ABSTRACT
Major present-day challenges for policy makers are characterized by complex interactions of societal and ecological aspects, often mediated by technologies. The connections between climate change or biodiversity loss with industrial and agricultural production modes, energy systems, population growth or individual lifestyles are cases in point. Many social–ecological problems require decades to deal with: not only are the problems themselves complex and dynamic in nature and knowledge about them is uncertain, but their drivers are deeply embedded in societal habits and/or technological paths (Becker and Jahn 2006; Ostrom 2007). Policy making suffers among other things from implicit goal conflicts and from long problem cycles being at odds with political attention spans (Pierson 2004; Voß et al. 2009; Voß and Kemp 2006). For the private sector, too, barriers exist to commitment. These include high uncertainty regarding possible business risks and opportunities linked to long-term social–ecological problems (Hoffman 2001). Also, tackling such problems typically requires changes in whole systems of provision, and “sufficiency” approaches on top of efficiency policies (Spaargarden 2003; Tukker et al. 2008).
