The current climate and energy crises have shown that we need new tools for designing measures and strategies for achieving a more sustainable future. Scholars have claimed that for designing transition pathways towards sustainability, the understanding of tipping points is crucial. Tipping points (TPs) are defined as “the point where a small intervention leads to a large and long-term consequence for the evolution of a complex system, profoundly altering its mode of operation”. When surpassing a tipping point, both the structure and the dynamics of the system change, and strongly reinforcing feedback loops emerge, which can amplify a small change, accelerating the transition towards a difficult-to-revert new system state.
There is a need for (i) further developing the theoretical background; (ii) developing tools for measuring and simulating TPs; and (iii) empirical examples on how to anticipate and foster positive tipping dynamics in complex sustainability contexts.
This workshop aims to reflect on and foster ongoing research on TPs in socio-ecological-technical systems and further develop a research agenda. The following topics will be addressed:
09:15 |
Coffee |
9:30 |
Introduction of participants Workshop goals / expectations |
10:00 |
Session 1 Floor Alkemade: Social tipping versus socio-technical transitions Van der Ploeg: Political, technological and climate tipping points (online) Bart de Bruin: Different ways to model tipping dynamics Sibel Eker: Tipping points in global systems modeling |
12:30 | Lunch Break |
13:30 |
Session 2 Fabian Dablander: Social movements for social tipping Claudia R. Binder: Conceptualising interventions towards social tipping Jan W. Bolderdijk: A method to experimentally test tipping Vitor V. Vasconcelos: Scale, Heterogeneity, and Leverage Points |
15:30 |
Coffee Break |
16:00 | Conclusion and next steps |
This is an invitation-only event.