Tipping Points and Pathways for Accelerating Sustainability Transitions (TiP_fAST)

Goals of the thematic group

The urgency of achieving ambitious global sustainable development goals has brought increased attention to the substantive interventions required from policy, finance, the business sector and civil society. A critical question arises: how can we identify and enable opportunities to accelerate sustainable transitions at the required pace and scale?

The aim of this new STRN thematic group, Tipping Points and Pathways for Accelerating Sustainability Transitions (TiP_fAST), is to foster both theoretically and empirically informed debates on this question. This includes exploring potential social tipping points, thresholds, feedback loops, system intervention points, policy leverage points, and other system-based approaches that enhance our understanding of accelerating sustainability transitions and the potential pathways forward.

Empirical evidence suggests that some systems, such as energy and mobility, are beginning to accelerate toward economic and technological transformation. This raises broader questions about how to tip these systems towards wider societal sustainable transformation. Addressing these challenges requires inter-communities research dialogues.

The thematic group will foster dialogue between transition scholars and experts in social-ecological studies, climate science, political science, system modelling, and social science. Our overarching goal is to advance theoretical perspectives, expand our understanding of social-technical and socio-ecological system dynamics, develop methodological tools to measure system change, and collect empirical evidence to inform decision making and interventions for transformative change.

The thematic group will foster dialogue on emerging research topics, including but not limited to:

o Advancing Theoretical Perspectives:

Current studies on tipping points have advanced our understanding of critical intervention points within changes in social, technological, political, economic and ecological systems, highlighting opportunities for substantial, potentially irreversible shifts toward sustainability. These studies can inform the sustainability transitions community on accelerating complex systems dynamics by identifying sensitive intervention points, understanding tipping dynamics, policy feedbacks, enabling conditions, and cross-system interactions.

However, important research questions remain, such as questions of directionality and reversibility/ irreversibility, what sustainable future we are accelerating towards, how acceleration can be understood in a multi-dimensional, systemic way? What is the interplay between accelerating certain activities and slowing others? What are the negative repercussions of acceleration in terms of backlash and unintended consequences? Who decides what is accelerated and how?

The group will explore and integrate tipping point studies with sustainability transitions research to explore these questions.

o Methodological tools development:

To explore what indicators, both quantitative and qualitative, to identify tipping points in socio-technical systems. Key areas of focus include developing early warning signals for negative social tipping points and early opportunity indicators for positive tipping points. These tools will leverage

systems thinking, modelling, and scenario research to assess whether we are approaching a tipping point or acceleration.

o Empirical Exploration:

To conduct comparative analyses of historical and contemporary examples to explore tipping points, and the roles they have played in accelerating transitions.

o Policy and Practical Insights:

To identify actionable insights and policy recommendations that can leverage sensitive tipping points and policy feedbacks to accelerate sustainability transitions. This will involve examining how policymakers and practitioners can influence socio-technical system changes through regulation, innovation, and cultural shifts.

This thematic group will facilitate scholarly exchange through various activities, including:

o Organising sessions at international conferences.

o Hosting focused workshops and webinars.

o Fostering cross-disciplinary collaborations.

o Engaging with practitioners to bring research and practice. We invite anyone interested to contribute. If you are interested, please get in touch with, Kejia Yang, Philip Johnstone, Steve Smith, Tom Powell, Floor Alkemade. To join the mailing list, please email tipping.fast@gmail.com.

By fostering dialogue and collaboration across disciplines, we aim to develop the theoretical and methodological tools necessary to guide transformative change in socio-technical and socio-ecological systems.