IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jworld/v2y2021i1p2-31d474755.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Socioecological System Transformation: Lessons from COVID-19

Author

Listed:
  • Kaitlin Kish

    (Natural Resource Sciences, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 0G4, Canada)

  • Katharine Zywert

    (School of Environment, Resources, and Sustainability, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada)

  • Martin Hensher

    (Institute for Health Transformations, Deakin University, Burwood, VIC 3125, Australia)

  • Barbara Jane Davy

    (School of Environment, Resources, and Sustainability, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada)

  • Stephen Quilley

    (School of Environment, Resources, and Sustainability, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada)

Abstract

Environmentalists have long warned of a coming shock to the system. COVID-19 exposed fragility in the system and has the potential to result in radical social change. With socioeconomic interruptions cascading through tightly intertwined economic, social, environmental, and political systems, many are not working to find the opportunities for change. Prefigurative politics in communities have demonstrated rapid and successful responses to the pandemic. These successes, and others throughout history, demonstrate that prefigurative politics are important for response to crisis. Given the failure of mainstream environmentalism, we use systemic transformation literature to suggest novel strategies to strengthen cooperative prefigurative politics. In this paper, we look at ways in which COVID-19 shock is leveraged in local and global economic contexts. We also explore how the pandemic has exposed paradoxes of global connectivity and interdependence. While responses shed light on potential lessons for ecological sustainability governance, COVID-19 has also demonstrated the importance of local resilience strategies. We use local manufacturing as an example of a possible localized, yet globally connected, resilience strategy and explore some preliminary data that highlight possible tradeoffs of economic contraction.

