In this section we have looked at a number of different activities that try to invoke change in social ecological systems towards better sustainability. The all more or less use the adaptive process approach in the sense that they explore options through an iterative process, fundamentally knowing that no state is the optimal or final but the process itself leads towards better understanding and potentially better sustainability. Scenario planning has very much to do with aligning peoples objectives as well as generating trust and empathy by taking part in each others perspectives when thinking about the future. Bridging and brokering is a very explicit way of working with social networks in order to create opportunities for understanding and increasing options.

Concluding this course

I would like to start this conclusion by letting Johan Rockström make another inspirational talk, summarizing the key messages that I hope that you will take from this course.

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I am very happy that you have followed the course until the end! While this course is only an introduction to this topic, I have tried to compile a wide array of important subjects into a coherent story of sustainability which will make up the contents of the following concluding section. Remember that this story is unfolding right now all around us! There are so many things that we still know little about, including many future solutions to the challenges that we are facing.

It’s people like you, with varied backgrounds and future careers, willing to learn more about things that are central for the wellbeing of all human beings, that will make all the difference.

I want to thank you for taking the course, and if you want to keep up to date on issues of sustainability, the Stockholm Resilience Centre home page is a good place to look (and you can subscribe to the news feed),

Sincerely, Jon Norberg

P.S.

I will send some reflections from the course video lecturers with you:

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P.P.S. We remain very optimistic :-)