Social science perspectives critical for just transformations

05/09/2025

Participants at the Transformations Conference (TC/ESG25) in South Africa got a sneak peek of the Earth Commission’s narratives of transformations to a safe and just world.

In August 2025, the Transformations Community and Future Earth’s global research network Earth System Governance, co-organised a conference in Johannesburg that brought together researchers and partners who co-produce knowledge and actionable solutions for sustainability transformations.

The Earth Commission organised a session showcasing its work on transformations to a safe and just world. Commissioner David Obura introduced the audience to the framework of safe and just boundaries, and professor Diana Liverman, former co-lead of the transformations working group, explained the Commission’s work on justice and transformations presented in The Lancet Planetary Health last year. 

First narrative scenarios presented

Laura Pereira, one of the lead organisers of the conference and who is currently co-leading the Commission’s work on transformation pathways, gave a first snapshot of the Commissions’ draft narrative scenarios that will show plausible ways to reach a safe and just space for both people and planet – considering both social and technological change, as well as governance issues.  

The presentations were followed by discussions where participants were intrigued by the content of the envisioned futures, but also brought critical perspectives. 

Power an upcoming focus

One question raised was how the Earth Commission looks at power issues; how to deal with autocracies and the difficulties to translate global frameworks to local action and learn from bottom-up initiatives? This is something the Justice, Governance and Economics workstream will take a deeper look into in the coming years, and is a special interest of Co-Chair Fatima Denton. 

One of the main take-aways for Laura Pereira was that the interdisciplinary collaboration between modellers, social and natural scientists is crucial. 

“It’s really important to reach out more to the critical social science community and also include more of those perspectives. They are there in the Commission but nowhere near as dominant as the natural/physical sciences”, she said.

The Earth Commission aims to publish a paper describing the transformation narratives during 2026.  

Photos: TC/ESG25 Conference and Ignacio Gianelli