Sustainability transformation calls for complexity-informed systemic policy design

Abstract

This paper develops a conceptual framework for integrating complexity theory into systemic policy design for sustainability transformations (ST). We conceptualize ST as a dynamic design challenge requiring enabling conditions—relational, cognitive, and institutional—rather than predetermined solutions. The framework operates across three levels: at the macro-level, sustainability trajectories are framed as attractor landscapes; at the meso-level, adaptive spaces enable experimentation beyond dominant institutional constraints; and at the micro-level, self-organizing collective agency drives transformative action. Central generative mechanisms, particularly sensemaking and sensegiving, facilitate the imagination of emergent opportunities, navigation of uncertainty, and mobilization of collective responses.