Sustainability governance for agrarian transformation under climate change

Chuan Liao, Juan Liu & Arun Agrawal

Corresponding author: Chuan Liao, e-mail: cl824@cornell.edu

Sustainability Science, Published Online: 11 November 2023

Abstract：Scholarship at the intersection of agrarian studies and climate change has made substantial contributions toward a deeper understanding of how climate and environmental changes shape and are shaped by the rural world. We call for placing sustainability at the core of future analyses of ongoing agrarian transitions to strengthen more systematic investigations of their relationship with broader social and climate changes. The new focus on sustainability—both to investigate causes and assess outcomes—will fundamentally influence how agrarian studies scholarship seeks to understand the relationship of climate change with agrarian transformations. Through an assessment of three examples of agrarian transitions, driven by state, non-government organizations, and capital-intensive development projects, we highlight the “wicked” sustainability challenges threatening the wellbeing of rural populations and of ecosystems that sustain rural livelihoods. We conclude that incorporating a sustainability governance framework into critical agrarian studies facilitates understanding and action toward sustainable transformations in the rural world.

Keywords：Agrarian change · Climate change · Development projects · Sustainability governance

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Link to this article：https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-023-01422-0