Roman Isaac

Working toward conservation in a coupled world On January 29th, 2026, the Social-Ecological Systems Institute (SESI) and the Society for Social-Ecological Systems (SocSES) hosted a Global Conversation that brought together 85 international scho…

also follow our blog to get more updates on SESI activities: ideas4sustainability.wordpress.com/2026/01/30/w...

In case you missed yesterday's "Global Conversation: Working toward conservation in a coupled world", you can watch it here:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSSd...

Happening TODAY at 08:00 Eastern/ 14:00 CET/ 15:00 CAT/ 18:30 IST. Join us to explore how conservation, justice, and sustainability unfold in an increasingly interconnected world 🌍

Global Conversation: Working toward conservation in a coupled world (29 January 2026) – SocSES This Global Conversation, hosted by SocSES and the Social-Ecological Systems Institute (SESI) at Leuphana University, Lüneburg, Germany, brings together interna

More information can be found on the SocSES website:
socses.org/global-conve...

and on the SESI blog:
ideas4sustainability.wordpress.com/2025/12/10/g...

Registration for Global Conversation: Working towards conservation in a coupled world Online panel discussions by Leuphana's Social-Ecological Systems Institute at 2:00 CEST. January 29, 2026, 2-3pm CET

Leuphana's Social-Ecological Systems Institute and
@socses.bsky.social would like to invite you for our upcoming Global conversation: Working toward conservation in a coupled world
Date: January 29, 2026
Time: 08:00 Eastern / 14:00 CET / 15:00 CAT / 18:30 IST
Registration: forms.gle/vuwLu7Xk4BnT...

🌱 Join our community and be recognised as a founding member 🏅

SES research has long lacked an institutional home. That changed this year with the launch of SocSES. Sign up before the end of 2025 to be recognised for co-creating our community.

🔗 Become a founding member: socses.org/join-socses/

Networks of influence: Linking capitals and agency to understand actors’ roles in sustainability interventions Understanding an actor’s influence in sustainability interventions, and thus their agency, is gaining attention in sustainability science. However, coherent approaches to characterize and analyze networks of influence remain scarce. We propose an actor-process network approach to assess five types of agency based on capitals: allocating human resources, enacting political relevance, influencing financial flows, providing physical goods and assets, and steering social-ecological discourse. Our approach can contribute to discussions on how to distribute roles and responsibilities between diverse actors involved in sustainability transformations.

Online now: Networks of influence: Linking capitals and agency to understand actors’ roles in sustainability interventions

Resilience and regeneration for a world in crisis - Ambio Both resilience and regeneration are relevant concepts in sustainability science. Resilience thinking has led to improved understanding of cross-scale cycles of growth and renewal, regime shifts, and ...

New Publication:
Resilience and regeneration for a world in crisis

Open access link: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Unravelling the relation between Values of Nature and Telecoupling – Biodiversity Exploratories

You can find more info about our research on the Biodiversity Exploratories' website: www.biodiversity-exploratories.de/en/projects/...

Two weeks ago we presented our research findings on the coupling between different regions to local actors in the Hainich-Dün. 🌳🐑

We would like to thank all participants for their engagement in the lively discussions and the local management team for the event organisation. 🙏

More info below

How do diverse actors shape sustainability outcomes and why does their agency matter?

In our new publication led by Lena Rölfer we bridge the concepts of agency and capitals to explore how actors influence governance processes within broader sustainability interventions:

Would love to hear your thoughts, questions, or reflections if this resonates with your work. Please also share within your networks of relevance.

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This work is especially relevant for researchers and practitioners co-creating sustainability interventions or interested in navigating the roles and relationships among diverse actors.

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This helps address key gaps in understanding influence and power in sustainability initiatives and pushes forward current debates around how capitals shape sustainability transformations.

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We propose an actor-process network approach to assess agency, including a set of guiding questions you may use in your own research, and demonstrate how it can be operationalised using three illustrative case studies.

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🔹 Allocating human resources
🔹 Enacting political relevance
🔹 Influencing financial flows
🔹 Providing physical goods & assets
🔹 Steering social-ecological discourse

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In this perspective, we dive deep into how diverse actors shape sustainability outcomes and why their agency matters.
By bridging the concepts of agency and capitals, we explore how actors influence governance processes within broader sustainability interventions through five forms of agency:

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Networks of influence: Linking capitals and agency to understand actors’ roles in sustainability interventions Understanding an actor’s influence in sustainability interventions, and thus their agency, is gaining attention in sustainability science. However, coherent approaches to characterize and analyze netw...

🌍 New Publication Alert!
Excited to share our latest work led by Lena Rölfer: “Networks of Influence: Linking capitals and agency to understand actors’ roles in sustainability interventions” and currently in press in @cp-oneearth.bsky.social.

🔗 www.cell.com/one-earth/fu...

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Imagine a world built on the values you believe in. Which ones would you choose? 
Take 3 minutes to share your vision in this survey 👇
bit.ly/thefutureyou...

The second paper of the Current Perspectives on Biosphere Research Initiative is available as a preprint and constructive comments are welcome during the open review process, which ends on 6 November.

Preprint: doi.org/10.5194/egus...
First Paper: bg.copernicus.org/articles/22/...

#climate #nature

Children's hands stacked on each other.

How can we foster environmental consciousness in new generations?

New research shows the importance of early engagement with nature and community-based activities to alleviate eco-anxiety and bolster environmental stewardship. 🌍🧪

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12144-025-08216-w#Sec22

Guidelines for ensuring meaningful engagement of early career researchers in scientific collaborations: recommendations from and for marine and polar scientists Abstract. There is an increasing recognition of the importance of involving early career researchers (ECRs) in scientific positions of trust within nationa

Guidelines for ensuring meaningful engagement of early career researchers in scientific collaborations: recommendations from and for marine and polar scientists url: academic.oup.com/icesjms/arti...

🚫 No agreement on the Plastics Treaty in Geneva
Better no treaty than a watered-down one!
After 10 days of negotiations, States failed to adopt an agreement capable of ending the global plastic crisis.

Saving the surf is a climate solution The surf breaks that create epic waves store millions of tons of carbon. Protecting them from climate change protects a sport and the planet.

Saving the surf is a climate solution.

The surf breaks that create epic waves store millions of tons of carbon. Protecting them from climate change protects a sport and the planet.

grist.org/oceans/savin...

#Surf #Surfing #Climate #Ocean #Sea #Waves

Join us this Thursday June 5 at 2pm (CET) for a webinar on Regeneration – An Emerging Paradigm for Social-Ecological Systems. Please follow the following link to register tinyurl.com/4sj9fe5x

Join us next week on Thursday June 5 at 2pm CEST for a webinar on Regeneration where we explore this emerging paradigm for social-ecological systems.

Today we celebrate the incredible variety of life on Earth — from tiny soil microbes to majestic forests. Biodiversity is not just beautiful; it’s essential for clean air, fertile soil, and healthy ecosystems.

📷Ayushi, M.Erhardt, A-C.Wicht, J.Hailer, H.Winter, A.Parreno, H.Kellner, G.LeProvost

To all the people out there (and boy are there lots at the moment) trying to politicise the destruction of ecosystems: caring for our environment isn’t an ideology, and shouldn’t be seen that way. It’s about quality of life. Like it or not, we depend on ecosystems for our survival and wellbeing.

@bexplo.bsky.social

🚨New paper alert
In our paper "The forest beyond the trees" we employ social-network analysis to investigate how different actors influence anthropogenic capitals underpinning the co-production of nature's contributions to people in forests.

Find the open access publication below at Ambio: