Transition to Sustainability Lab

at The King’s University, Edmonton (AB, Canada)

We (re)search doors for the transformation of modern societies to social-ecological sustainability.

Hosted at The King’s University (Edmonton, AB), this Canada Research Chair in Transition to Sustainability (CRC T2S) enquires into the conditions of possibility for social-ecological sustainability in its political, socio-economic, socio-technical and cultural dimensions, asking how such conditions are produced (i.e. governed). Through empirical and theoretical approaches, the CRC T2S Lab engages with all the big questions surrounding sustainability transitions, its drivers and blockers, with a focus on socio-political agency.

Chairholder Dr. Adrian E. Beling focuses not only on the conditions for a successful sustainability transition (in other words, “transition governance”), but also in how governance itself may be transformed as a result of incorporating sustainability imperatives (“governance in transition”)

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What is meant by “sustainability transition”?

IT’S THE SOCIETY, STUPID!

Transformation of a model of social organization that is unsustainable (undermining the socio-ecological conditions for its own reproduction) into one that is sustainable, i.e. one that can be projected into the future and would still work.

SYSTEMS PERSPECTIVE

Sustainability transitions research focuses on functional interrelations among various types of factors (material and immaterial) that influence societal change.

INTER and TRANS-DISCIPLINARITY

Sustainability transitions research emphasizes the importance of combining the rigor of quantitative formal models with the richness of the “sociological imagination” (C. Wright Mills), which in turn requires a backdrop of epistemological pluralism.

The church as a sustainability transition agent in the Amazon?

News and Announcements

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Pope Francis receives Dr. Beling’s book
Pope Francis receives Dr. Beling’s book

Dr’ Beling’s co-edited book “Desarrollo non Sancto”, which discusses the role of religion as an emerging actor in the global debate about the future of the planet, is delivered into Pope Francis’ hands in the context of a meeting with university rectors from Latin-America in September 2023

New publication: ten theses about how the church can help circumvent current lock-ins in the transition to sustainability
New publication: ten theses about how the church can help circumvent current lock-ins in the transition to sustainability

The article “The Catholic Church in Times of Ecological Crisis: An “Unusual Suspect” in Advancing the Transition to Sustainability?” offers a theoretical analysis of the untapped potential of the church to advance the global transition to sustainability, assessing ongoing initiatives in terms of their capacity to bring out that potential. The article is part of the special issue Care for the Poor, Care for the Earth: Christian-Muslim Dialogue on Development, edited by Séverine Deneulin and Masooda Bano.

Two new team members joining the lab this fall!
Two new team members joining the lab this fall!

The CRC T2S Lab would like to formally welcome its two new members, Magdalena Beukes (PHE Major, The King’s University, Edmonton) and Carlie Uglem (Psychology Major, The King’s University, Edmonton) onto the research team!. Their main task will be starting a literature review on social change theories.

Cooperation between academia and religion key to breaking “sustained unsustainability”
Cooperation between academia and religion key to breaking “sustained unsustainability”

Dr. Beling delivering his keynote titled “Rhyming Hope and Knowledge: The Role of Science and the Church as Change Agents Toward a Sustainability Transformation” at the Annual Conference of the Catholic Academic Exchange Service (KAAD) in Bonn, Germany