Transformations In Practice Podcast Series 

This podcast features a conversation with several of the keynote speakers of T17 and leaders in the field of Transformation. Our guests share their personal and professional insights into climate change, human behavior, and evaluation of transformation in practice. We hope you enjoy this series!

EPISODE 1: TRANSFORMATIONS IN PRACTICE: IOAN FAZEY

Ioan Fazey is a professor in the Department of Geography and the Director of the Center for Environmental Change and Human Resilience (CECHR) at the University of Dundee in Dundee, Scotland.  The University of Dundee and CECHR, along with the James Hutton Institute and FutureEarth, are hosting Transformations 2017: Transformations in Practice, the third a biennial series of international interdisciplinary conferences that focuses on transformations towards sustainability, and addressing contemporary challenges and creating conditions for enhancing people’s wellbeing, today and in the future, while strengthening the Earth’s support system.  The conference takes place August 30 through September 1, 2017, at the University of Dundee.

EPISODE 2: TRANSFORMATIONS IN PRACTICE: NINIAN STUART

Ninian Crichton Stuart is the Founding Director and Head of Strategy of the Centre for Stewardship, based at Falkland, Fife, Scotland, committed to realising the potential of place(s) where the land gives life to people and people give life to land.  Ninian graciously leads us on a tour of the Falkland Estate, headquarters of the Centre for Stewardship and his ancestral home.  

EPISODE 3: TRANSFORMATIONS IN PRACTICE: KAREN O'BRIEN

Karen O’Brien is a professor in the Department of Sociology and Human Geography at the University of Oslo, Norway. Her research has focused on climate change impacts, vulnerability, and adaptation. She has also studied how climate change interacts with globalization processes and the implications for human security.  

Karen graciously  hosted the first Transformations conference in 2013.

EPISODE 4: TRANFORMATIONS IN PRACTICE: SUSI MOSER

Susi Moser is Director and Principal Researcher of Susanne Moser Research & Consulting in Santa Cruz, California. I first met Susi Moser when she was editing a special issue of Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability (COSUST) on co-design and was struck by her patience and grace as we struggled to meet a series of deadlines. Her work focuses on adaptation to climate change, vulnerability, resilience, climate change communication, social change, decision support and the interaction between scientists, policy-makers and the public. She is a geographer by training (Ph.D. 1997, Clark University) with interests in how social science can inform society's responses to this global challenge. This podcast features some of her reflections of a career working in coastal areas, urban and rural communities on both biophysical and human health issues. She provides insight how we can be more fully present and make a difference in a rapidly changing world.

EPISODE 5: TRANSFORMATIONS IN PRACTICE: MICHAEL QUINN PATTON

Like others featured on this Podcast, Michael Quinn Patton is a force of nature.  He has written many books on the art and science of program evaluation, including Utilization-Focused Evaluation (4th ed., 2008), in which he emphasizes the importance of designing evaluations to ensure their usefulness, rather than simply creating long reports that may never get read or never result in any practical changes. He has written about evaluation, and worked in the field since the 1970s when evaluation in the non-profit sector was a relatively new development. More recently, he has led a transformation of the field by demonstrating that evaluation can also be useful when there is not a fixed model being improved (as in formative evaluation) or tested (as in summative evaluation). He offers a developmental approach to evaluation where programs are operating under conditions of high innovation, exploration, uncertainty, turbulence, rapid change and emergence. This podcast offers some insight into the evolving field of evaluation as a transformative practice. 

the sustainametrix approach

Archived Episodes

Episode A-4: Navigating the Anthropocene

Val Cummins, the co-chair of FutureEarth Coasts, describes issues facing management of our coasts in Ireland and around the world.  

Episode A-3: The SustainaMetrix Approach

In our third episode, Glenn Page, president of SustainaMetrix and Stephen Olsen discuss the work they do. They describe the need to find new ways to address societal challenges and the promise of the ecosystem approach. Using a series of examples from previous projects they provide an overview of how they work with clients and partners to learn from the past and plan for the future.

Links

• Peter Senge’s book: The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization

• Stephen’s blog post describing the management cycle as a way to incorporate learning into the planning process.

• In the conversation, Stephen mentions third order outcomes. Blog post number 7 describes the orders of outcome framework.

Episode A-2: Governance in the coastal context

Coastal regions contain roughly half the world’s population and the majority of our infrastructure. The coasts are where we live and are where some of the greatest impacts of climate change are going to be felt. In the second episode of Navigating the Anthropocene we discuss governance and the application of the ecosystems approach in coastal and Marine systems.

Links

• Elinor Ostrom’s wikipedia page

• Information on the project in Ghana

Episode A-1: Ecosystem governance in the Anthropocene

In the debut episode of the Sustainametrix podcast Stephen Olsen, Glenn Page and Andrew Staroscik discuss the value of using an ecosystem governance framework for dealing with the challenges of the next phase of the Anthropocene.

Links

• Stephen’s overview of of Ecosystems Governance

• Stephen’s thoughts on the implications of the Anthropocene

• Ecosystem-Based Management for the Oceans