Transformations of Social-Ecological Systems

Tetsu Sato is professor emeritus at the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, National Institutes for Humanities, Kyoto, Japan; professor at Ehime University, Matsuyama, Japan; and former project leader of the “Creation and Sustainable Governance of New Commons through Formation of Integrated Local Environmental Knowledge” (ILEK Project). His major research fields are sustainability science and transdisciplinary local environmental studies.Prof. Sato studied the ecology of cichlid fishes of African lakes for 20 years, and expanded his research into adaptive governance of complex social-ecological systems. Throughout his career, including as conservation director of the WWF Japan and professor of Nagano University, he focused on creating knowledge bases for community-based management of natural resources. As the project leader of the ILEK project (from 2012 to 2017), he has explored a transdisciplinary approach to co-produce integrated local environmental knowledge (ILEK) as the knowledge basis for decision making and actions of diverse stakeholders for societal transformations toward sustainability. Since 2017, he has been leading a 3-year research project at Ehime University titled “Transdisciplinary Study of Natural Resource Management Under Poverty Conditions Collaborating with Vulnerable Sectors (TD-VULS project)”, funded by the Research Institute of Science and Technology for Society (RISTEX), Japan Science and Technology Agency. Ilan Chabay is head of Strategic Science Initiatives and Programs and the KLASICA (Knowledge, Learning, and Societal Change International Research Alliance - www.KLASICA.org) project at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) in Potsdam, Germany; and adjunct professor in the School of Sustainability, Arizona State University at the ASU Barrett & O’Connor Center, Washington DC, USA. His major research fields are understanding social dynamics in complexsocial-ecological systems, collective behaviour change, affective expression of narratives of vision and identity for sustainable futures, and creativity and innovation for societal needs.At IASS, where he has been since 2012, Prof. Chabay was co-leader of interdisciplinary research on ecological, social, and economic transformations in the Eurasian Arctic (2013–2016). He has published more than 60 peer-reviewed articles in major journals in social and natural science and holds three patents. He serves on international advisory boards on affordable energy for humanity, environmental systems research, social dimensions of creativity and innovation, and integrated risk governance. He was Helmholtz Alliance ENERGY-TRANS professor at the University of Stuttgart Institute for Social Science (2012–2014), elected honorary member of the Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences, and appointed Hasselblad Professor in sociology and applied IT in Gothenburg and Chalmers Universities, Sweden (2006–2011). He founded the New Curiosity Shop, a workshop in Silicon Valley (1984–2001), where he led design and production of interactive science exhibitions for 230 museums, science centres, and corporations worldwide, including Disney and NASA. He was associate director of the Exploratorium Science Museum, San Francisco (1982–1983), consulting professor of chemistry at Stanford University (1984–1988), and led research on non-linear optical spectroscopy at US NIST (1974–1982) after receiving his Ph.D. in chemical physics from the University of Chicago. Jennifer Helgeson is a research economist in the Applied Economics Office, Engineering Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Maryland, USA. Her major research fields are sustainability and resilience science, collective behavioural change, modeling for valuing and understanding co-benefits of resilience planning, community resilience planning, and socioeconomic survey work. Dr. Helgeson leads the Applied Economics Office at NIST’s work on the economics of community resilience planning. She is primarily interested in economic analyses that consider behavioural aspects and approaches to dealing with environmental issues. In the past, she was a researcher at the Centre for International Climate and Environmental Research, Norway, and a climate adaptation specialist at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), France.She holds an M.Sc. degree in environmental change and management from the University of Oxford. She received her Ph.D. from the London School of Economics. She was the recipient of a Fulbright grant to Norway, where she studied the socioeconomics of transboundary reindeer herding. Dr. Helgeson has authored articles, reports, and book chapters related to the importance of recognizing perceptions and heuristics in studying economic and social decisions. She has also designed experiments related to risk perception and resilience that have been applied from rural Uganda to the Northeast USA. Additionally, she has co-edited a previous book on land restoration practices.

• 1 Introduction.- PART I Co-producing Knowledge.- 2 Making Meaning of Traditional Agricultural Knowledge: Ground Water Management in Arid Areas of Turkey.- 3 Knowledge and Technologies Born from Livelihoods: Emergence of Sato-umi and Self-harvesting Forestry in Japan.- 4 Drawing Plans of a House that Already Stands: Knowledge systems of the Shiretoko region, a World Heritage Site of Japan.- 5 Community-Based Scallop Restoration: A Model for Knowledge Circulation Theory.- Part II Conceptualizing Values.- 6 Co-creation of Local Values: Reintroduction of Oriental White Storks into the Wild.- 7 Future Visions for Fundamental Livelihoods: Collaborative Actions in the Nishibetsu Watershed in Japan.- 8 Innovation Emerging from Livelihoods: Natural Resource Management in Lake Malawi.- Part III Processes of Mobilization.- 9 Adaptive Process Management: Dynamic Actions Toward Sustainable Societies.- 10 Social Learning Driven by Collaboration in the Canadian Network of UNESCO Biosphere Reserves.-11 Creating Platforms for Capacity Building in Rural Communities: Noto Peninsula, Japan and Ifugao, the Philippines.- 12 Catalysts to Mobilize Local Communities: Conservation of Coral Reef Cultures in Shiraho, Okinawa.-Part IV: Creating Linkages.-13  Certification Schemes Wielded by Producers and Communities.- 14 International Systems Deployed at the Local Level: UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere Programme in Japan.- 15 Coastal Resource Management Connected by Marine Protected Area Networks.- 16 Salmon-Safe Certification in the Pacific Northwest of the United States.- Part V: Supporting Decisions and Actions.- 17 Co-creation, Co-evolution and Co-management of the Japanese Coastal Fisheries: a Toolbox Aproach.- 18 Boundary Organizations and Objects to Support Sustainable Water Management Decision Making in Phoenix, Arizona USA.- 19 Semantic Network Modelling and the Integrated Local Environmental Knowledge Simulator.- 20 Institutional Support for Combining Multiple Knowledge Systems in Planning for Community Resilience to Natural and Anthropogenic Hazards.- 21 Sources and Uses of Knowledge in Co-designing Sustainable Futures in the Arctic.- Part VI Conclusion and Way Forward.- 22 Conclusion and Way Forward.

“The editors make earnest efforts to provide a holistic perspective to students, scientists and policy-makers alike to develop insights into community-based efforts for knowledge production and thereby sustainable transitions of social-ecological systems.” (Priya Priyadarshini and P. C. Abhilash, Tropical Ecology, Vol. 60, 2019)