ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the limits to the scarcity narrative which seems to be currently driving wide parts of the nexus discourse, and make a case for viewing water–energy–food–climate systems as complex and dynamic. It discusses the concept of the nexus primarily the market-technical framing of the World Economic Forum. The chapter explains the drawing on examples from water and energy systems. It discusses the unpack how the particular framing is guided by equilibrium thinking which promotes top-down, control-oriented solutions, which – as it argues – have limited potential in tackling uncertainty and complexity. The chapter provides a complex world with a multitude of interactions between the material, social and the biophysical elements that are by nature intractable and difficult to grasp. It concludes with favour of dynamic and resilient systems that could provide sustainable pathways for resource use.
