Writings

Research and writing in Sustainability Science. 

‘Raising the temperature’: the arts in a warming planet

Diego Galafassi, Sacha Kagan, Manjana Milkoreit, María Heras, Chantal Bilodeau, Sadhbh Juarez Bourke, Andrew Merrie, Leonie Guerrero, Guðrún Pétursdóttir, Joan David Tàbara (2018)

Published in the Journal Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, Special Issue Sustainability governance and transformation 2018, edited by Bronwyn Hayward and Linda Sygna.

The search for decisive actions to remain below 1.5 °C of global temperature rise will require profound cultural transformations. We have synthesized a range of literatures to draw out the perceived role of the arts in fostering climate transformations. 

Read summary at Stockholm Resilience Centre webpage

Stories in social-ecological knowledge cocreation

Diego Galafassi, Tim M. Daw, Matilda Thyresson, Sergio Rosendo, Tomas Chaigneau, Salomão Bandeira, Lydiah Munyi, Ida Gabrielsson and Katrina Brown 9 (2018)

Published in the Journal Ecology and Society.

This research paper shows the importance of listening to and telling stories rooted in people’s lived experiences to enable transformations to sustainability. It draws on a series of participatory workshops in Kenya and Mozambique the authors conclude that it is difficult but crucial to challenge dominant narratives 

Read summary at Stockholm Resilience Centre webpage

Evaluating taboo trade-offs in ecosystems services and human well-being

Tim M. Daw, Sarah Coulthard, William W. L. Cheung, Katrina Brown, Caroline Abunge, Diego Galafassi, Garry D. Peterson, Tim R. McClanahan, Johnstone O. Omukoto and Lydiah Munyi (2015)

Published in the Journal PNAS

We identified a diversity of apparent trade-offs in a small-scale tropical fishery when ecological simulations were integrated with participatory assessments of social–ecological system structure and stakeholders’ well-being.

Learning about social-ecological trade-offs

Diego Galafassi, Tim M. Daw, Lydiah Munyi, Katrina Brown, Cecile Barnaud and Ioan Fazey (2017)

Published in the Journal Ecology & Society

We outline the challenges associated with addressing trade-offs and analyze knowledge coproduction as a practice that may contribute to tackling trade-offs in social-ecological systems. We discuss this through a case study in coastal Kenya in which an iterative knowledge coproduction process was facilitated to reveal social-ecological trade-offs in the face of ecological and socioeconomic change.

Read summary on Stockholm Resilience Centre's website

Trade-Offs in Pastoral Governance in Norway: Challenges for Biodiversity and Adaptation

Risvoll, C., Gunn Elin Fedreheim, and Diego Galafassi, (2016)

Published in the Journal Pastoralism

• Study looks at trade-offs from a policy objective agreed in 2011 to ensure both sustainable carnivore populations and active and viable pastoral communities

• Decentralization has backfired because of tension between parties

• We suggest a more open acknowledgement of the trade-offs to create more innovative encounters and solutions

Read summary on Stockholm Resilience Centre's website