Integrated Scenario Design for Sustainability Research – Concept, Framework and Challenges

Abstract

Sustainability research (SR) is an emerging academic research field that aims to point pathways toward a sustainable society. This paper takes designing scenarios as a means of knowledge structuring so that researchers from various disciplines are able to systematically share various expertise regarding sustainability issues. In this paper, we propose the concept of integrated scenario design (ISD) that reflects the scientific and social knowledge into scenarios in a comprehensive and dynamic manner. The ISD concept also intends to give feedback to the real world from what is described in the scenarios in order to help to bring about innovations necessary for transitions from existing social systems to a sustainable society. Based on the ISD concept, we clarify research issues that should be addressed in terms of designing and deploying scenarios in SR.