About the lecture
In this lecture prof. Loorbach will explain the concept of sustainability transitions and how it developed over the past decades. He will explain how this perspective can help to identify the patterns and mechanisms of systems changes in society and why we are so far failing to achieve sustainable development. Yes, in general poverty is in decline, more people than ever have access to food, energy and education, but climate change and biodiversity loss are accelerating out of control and socio-economic inequalities and conflicts seem to escalate around the globe. Transition management, an action research approach to influencing transitions, will be presented as an approach for for engaged and entrepreneurial academics (whether in university or beyond) to support transitions to sustainable futures. This approach will be illustrated with examples from Rotterdam’s mobility transitions as well as from transition management for water management in informal settlements in Sub-Aaharan Africa.
About the expert
Derk Loorbach is director of DRIFT and Professor of Socio-economic Transitions at the Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences, both at Erasmus University Rotterdam. Derk is one of the founders of the transition management approach as new form of governance for sustainable development. He has over one hundred publications in this area and has been involved as an action researcher in numerous transition processes with government, business, civil society and science. He is a frequently invited keynote speaker in and outside Europe.