engage with the root causes of unsustainability. Drawing on ideas by Donella Meadows, we argue that many sustainability interventions target highly tangible, but essentially weak, leverage points (i.e. using interventions that are easy, but have limited potential for transformational change). Thus, there is an urgent need to focus on less obvious but potentially far more powerful areas of intervention. We propose a research agenda inspired by systems thinking that focuses on transformational 'sustainability interventions', centred on three realms of leverage: reconnecting people to nature, restructuring institutions and rethinking how knowledge is created and used in pursuit of sustainability. The notion of leverage points has the potential to act as a boundary object for genuinely transformational sustainability science.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Sustainability, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Scharnhorststr.1, 21335, Lüneburg, Germany. abson@uni.leuphana.de.
authors.forename: David J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Abson
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Sustainability, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Scharnhorststr.1, 21335, Lüneburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Joern
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fischer
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Sustainability, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Scharnhorststr.1, 21335, Lüneburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Julia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Leventon
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Sustainability, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Scharnhorststr.1, 21335, Lüneburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Jens
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Newig
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Sustainability, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Scharnhorststr.1, 21335, Lüneburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Schomerus
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Sustainability, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Scharnhorststr.1, 21335, Lüneburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Ulli
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Vilsmaier
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Sustainability, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Scharnhorststr.1, 21335, Lüneburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Henrik
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: von Wehrden
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Sustainability, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Scharnhorststr.1, 21335, Lüneburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Paivi
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Abernethy
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Sustainability, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Scharnhorststr.1, 21335, Lüneburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Christopher D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Ives
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Sustainability, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Scharnhorststr.1, 21335, Lüneburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Nicolas W
authors.initials: NW
authors.lastname: Jager
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Sustainability, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Scharnhorststr.1, 21335, Lüneburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Daniel J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Lang
mesh_terms: D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources / Q000379:methods*; D004463:Ecology / Q000379:methods*; D017753:Ecosystem; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D011340:Problem Solving; D012107:Research Design; D012931:Social Environment
keywords: Human–environment systems; Institutional change; Knowledge creation and use; Social–ecological systems; Sustainability science; Transdisciplinarity