An interdisciplinary framework for managing communities in sustainability transitions: insights from agroecological transitions

While the human and social dimension of sustainability transitions is key to their undertaking, it is still insufficiently addressed and supported. In particular, the importance of communities, which has been highlighted by many disciplines, has not yet been tackled from an interdisciplinary perspective, resulting in a lack of a global vision of what a community is and of how to support one. We propose an interdisciplinary framework developed with the expertise of 20 researchers from 7 disciplines, each providing a specific insight on communities, and illustrations in the context of agroecological transitions. We analyzed 12 community frameworks and related key references used by the co-authors of this article in their research work. We identified three main dimensions that characterize the core of the concept of community, common to these 12 frameworks: (1) common constructs, (2) implementation and articulation of actions, and (3) feelings such as a shared sense of belonging, trust, co-responsibility, and legitimacy. We present key contributions of communities to sustainability transitions, and insights on how to support these communities. Communities can offer favorable conditions for individuals to express their ideas, desires, doubts, difficulties, and conflicts, and to address these through dialogue and collaboration. This can help individuals move forward in their decisions and actions. Communities are also a place of articulation between individual and collective actions, and can contribute to the transformation of society by redefining professional norms, and creating knowledge and innovations. Giving communities the necessary means to support its members and impact society implies investing in the development of collaboration skills within education systems and in providing dedicated training on community support to facilitators, addressing all three dimensions of communities.