Giuseppe Feola

Societal transformation in response to global environmental change: A review of emerging concepts

Abstract The study of societal transformation in response to environmental change has become established, yet little consensus exists regarding the conceptual basis of transformation. This paper aims to provide structure to the dialog on transformation, and to reflect on the challenges of social research in this area. Concepts of transformation are identified through a literature review, and examined using four analytical criteria. It is found that the term ‘transformation’ is frequently used merely as a metaphor. When transformation is not used as a metaphor, eight concepts are most frequently employed. They differ with respect to (i) system conceptualization, (ii) notions of social consciousness (deliberate/emergent), and (iii) outcome (prescriptive/descriptive). Problem-based research tends to adopt concepts of deliberate transformation with prescriptive outcome, while concepts of emergent transformation with no prescriptive outcome tend to inform descriptive-analytical research. Dialog around the complementarities of different concepts and their empirical testing are priorities for future research.

Normative, systemic and procedural aspects: a review of indicator-based sustainability assessments in agriculture.

Methods for assessing the sustainability of agricultural systems do often not fully (i) take into account the multifunctionality of agriculture, (ii) include multidimensionality, (iii) utilize and implement the assessment knowledge and (iv) identify conflicting goals and trade-offs. This chapter reviews seven recently developed multidisciplinary indicator-based assessment methods with respect to their contribution to these shortcomings. All approaches include (1) normative aspects such as goal setting, (2) systemic aspects such as a specification of scale of analysis and (3) a reproducible structure of the approach. The approaches can be categorized into three typologies: first, top-down farm assessments, which focus on field or farm assessment; second, top-down regional assessments, which assess the on-farm and the regional effects; and third, bottom-up, integrated participatory or transdisciplinary approaches, which focus on a regional scale. Our analysis shows that the bottom-up, integrated participatory or transdisciplinary approaches seem to better overcome the four shortcomings mentioned above.

Mediterranean Agriculture Under Climate Change: Adaptive Capacity, Adaptation, and Ethics

In the coming decades, the Mediterranean region is expected to experience various climate impacts with negative consequences on agricultural systems and which will cause uneven reductions in agricultural production. By and large, the impacts of climate change on Mediterranean agriculture will be heavier for southern areas of the region. This unbalanced distribution of negative impacts underscores the significance and role of ethics in such a context of analysis. Consequently, the aim of this article is to justify and develop an ethical approach to agricultural adaptation in the Mediterranean and to derive the consequent implications for adaptation policy in the region. In particular, we define an index of adaptive capacity for the agricultural systems of the Mediterranean region on whose basis it is possible to group its different sub-regions, and we provide an overview of the suitable adaptation actions and policies for the sub-regions identified. We then vindicate and put forward an ethical approach to agricultural adaptation, highlighting the implications for the Mediterranean region and the limitations of such an ethical framework. Finally, we emphasize the broader potential of ethics for agricultural adaptation policy.

Simulation models in Farming Systems Research: potential and challenges

Integrated simulation models can be useful tools in farming system research. This chapter reviews three commonly used approaches, i.e. linear programming, system dynamics and agent-based models. Applications of each approach are presented and strengths and drawbacks discussed. We argue that, despite some challenges, mainly related to the integration of different approaches, model validation and the representation of human agents, integrated simulation models contribute important insights to the analysis of farming systems. They help unravelling the complex and dynamic interactions and feedbacks among bio-physical, socio-economic, and institutional components across scales and levels in farming systems. In addition, they can provide a platform for integrative research, and can support transdisciplinary research by functioning as learning platforms in participatory processes.

Narratives of Grassroots Innovations: A Comparison of Voluntary Simplicity and the Transition Movement in Italy

Grassroots innovations (GI) are promising examples of deliberate transformation of socio-technical systems towards resilience and sustainability. However, evidence is needed on the factors that limit or enable their success. This paper set out to study how GI use narratives to empower innovation in the face of incumbent socio-technical regimes. Institutional documents were comparatively analysed to assess how the narratives influence the structure, form of action and external interactions of two Italian grassroots networks, Bilanci di Giustizia and Transition Network Italy. The paper finds an internal consistency between narratives and strategies for each of the two networks. The paper also highlights core similarities, but also significant differences in the ethical basis of the two narratives, and in the organisations and strategies. Such differences determine different forms of innovation empowerment and expose the niche to different potentials to transform incumbent regimes, or to the risk of being co-opted by them.

