1. Transitions, Transformations and Adaptations to more sustainable futures

Achieving a more sustainable, equitable and resilient world requires deep systemic transformation of social-ecological systems.

Sessions and talks in this theme might address questions like: How do we nurture diverse imaginations, visions, and option spaces for the future, that draw on the diversity and plurality of contexts in which transformation can happen? How do we sustain and scale (up, in, out or deep) local innovations to sustainability? What are the dynamics, tensions and trade-offs associated with sustainability transformations? What processes and institutions can help us navigate the unknown, uncertainty and risks surrounding the future?

2. Social-ecological resilience: evolving approaches for understanding, measuring and navigating change

Resilience is an important approach for understanding and navigating social-ecological change. Recent years have seen much evolution in how social-ecological resilience is understood and applied towards achieving just, sustainable outcomes.

Sessions and talks in this theme might address questions like: What are some of the critical discourses around how we understand social-ecological resilience? What advances exist in how we measure, monitor and build resilience in social-ecological systems? What have learned from operationalizing resilience towards building thriving social-ecological systems?

3. Scaling sustainability solutions and place-based knowledge

Social-ecological systems are complex adaptive systems, and are therefore context-specific. How can we develop generalizable knowledge and theories about context-specific systems to advance the field, and to inform policy and action at multiple scales?

Sessions and talks in this theme might address questions like: What advances have we made in theory, modelling and comparative place-based research? How can place-based social-ecological research both inform and shape policy? How can we monitor social-ecological systems in a consistent manner and what are good social-ecological indicators that could be operationalized (downscaled, or interpreted within different settings) for monitoring? What frameworks and approaches to modelling are suitable for social-ecological systems?

4. Weaving knowledges to co-produce science for thriving, equitable, just social-ecological systems

Social-ecological research often involves process-oriented approaches to producing knowledge in collaboration with diverse stakeholders, in ways that acknowledge different knowledge types.

Sessions and talks in this theme might address questions like: What principles and practices can best foster knowledge co-production and trans-disciplinarity in different contexts? How do we incorporate diverse intersectionalities? How can knowledge production processes be decolonized? What is the role of digitalisation in mainstreaming knowledge co-production? What funding options and institutional arrangements can better support transdisciplinary social-ecological research? What role does PECS play in mainstreaming knowledge co-production?

5. Understanding and navigating social-ecological change

The Anthropocene era is characterized by new dynamics that play out at multiple interconnected scales. Global social-ecological dynamics land differently in different local contexts, while diverse local dynamics play into and shape global forces in a variety of ways.

Sessions and talks in this theme might address questions like: What new and unexpected connections exist between places and what are their implications? What feedback, tipping points, and social-ecological system configurations characterise this new era? What are the inequities and differentiated impacts of these dynamics in various places? What processes determine the upscaling of local dynamics into broad-scale dynamics? Who are the main actors shaping changes in the Anthropocene? What are the new and emerging risks to the social-ecological systems, societies, ecosystems; and how can we reduce these?