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

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

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