What (science for) adaptation to climate change in Colombian agriculture? A commentary on “A way forward on adaptation to climate change in Colombian agriculture: perspectives towards 2050” by J. Ramirez-Villegas, M. Salazar, A. Jarvis, C. E. Navarro-Valcines

Climate change is putting Colombian agriculture under significant stress and, if no adaptation is made, the latter will be severely impacted during the next decades. Ramirez-Villegas et al. (2012) set out a government-led, top-down, techno-scientific proposal for a way forward by which Colombian agriculture could adapt to climate change. However, this proposal largely overlooks the root causes of vulnerability of Colombian agriculture, and of smallholders in particular. I discuss some of the hidden assumptions underpinning this proposal and of the arguments employed by Ramirez-Villegas et al., based on existing literature on Colombian agriculture and the wider scientific debate on adaptation to climate change. While technical measures may play an important role in the adaptation of Colombian agriculture to climate change, I question whether these actions alone truly represent priority issues, especially for smallholders. I suggest that by i) looking at vulnerability before adaptation, ii) contextualising climate change as one of multiple exposures, and iii) truly putting smallholders at the centre of adaptation, i.e. to learn about and with them, different and perhaps more urgent priorities for action can be identified. Ultimately, I argue that what is at stake is not only a list of adaptation measures but, more importantly, the scientific approach from which priorities for action are identified. In this respect, I propose that transformative rather than technical fix adaptation represents a better approach for Colombian agriculture and smallholders in particular, in the face of climate change.

Simulating Human and Environmental Exposure from Hand-Held Knapsack Pesticide Application: Be-WetSpa-Pest, an Integrative, Spatially Explicit Modeling Approach

This paper presents an integrative and spatially explicit modeling approach for analyzing human and environmental exposure from pesticide application of smallholders in the potato-producing Andean region in Colombia. The modeling approach fulfills the following criteria: (i) it includes environmental and human compartments; (ii) it contains a behavioral decision-making model for estimating the effect of policies on pesticide flows to humans and the environment; (iii) it is spatially explicit; and (iv) it is modular and easily expandable to include additional modules, crops, or technologies. The model was calibrated and validated for the Vereda La Hoya and was used to explore the effect of different policy measures in the region. The model has moderate data requirements and can be adapted relatively easily to other regions in developing countries with similar conditions.

The diffusion of the Transition Network in four European countries

The Transition Network exemplifies the potential of social movements to create spaces of possibility for alternatives to emerge in the interstices of mainstream, neoliberal economies. Yet, little work has been carried out so far on the Transition Network or other grassroots innovations for sustainability in a way that reveals their actual patterns of diffusion. This graphic of the diffusion of the Transition Network visualises its spatial structure and compare diffusion patterns across Italy, France, Great Britain and Germany. The graphics show that the number of transition initiatives in the four countries has steadily increased over the past eight years, but the rate of increase has slowed down in all countries. The maps clearly show that in all four countries the diffusion of the Transition Network has not been spatially even. The graphic suggests that in each country transition initiatives are more likely to emerge in some geographical areas (hotspots) than in others (cold spots). While the existence of a spatial structure of the Transition Network may result from the combination of place-specific factors and diffusion mechanisms, these graphics illustrate the importance of better comprehending where grassroots innovations emerge.

