Event
Lebo Talk: System Transitions and Political Will: Positioning SSG in the New Reality
At DSS, our dynamic academic community is at the forefront of researching transitions in socio-technical systems. This interdisciplinary field draws on innovation studies, science and technology studies, sociology, integrated assessment modeling, governance, political science, business and management, and consumption studies, among others.
The central challenge of our time is how to make development sustainable , and ultimately, this challenges are political, involving complex struggles of different pathways and what interventions can bend those paths toward sustainability.
On June 19th, Femke Wiersma, the elected Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security, and Nature, stated in her letter of motivation to the Standing Committee for Agriculture, Nature, and Food Quality (soon to be renamed Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security, and Nature):
“Agriculture is always evolving. It looks completely different now than it did 100 years ago, and in a hundred years, it will change again. I want to emphasize that this is not a 'transition,' which implies a value judgment, but rather a continuous development.”
Given Prof. Leeuwis extensive research background in socio-technical innovation and transformation processes, we would like to reflect with him and you on the current political and systemic challenges of system transitions in our upcoming Lebo Talk.