Suggested Citation

  • Kaitlin Kish & Katharine Zywert & Martin Hensher & Barbara Jane Davy & Stephen Quilley, 2021. "Socioecological System Transformation: Lessons from COVID-19," World, MDPI, vol. 2(1), pages 1-17, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jworld:v:2:y:2021:i:1:p:2-31:d:474755
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2673-4060/2/1/2/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2673-4060/2/1/2/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hensher, Martin & Tisdell, John & Canny, Ben & Zimitat, Craig, 2020. "Health care and the future of economic growth: exploring alternative perspectives," Health Economics, Policy and Law, Cambridge University Press, vol. 15(4), pages 419-439, October.
    2. Kyle R. Myers & Wei Yang Tham & Yian Yin & Nina Cohodes & Jerry G. Thursby & Marie C. Thursby & Peter Schiffer & Joseph T. Walsh & Karim R. Lakhani & Dashun Wang, 2020. "Unequal effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on scientists," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 4(9), pages 880-883, September.
    3. Stephen Quilley & Katharine Zywert, 2019. "Livelihood, Market and State: What does A Political Economy Predicated on the ‘Individual-in-Group-in-PLACE’ Actually Look Like?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(15), pages 1-23, July.
    4. Max Nathan & Henry Overman, 2020. "Will coronavirus cause a big city exodus?," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 47(9), pages 1537-1542, November.
    5. Johan Rockström & Will Steffen & Kevin Noone & Åsa Persson & F. Stuart Chapin & Eric F. Lambin & Timothy M. Lenton & Marten Scheffer & Carl Folke & Hans Joachim Schellnhuber & Björn Nykvist & Cynthia , 2009. "A safe operating space for humanity," Nature, Nature, vol. 461(7263), pages 472-475, September.
    6. Dirk Helbing, 2013. "Globally networked risks and how to respond," Nature, Nature, vol. 497(7447), pages 51-59, May.
    7. Colin D. Butler, 2016. "Sounding the Alarm: Health in the Anthropocene," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-15, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bianca Blum & Bernhard K. J. Neumärker, 2021. "Lessons from Globalization and the COVID-19 Pandemic for Economic, Environmental and Social Policy," World, MDPI, vol. 2(2), pages 1-26, June.
    2. Wai-Ming To, 2022. "A Bibliometric Analysis of World Issues—Social, Political, Economic, and Environmental Dimensions," World, MDPI, vol. 3(3), pages 1-20, August.
    3. Marcel Franke & Bernhard K. J. Neumärker, 2022. "A Climate Alliance through Transfer: Transfer Design in an Economic Conflict Model," World, MDPI, vol. 3(1), pages 1-14, February.
    4. Sudhanshu Joshi & Manu Sharma, 2022. "A Literature Survey on Vaccine Supply Chain Management Amidst COVID-19: Literature Developments, Future Directions and Open Challenges for Public Health," World, MDPI, vol. 3(4), pages 1-28, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Magdalena Gil & Constanza Hurtado-Acuna & Máximo Quiero-Bastías & Marigen Narea & Alejandra Caqueo-Urízar, 2023. "Unequal effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on researchers: evidence from Chile and Colombia," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-13, December.
    2. Nelson, Ewan & Warren, Peter, 2020. "UK transport decoupling: On track for clean growth in transport?," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 39-51.
    3. Richter, Andries & Dakos, Vasilis, 2015. "Profit fluctuations signal eroding resilience of natural resources," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 12-21.
    4. Balint, T. & Lamperti, F. & Mandel, A. & Napoletano, M. & Roventini, A. & Sapio, A., 2017. "Complexity and the Economics of Climate Change: A Survey and a Look Forward," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 252-265.
    5. Sellevåg, Stig Rune, 2021. "Changes in inoperability for interdependent industry sectors in Norway from 2012 to 2017," International Journal of Critical Infrastructure Protection, Elsevier, vol. 32(C).
    6. Rostami-Tabar, Bahman & Ali, Mohammad M. & Hong, Tao & Hyndman, Rob J. & Porter, Michael D. & Syntetos, Aris, 2022. "Forecasting for social good," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 1245-1257.
    7. Huiyuan Guan & Yongping Bai & Chunyue Zhang, 2022. "Research on Ecosystem Security and Restoration Pattern of Urban Agglomeration in the Yellow River Basin," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-19, September.
    8. Igor Linkov & Benjamin Trump & Greg Kiker, 2022. "Diversity and inclusiveness are necessary components of resilient international teams," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-5, December.
    9. Filipa Correia & Philipp Erfruth & Julie Bryhn, 2018. "The 2030 Agenda: The roadmap to GlobALLizaton," Working Papers 156, United Nations, Department of Economics and Social Affairs.
    10. Birgit Kopainsky & Anita Frehner & Adrian Müller, 2020. "Sustainable and healthy diets: Synergies and trade‐offs in Switzerland," Systems Research and Behavioral Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(6), pages 908-927, November.
    11. Hervé Corvellec & Johan Hultman & Anne Jerneck & Susanne Arvidsson & Johan Ekroos & Niklas Wahlberg & Timothy W. Luke, 2021. "Resourcification: A non‐essentialist theory of resources for sustainable development," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(6), pages 1249-1256, November.
    12. Pérez-Sánchez, Laura & Velasco-Fernández, Raúl & Giampietro, Mario, 2021. "The international division of labor and embodied working time in trade for the US, the EU and China," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    13. Xiao‐Bing Hu & Hang Li & XiaoMei Guo & Pieter H. A. J. M. van Gelder & Peijun Shi, 2019. "Spatial Vulnerability of Network Systems under Spatially Local Hazards," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 39(1), pages 162-179, January.
    14. Islam, Moinul & Kotani, Koji & Managi, Shunsuke, 2016. "Climate perception and flood mitigation cooperation: A Bangladesh case study," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 117-133.
    15. Yutong Zhang & Wei Zhou & Danxue Luo, 2023. "The Relationship Research between Biodiversity Conservation and Economic Growth: From Multi-Level Attempts to Key Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-19, February.
    16. Carina Mueller & Christopher West & Mairon G. Bastos Lima & Bob Doherty, 2023. "Demand-Side Actors in Agricultural Supply Chain Sustainability: An Assessment of Motivations for Action, Implementation Challenges, and Research Frontiers," World, MDPI, vol. 4(3), pages 1-20, September.
    17. Man Li & Tao Ye & Peijun Shi & Jian Fang, 2015. "Impacts of the global economic crisis and Tohoku earthquake on Sino–Japan trade: a comparative perspective," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 75(1), pages 541-556, January.
    18. Bergeaud, Antonin & Eyméoud, Jean-Benoît & Garcia, Thomas & Henricot, Dorian, 2023. "Working from home and corporate real estate," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    19. Sarah Shandera & Jes L Matsick & David R Hunter & Louis Leblond, 2021. "RASE: Modeling cumulative disadvantage due to marginalized group status in academia," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(12), pages 1-20, December.
    20. Hensher, Martin & Canny, Ben & Zimitat, Craig & Campbell, Julie & Palmer, Andrew, 2020. "Health care, overconsumption and uneconomic growth: A conceptual framework," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 266(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jworld:v:2:y:2021:i:1:p:2-31:d:474755. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.