Karen O’Brien is a Professor of Human Geography at the University of Oslo, Norway and co-founder of cCHANGE, a social enterprise that promotes a conscious and collaborative approach to sustainability transformations. Her research focuses on the human and social dimensions of environmental change, particularly climate change. She promotes integrative approaches to sustainability that recognize how beliefs, values, worldviews, and paradigms influence systems change and social change. Karen is committed to understanding and engaging with equitable transformations to a thriving world. She is currently focusing on how to scale transformative change and exploring the potential for quantum social change in both theory and practice. Karen’s recent books include You Matter More Than You Think: Quantum Social Change for a Thriving World and Climate and Society: Transforming the Future (with Robin Leichenko). In 2021 she was co-recipient of the BBVA Foundation’s Frontiers of Knowledge Award for Climate Change. She has recently been co-chair of the International Science-Policy Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) Transformative Change Assessment.
Karen’s recent work includes:
- IPBES. 2024. Transformative Change Assessment Summary for Policymakers.
- O’Brien et al. 2023. Fractal Approaches to Scaling Transformations to Sustainability. Ambio 52, 1448–1461 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-023-01873-w
- Leichenko, R. and K. O’Brien. 2024. Climate and Society: Transforming the Future. Second Edition. Polity Press. (a textbook)
- O’Brien, K. 2021. You Matter More Than You Think: Quantum Social Change for a Thriving World. cCHANGE press.
- Substack Newsletter: Quantum Social Change
Karen’s Call to Action for the Transformations Community:
This is a critical time for transformative change for a just and sustainable world. The recent IPBES assessment is a strong global call to action, so please share the Summary for Policymakers with your wider communities, drawing attention to the Practical User Guidance Annex.
Personally, I’m now focusing my work on scaling transformative change and building a “you matter” movement to generate quantum social change for a thriving world. If you’re interested in learning more about this or the Transformational Leadership for Sustainability program, let’s talk at the TCX-York or TC/ESG25 Conference!
