Gail Hochachka, Wanda Krause
(Canada)
Title of contribution:
Transformations in the Anthropocene
Where & when:
Transformations in the Anthropocene
The need for transformation in addressing today’s global environmental issues is clear (IPBES, 2019; IPCC, 2018). Sustainability requires transformative change, defined as “fundamental, system-wide reorganization across technological, economic and social factors, including paradigms, goals and values” (IPBES, 2019, p. 14). Despite these clarion calls for what is needed, actual transformative action lags far behind. In part, that is because critical questions remain on: how to facilitate transformative change (Fazey et al., 2018; O’Brien, 2018) as well as how to assess for whether and to what extent transformation has occurred (Salomaa & Juhola, 2020). These two questions operate synergistically: as we seek to assess transformation, we also require learning about how to facilitate it more broadly. In this presentation, we draw on innovative examples to explore the broad contours of an integral assessment for sustainability transformations across four dimensions (experience, behaviour, culture and systems) using their own paradigms and validity claims. Participants will leave with a transformation assessment template for their own lives, as well as for that of this planet.
Names of co-contributor: Wanda Krause
Wanda Krause, PhD, is Program Head of the MA in Global Leadership, and Assistant Professor in the School of Leadership Studies Program at Royal Roads University. Wanda has written, co-written and edited five books. Her passions are empowerment, leadership, management, evaluation, civil society, success, mindfulness and politics. She’s been involved in the founding of two centres and two MA programs, domestically and abroad, including co-founding an Integral Life Practice centre in Yukon, Canada.
About Gail Hochachka:
Gail Hochachka is a doctoral fellow at the University of Oslo, where she studies what climate change means to people—from within their own sense of identity, values and meaning-making—so to better support climate engagement and action. Her prior work experience was in sustainable development, and she is a co-founder of the Integral Without Borders Institute. She is currently based at UBC in Vancouver, Canada.