Resilience in the rural Andes: critical dynamics, constraints and emerging opportunities

The Andes present an ideal learning space to draw lessons on existing and emerging resilience challenges and opportunities. Andean people and societies have coevolved with the unique high-mountain contexts in which they live, sometimes in altitudes of more than 3800 m. The high-mountain topography, related altitudinal gradients and geomorphologic heterogeneity create highly diverse microclimatic zones, ecosystems and landscape niches which Andean farmers use in complementary ways to produce crops and raise livestock (Murra 1975; Troll 1968; Stadel 2008; Sietz et al. 2012). In particular, the Andes are the centre of origin of potatoes and a hotspot of agrobiodiversity where Andean farmers manage and maintain a multitude of potato, maize, root and tuber varieties (Zimmerer 1991; De Haan and Juarez 2010). Differing strongly in agro-ecological requirements and stress resistance, this diversity of crops allows farmers to distribute efficiently harvest failure risks caused by local weather extremes, pests and diseases. Complex knowledge systems, social coping mechanisms involving complementarity and reciprocity, such as ayni and minka, and highland–lowland interactions further highlight Andean people’s capacity to prepare for and survive perturbations (Mayer 2002). Although historical achievements including irrigation systems, domestication of cameloids (llama and alpaca) and crop preservation techniques facilitated the development of ancient civilisations in the Andes (Troll 1943; Erickson 1992; Dillehay and Kolata 2004), modern Andean people face serious challenges in achieving food security and wellbeing (CIESIN 2005; Sietz et al. 2011, 2012; FAO 2013; Kok et al. 2016). Compared with the surrounding lowlands, the Andes are more strongly affected by climate variability, which is closely tied to the El Niño Southern Oscillation (Vuille et al. 2000; Garreaud and Aceituno 2001), and climate change as indicated by the widespread melting of glaciers and hydrological changes observed in recent decades (Magrin et al. 2014). In addition, rural Andean communities are often marginalised (Forero and Ezpeleta 2007; Feola et al. 2015) and, as such, excluded from decision-making processes that mainly take place in national capital cities, reflecting widespread rural–urban disparities. Physical remoteness, together with cultural, social, political and economic marginality, often promoted by urban elites, not only results in poor access to information or financial and technical resources; it also leads to limited accessibility to these communities during emergencies caused by natural disasters. Ongoing climate change and economic globalisation will further aggravate existing constraints and inequalities in the future (CAN et al. 2007; Sillmann et al. 2013; Kaenzig and Piguet 2014; Neukom et al. 2015), such that socio-ecological systems in the Andes are likely to face growing challenges at a possibly unprecedented pace (Perez et al. 2010). In addition, the Andes have become ensnared between neoliberal development policies on the one hand and the experiments of autonomous development alternatives on the other. Since the 1970s neoliberal development policies, including trade liberalisation, have been implemented at & Diana Sietz diana.sietz@wur.nl

Adapting Agricultural Water Use to Climate Change in a Post-Soviet Context: Challenges and Opportunities in Southeast Kazakhstan

The convergence of climate change and post-Soviet socio-economic and institutional transformations has been underexplored so far, as have the consequences of such convergence on crop agriculture in Central Asia. This paper provides a place-based analysis of constraints and opportunities for adaptation to climate change, with a specific focus on water use, in two districts in southeast Kazakhstan. Data were collected by 2 multi-stakeholder participatory workshops, 21 semi-structured in-depth interviews, and secondary statistical data. The present-day agricultural system is characterised by enduring Soviet-era management structures, but without state inputs that previously sustained agricultural productivity. Low margins of profitability on many privatised farms mean that attempts to implement integrated water management have produced water users associations unable to maintain and upgrade a deteriorating irrigation infrastructure. Although actors engage in tactical adaptation measures, necessary structural adaptation of the irrigation system remains difficult without significant public or private investments. Market-based water management models have been translated ambiguously to this region, which fails to encourage efficient water use and hinders adaptation to water stress. In addition, a mutual interdependence of informal networks and formal institutions characterises both state governance and everyday life in Kazakhstan. Such interdependence simultaneously facilitates operational and tactical adaptation, but hinders structural adaptation, as informal networks exist as a parallel system that achieves substantive outcomes while perpetuating the inertia and incapacity of the state bureaucracy. This article has relevance for critical understanding of integrated water management in practice and adaptation to climate change in post-Soviet institutional settings more broadly.