Derk Loorbach about Sustainability Transitions

Professor Derk Loorbach, Director at DRIFT and one of the leading researchers within transition management approach spoke on May 21st, at a Mistra Urban Futures seminar about Sustainability Transitions.

Urban landscapes are undergoing great social transformations. At the seminar Derk Loorbach together with Professor John Holmberg, Chalmers and project leader for WISE, Well-being In Sustainable Cities, gave indications about how we can tackle the challenges this brings with. The transition management approach might be one of the ways forward.

As one of the funders and Director of the Dutch Institute for Transitions (DRIFT) as well as a professor at Erasmus University Rotterdam Derk is one of the frontrunners within his field. The transition management approach is a new governance-model based on complex systems´ thinking and is aimed at facilitating and directing processes of societal change in the direction of sustainability. It is a form of participatory governance in which envisioning, scenario-development, shared agenda-setting and experimenting are basic elements.

Within his research, Derk focuses on the development of transition management in theory and practice through theory development and action research. Central themes are the development of an integrated framework for structuring transition management activities and for organizing transition management processes.

Read more about the seminar
Read more about the project WISE, Well-being In Sustainable Cities