On the discovery and enactment of positive socio-ecological tipping points: insights from energy systems interventions in Bangladesh and Indonesia

TLDR

Notions such as leverage points, sensitive interventions, social tipping points, transformational tipping points, and positive tipping points are gaining attention in sustainability science, yet they create confusion and unresolved questions about how to apply these concepts to urgent challenges like rapid decarbonisation. The study proposes a relational methodology to identify and support the emergence of positive Social‑Ecological Tipping Points that could drive sustainability transformations. The approach emphasizes social construction processes, time dynamics, and three key moments—building transformative conditions, a tipping event or intervention, and structural effects—while also addressing ontological, epistemological, and normative questions that shape how researchers and change agents define, approach, and assess systems. The methodology was applied to household renewable energy system implementations in rural Indonesia and Bangladesh, yielding insights into the discovery and enactment of positive SETPs.

Abstract

Abstract Notions, such as leverage points, sensitive interventions, social tipping points, transformational tipping points, and positive tipping points, are increasingly attracting attention within sustainability science. However, they are also creating confusion and unresolved questions about how to apply these concepts when dealing with urgent global challenges such as rapid decarbonisation. We propose a relational methodology aimed at helping how to identify and support the emergence of positive ‘Social-Ecological Tipping Points’ (SETPs) that could bring about sustainability transformations. Our approach emphasises the need to pay attention to processes of social construction and to time dynamics. In particular, in a given social-ecological system, three key moments need to be considered: (1) The building of transformative conditions and capacities for systemic change, (2) A tipping event or intervention shifting the system towards a different trajectory or systems’ configuration, and (3) the structural effects derived from such transformation. Furthermore, we argue that the discovery and enactment of positive SETPs require considering multiple ontological, epistemological, and normative questions that affect how researchers and change agents define, approach, and assess their systems of reference. Our insights are derived from examining the implementation of household renewable energy systems at regional level in two rural areas of Indonesia and Bangladesh.