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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
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. 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.
    2. 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.
    3. 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.
    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.

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