for: social tipping points, STP, social tipping point, leverage point, Sirkku Juhola

title

• Social tipping points and adaptation limits in the context of systemic risk: Concepts, models and governance

• Sirkku Juhola
• Tatiana Filatova
• Stefan Hochrainer-Stigler
• Reinhard Mechler
• Jurgen Scheffran
• Pia-Johanna Schweizer

• Sept 21, 2022

abstract

• Physical tipping points have gained a lot of attention in global and climate change research to understand the conditions for system transitions when it comes to the atmosphere and the biosphere.
• Social tipping points have been framed as mechanisms in socio-environmental systems, where a small change in the underlying elements or behavior of actors triggers a large non-linear response in the social system.
• With climate change becoming more acute, it is important to know whether and how societies can adapt.
• While social tipping points related to climate change have been associated with positive or negative outcomes,
  • overstepping adaptation limits has been linked to adverse outcomes where actors' values and objectives are strongly compromised.
• Currently, the evidence base is limited, and most of the discussion on social tipping points in climate change adaptation and risk research is conceptual or anecdotal.
• This paper brings together three strands of literature -
  • social tipping points,
  • climate adaptation limits and
  • systemic risks,
• which so far have been separate.
• Furthermore, we discuss
  • methods and
  • models
• used to illustrate the dynamics of
  • social and
  • adaptation tipping points
• in the context of cascading risks at different scales beyond adaptation limits.
• We end with suggesting that further evidence is needed to identify tipping points in social systems,
  • which is crucial for developing appropriate governance approaches.

reference

• https://www.rifs-potsdam.de/en/news/social-tipping-points-spotlight