Special Issue "Indigenous Transformations towards Sustainability: Indigenous Peoples' Experiences of and Responses to Global Environmental Changes"

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2021.

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Meg Parsons
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Environment, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
Interests: climate change adaptation; Indigenous and local knowledge systems; sustainable transformations; environmental justice; historical geography; path dependency; Indigenous environmental management; decolonising methodologies; co-design and co-production of knowledge

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The focus of this Special Issue is on Indigenous peoples' efforts to imagine and engender sustainable transformations to address the litany of interlinked social-ecological crises that are negatively impacting their ways of life and livelihoods, as well as their health and social wellbeing. Within the global environmental change literature, there is a suite of new research that explores how actions to address climate change require a shift from small-scale, incremental climate mitigation and adaptation responses to more radical systematic changes to how societies are structured and operated as well as the governance and management of environments, climate risks, and sustainable development. This includes transforming socio-economic and political systems, governance structures, and individuals' and communities' ways of living to embrace more sustainable and equitable approaches to environmental governance and management taking into account the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, other sources of environmental degradation, and climate risks, while also ensuring opportunities for sustainable development. However, the majority of scholarly attention to sustainable transformations is firmly situated within the theoretical and empirical settings of Western knowledge systems and Western cultures, and there is limited attention to how other knowledge systems and cultures perceive, engage with, and enact (or resist) transformations. Emergent research critiques resilience and climate adaptation literature’s lack of focus on the socio-cultural and political dimensions of transformation, and draws attention to how transformative changes in the context of Indigenous societies need to be understood within Indigenous peoples' historical and contemporary experiences of colonisation as well as their ongoing decolonial endeavours.

A critical question that guides this Special Issue is therefore "How do Indigenous peoples imagine and seek to enact sustainable transformations within their nations, businesses, communities, and daily lives?" Articles submitted to this Special Issue should provide empirical case studies and/or further advance theoretical understandings of what, why, where and how deliberate transformations can (or are already) occur for Indigenous peoples that address climate change issues, other environmental crises, and the challenge of sustainability. These can include inquiries focused on: the factors that enable or constrain Indigenous nation/tribe/community resilience and transformations towards sustainability; understanding the relationships between individual and collective agency in transformative changes within Indigenous societies; understanding how Indigenous peoples’ historical experiences of deliberate transformations can be used to create equitable, effective, and sustainable transformations for Indigenous peoples founded on Indigenous worldviews, values, knowledge systems, and sovereignties; the creation of Indigenous and collaborative environmental governance and management arrangements that recognise Indigenous knowledge, values, authority, and sustainable development needs; and understanding what sustainability transformations mean when situated within Indigenous knowledge systems and enacted through Indigenous governance arrangements. Ultimately, the papers from this Special Issue will deepen academic and practitioner knowledge about sustainable transformations for Indigenous peoples and in doing so provide insights that can contribute to the design and implementation of more equitable, inclusive, and holistic forms of environmental governance and management approaches, as well as assist in efforts to decolonise decision-making processes.

I look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Meg Parsons
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • transformations
  • Indigenous Knowledge
  • climate change adaptation
  • climate change mitigation
  • global environmental change
  • resilience
  • Indigenous environmental justice
  • sustainable development
  • decolonising environmental governance
  • Indigenous community-based environmental management

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

Article
Green Energy—Green for Whom? A Case Study of the Kabinakagami River Waterpower Project in Northern Canada
Sustainability 2021, 13(16), 9445; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13169445 - 23 Aug 2021
Viewed by 214
Abstract
Green energy has become a term that heralds efforts of environmental conservation and protection worldwide; however, much of it is marred with questions of what it means to be green. More precisely, it has become a question of Green for whom? [...] Read more.
Green energy has become a term that heralds efforts of environmental conservation and protection worldwide; however, much of it is marred with questions of what it means to be green. More precisely, it has become a question of Green for whom? While many of the impacts of supposed green energy projects are local in their reach, some may be more regional in their scope, such as hydroelectric power. Hydroelectric power generation negatively impacts the environment and people who rely on the environment for sustenance, such as, Indigenous peoples of northern Canada. Taking into account their position with respect to the areas impacted by these green projects, many Indigenous peoples have voiced their concerns and doubts concerning green energy, which is purported to be a mode of energy production that champions the environment. The Kabinakagami River Waterpower Project serves as a case study for both the potential effects of the project and the different views associated with these endeavors. If nothing else, the accounts and testimonies found within shall stand as a testament to the hubris of calling an energy project green without properly assessing and considering the impacts. While these statements relate to the case presented, they also carry significance in the wider world due to the numerous Indigenous communities around the world that are having their spaces slowly being encroached upon in the name of sustainable growth, or green energy. This will especially be true in the post-COVID-19 period where green energy and a green economy are being touted as a way towards state and worldwide recovery. Full article
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