Session 13 – 12.06.2010 Core questions of sustainability science

This session will focus on identifying and discussing candidate "core questions" of sustainability science. Our goal with "core questions" is to highlight topics ripe for research that would promote fundamental, generalizable understanding of social-environmental systems with special attention to the subset of that understanding relevant to sustainability. We distinguish such "core questions" from the "grand challenges" (such as those identified by the Gates Foundation for global health) which we seek to mobilize knowledge in ways that directly improve technologies or policies and ultimately outcomes that directly advance sustainability in particular contexts the world. We invite all members of the seminar to enter their candidate "core questions" here, and to comment on the questions that others have posted. It would be helpful if you could associate each question, in the title bar, with the numbered topic from the assigned reading with which it is most closely associated. Of course, if you have questions that don't fit the template you should post them anyway. We ask each member of the seminar to post at least one specific question before the seminar session. Make the title of your posting a question, and then provide as much specificity as you can (including if appropriate references to key literature) in the text of the message. Thanks. BC