Co-creating transformative pathways in food and energy systems: integrating systems thinking and social science approaches to identify mechanisms of change

Transformative change is vital to ensure sustainable and just futures for people and nature, including the nexus of biodiversity, climate, food and energy provision, and good quality of life. To better understand how transformative change can unfold, and to contribute to its deliberation and nurturing, we urgently need to build on frontier transformation theory in combination with empirical evidence.

This Horizon Europe Transpath study addresses this gap by applying a novel methodological approach merging robust systems‑thinking tools with social‑science and humanities (SSH) participatory methods. Specifically, we engage an array of change‑making actors drawn from food and energy systems to analyze their perceived enablers and disablers of transformative change, and employ a Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping (FCM) approach to convert the identified factors into mapped mechanisms of transformation within these sectors.

Our findings reveal the patterns of interaction between transformation enablers and disablers, including the influence of commonly overlooked factors such as the reputation assigned to active citizenship, alongside public conformity to dominant norms, anti‑transformative lobbying and non‑market provisioning capacity. We highlight complex dynamics between different levels of leverage, including individual motivation and community capitals, institutional incentives and regulatory frameworks, cultural narratives and infrastructure systems. We further situate these empirical findings within the conceptual framing recently advanced by the Intergovernmental Science‑Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) Transformative Change Assessment’s triad of views, structures and practices. 

Importantly, our approach allows for reflexive knowledge co-creation, yet ensures yielding tangible insights into the mechanisms of change. It thus provides a valuable tool for practitioners and researchers seeking to design interventions for transformative change.

Furthermore, the study identifies similarities and key differences between the transformation enablers and disablers identified on the gradient between Western and Eastern Europe. It highlights the need to understand the deeply contextual interplays between the dominant societal discourses (views), governance and economic arrangements (structures), and everyday routines (practices), and how their vast differences across seemingly similar contexts may impact pro-transformative policy making, acceptance and implementation. Thus, this work contributes actionable knowledge to support just pathways towards current biodiversity, climate and sustainability goals.