Another session of the working group “Evolutionary Theories for Social-Ecological Change” concluded after a productive week at the KLI. The goal of this visit was to bring group members together to finalize a perspective paper that explores what evolutionary theory could contribute to the field of Social-Ecological Systems thinking and to further expand on this work. Prof. Tim Waring, Prof. Maja Schlüter, Prof. Monique Borgerhoff Mulder, Dr. Peter Søgaard Jørgensen, and Dr. Guido Caniglia were able to reconnect following their previous visit to the institute in March earlier this year. Dr. Jamila Haider and Dr. Carl Folke could not attend in person, but joined the discussion digitally for a day. Three new researchers, Prof. Alessandro Tavoni, Prof. Thomas Currie, and Dr. Laurel Fogarty joined the team and brought a fresh perspective, new insights, and a heap of relevant expertise for the work that was laying ahead. Raf Jansen, a research assistant, helped with organizing the paper and documented the event.

What followed was a week of debate, hard work, and camaraderie, in which much progress was made. Led by Prof. Waring, the group developed an integrative paper on the process and challenges of integrating social-ecological systems research with evolutionary theory, and managed to get a significant amount of writing done. Furthermore, the spacious rooms and beautiful garden of the KLI made for a great location to have discussions in smaller groups, which helped generate fresh ideas for prospective papers.

Click to read a report of the workshop in pictures.