Extended Evolutionary Approaches to Sustainability
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2021) | Viewed by 462
Special Issue Editors
Interests: complexity theory; evolutionary biology; theoretical biology; history and philosophy of science; computational humanities
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Securing Global Futures requires us to think beyond the Sustainable Development Goals as desirable outcomes and to focus on the necessary evolutionary transformations across all dimensions of the complex planetary system. Our planet and its global societies are the ultimate complex system. Its features, including cultural and social systems and their associated values, are the product of complex co-evolutionary dynamics, which are more elaborate than simply neo-Darwinian models suggest. Given the urgency of the planetary crises and the various threats to human and planetary well-being, the goal of this Special Issue is to marshal the recent understanding of complex co-evolutionary dynamics to design evolutionary trajectories towards sustainable and habitable futures. A co-evolutionary approach differs from traditional goal-oriented design approaches in that it does not presuppose a desired end-state, but rather accepts the genuine openness of the future. However, it does recognize boundaries—both planetary and social—that constrain possible futures as well as the fundamental principles of co-evolutionary transformation. Based on these insights, this Special Issue invites theoretical and empirical papers addressing current societal and planetary challenges, suggesting ways to initialize the required transformations as a form of co-evolutionary design for Global Futures. In particular, this Special Issue invites theoretical and empirical studies on the following themes (although other relevant topics will also be considered):
- Theoretical and conceptual perspectives on co-evolutionary transformations
- Historical Analyses of major society/environment transformations such as the Anthropocene
- Perspectives on co-evolutionary design and sustainable development
- Co-evolutionary transformations of economic systems
- Co-evolutionary transformations of health systems
- Co-evolutionary transformations of urban systems
- Co-evolutionary transformations of political systems
- Co-evolutionary transformations of energy systems
- Co-evolutionary transformations of food systems
- Co-evolutionary transformations of governance systems
- Co-evolutionary transformations of resource systems
Prof. Dr. Manfred D. Laubichler
Prof. Dr. Carlo C. Jaeger
Prof. Dr. Jürgen Renn
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- Co-evolution
- Transformation
- Anthropocene
- Coupled Human Natural Systems
- Socio-Technical Systems
- Complex Systems
- Earth Systems
