The conference will take place from 12th to 14th July 2023 in Sydney, Australia and online.
We offer a transdisciplinary space for scholars, practitioners and artists working on transformations towards sustainability to come together in dialogue and practice. We favor short presentations, long conversations, and practical workshops.
We anticipate including field trips and pre or post conference workshop opportunities. Some conference sessions will be specifically designed to encourage attendance by policy makers and practitioners.
February 22nd 2023: Round 1 submission deadline (primarily in-person focus and early bird)
March 22nd 2023: Round 2 submission deadline (primarily online focus)
The experience of the Transformation Conference has been one of the most inspiring and beautiful moments of my career and my life, and I am very grateful to have had the opportunity. Transformation is more needed than ever. The conference is a great opportunity to promote transformation in science but also to invite people from outside academia that have to face today's challenges.
Paulina Aldunce, Professor, University of Chile
Departamento de Cs. Ambientales y Recursos Naturales Renovables
Conference theme: Partnerships
The sweeping transformations needed to make progress towards sustainability require actors to work in partnership. The importance of partnerships is recognized in the final United Nations Sustainable Development Goal – Goal 17: Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development.
While partnerships are essential to tackle global sustainability challenges, forming and maintaining effective partnerships for transformation is challenging. Actors bring different worldviews, knowledge practices, goals, and narratives to partnerships. They may also enter partnership from very different positions of power. When building partnerships, there are risks of tokenism and colonization.
The Transformations Conference 2023 will explore the role of partnerships in transformative practice. It will look for ways to build partnerships that are more effective, inclusive and transformative. Questions of particular interest include:
How can we co-design processes and co-produce knowledge for sustainability transformations in ways that reflect our collective vision for a sustainable future?
What practices, narratives and structures characterize the most effective transformative partnerships? How does this change with scale, from local place-based engagements to global networks?
What can transformations researchers and practitioners learn from Decoloniality and Indigenous philosophy and practice? How can we decolonize partnerships?
How does diversity of knowledges, perspectives, cultures, disciplines, and narratives contribute to sustainability transformations? How can we build coalitions that respect such diversity, while developing the unified power to deliver purposive sustainability transformations?
How can we build inclusive communities of practice that support transformations researchers and practitioners to be more effective together?
What does leadership mean in the context of partnership? What capacities are needed to lead transformative partnerships?
How should we evaluate partnerships? What makes a partnership transformative
What capacities do researchers and practitioners need to cultivate to be ‘good partners’?
Partners
Transformations 2023 is convened by the Transformations Community and hosted by the Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology Sydney (co-host).
We are seeking conference partners to help accelerate transformative action research:
Financial or in-kind sponsorship of the conference, including scholarships for participants from the Global South. Sponsorship enhances brand visibility and builds meaningful connections with Transformations Community. Please view the sponsorship prospectus here and contact Christopher.Riedy@uts.edu.au for more details.
If you would like to get involved with the conference design or programming, please take this survey. We welcome your input!
Past conferences have attracted thousands of engaged delegates from over 60 countries. The Transformations Conference is the most unique international assembly of transformations thought leaders and practitioners. This is a unique opportunity to:
Connect with the Transformations Community: build transformative relationships with the world’s leading action researchers working at the cutting-edge of sustainability transformations
Gain access to key decision-makers from public, private, and academic sectors
Reach a global audience: increase worldwide awareness of your organisation
Showcase your work, be recognized as a key-supporter of Transformations
Increase capacity for innovation and transformation, accelerating transformative action research towards thriving futures for all
Contribute to Australia’s first international conference on sustainability transformations
Past conferences have attracted thousands of engaged delegates from 65+ countries. The Transformations Conference is the most unique international assemblies of transformations thought leaders and practitioners. Attendees are welcome across sectors and systems. The above illustrates a glimpse of some prior attendees.
