Why do people working toward similar sustainability goals sometimes end up caught in cycles of blame, helplessness, or over-responsibility? Thomas Bruhn and Man Fang explore this question in their new open-access article, Beyond the Sustainability Drama. Drawing on the psychological idea of the Drama Triangle, they examine how people can…
Hallie Eakin from Arizona State University recently reached out to the Transformations Community to share a new publication emerging from more than 15 years of work with communities and institutional partners in the Río Piedras Watershed in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Navigating Everything, All at Once asks a difficult practical…
On 2 October, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced Canada’s new National Council on Artificial Intelligence, which will advise the government on its AI for All strategy. A coalition of civil society organisations, researchers and community leaders points out that the Council doesn’t appear to include meaningful representation from civil society,…
As 2030 approaches, conversations around the Sustainable Development Goals are increasingly accompanied by another question: what comes next? The Network for Education and Research on Peace and Sustainability (NERPS) is making that question part of its 2027 conference in Jakarta, bringing together researchers, students, and practitioners working across peace, sustainability,…
Different communities understand problems, evidence, futures, and even transformation itself in different ways. What might systemic design look like if that plurality is treated as a starting point rather than something to resolve? That question runs through RSD15: Designing Within a Plural World, organised by the Systemic Design Association. The…
How do we evaluate change when the systems, assumptions, and conditions around us are themselves shifting? That question sits behind the REvaluation Conference 2027, taking place under the theme Scouting Paths on Shifting Maps. The conference is inviting interactive workshop proposals exploring how evaluation may need to change amid uncertainty,…
FSG researchers Abigail Ridgway and Miya Cain began with a practical question: how can foundations best contribute to equitable systems change? Their new report, The Funder’s Palette, draws on more than 125 practitioner interviews and maps the different approaches funders can take through grants, staff capacity, relationships, influence, and organisational…
Geographer Anaïs Zimmer and an international team of researchers have examined how uncertainty could become a catalyst for collaboration and action in mountain regions rather than simply a barrier to decision-making. Drawing on 25 case studies across 18 countries and five continents, the team identifies five priorities for more resilient…
Ioan Fazey, Chino Bayoneta, Bill Sharpe, David Tyfield, and their collaborators have developed a new guide exploring what regenerative dynamics are, why they matter, and how people can recognise and support them in practice. Complementing the previously featured Tools for Regenerative Practice, the guide examines the concepts and patterns underlying…
Tim Daw and an interdisciplinary team of researchers are asking what role citizens’ assemblies and other deliberative minipublics might play in sustainability transformations. Their open-access article explores how bringing diverse groups of citizens together for informed and facilitated deliberation could support learning, public participation, political legitimacy, and more ambitious responses…
Drawing on several decades of experience in sustainability work, Matthew Polsky asks whether success and failure in sustainability transitions are really as separate as they are often assumed to be. In a two-part essay, he examines how false binaries, entrenched mindsets, organisational habits, and simplified ideas of progress can prevent…
Josie Chambers from Utrecht University recently invited the Transformations Community to share the next edition of Transformative Research for Sustainability Challenges, a PhD course examining how research can contribute more directly to just and sustainable futures. Participants will be encouraged to question the assumptions underlying their own research and consider…
