Getting to solutions: moving beyond theory to practical methods to address the complexity of sustainability problems

The implications of more-than-environmental disasters, such as climate change and loss of biodiversity, are becoming increasingly apparent and acute. There is urgent need for solutions that can address both the causes and consequences of social-environmental crises. But often solutions for sustainability problems don’t come easy. They struggle with low proximity (many intervening variables between cause and effect), high multi-causality (many variables operating together to produce the outcome), interactivity (none of the causes alone is sufficient to produce the outcome), and non-linearity (a process exhibiting threshold effects). It is not surprising that these problems get called ‘wicked’.

Describing and explaining sustainability problems is hard in and of itself – but solving them adds yet another layer of wickedness. The recent history of economic and environmental regulations demonstrates that seemingly straightforward solutions using technical fixes, command-control procedures, or generic policies, often fail. The reverse – where solutions are just as complex as the problems they address – doesn’t work either.

Scholars, practitioners, and policymakers are now discovering that solutions to complex sustainability problems require changes in the practice of doing science itself, including a reformulation of theories, methodologies and analysis. These new modes of scientific inquiry include long-term engagement processes that involve real-world experimentation, collective learning, reflection on biases and blind spots, and continuous adaptation to the communities that are affected by both sustainability problems and the solutions to these problems. These modes acknowledge that solutions do not follow logically from data, but crucially depend on interpretations of scientists, as well as other stakeholders in society.

New ways of doing science debunk the implicit science-society contract, where public investment in science will lead to an improved understanding of our world and lead to societal benefits. Instead of a contract scientists and communities now have continuous, ever-evolving dialogues to jointly learn to develop multiple and creative solutions for the complex problems that stand in the way of a sustainable future.

This topical collection is a forum for articles that illustrate ways of doing science with plural views and understandings of both the problems themselves and their tentative solutions. We are interested in experiences from deliberative, joint learning and decision-making and the active translation of science-based knowledge into societal solutions. We would like to see a discussion about the roles scientists and scholars may play in such processes.We look for contributions that are experience-based and argument driven, where arguments are solidly anchored in published research and relevant theoretical/analytical frameworks. We hope to see contributions that evoke new ideas and stimulate debate, or new experimental approaches and practices.

Example articles already published on this theme can be found in the special section of Ambio’s volume 52, issue 9: Getting to solutions

How to submit? Submit your article via Editorial Manager or by clicking on the Submit manuscript button on the home page of Ambio. During submission you will be asked if your manuscript belongs to a special issue. Please select: 'Getting to Solutions (Lin et al.)'. For questions, please use the ‘CONTACT US’ button in the top menu.