The Age of Sustainability

The world stands at a pivotal juncture, grappling with two opposing forces: the urgent need for accelerated sustainability transitions through collaboration and peacebuilding, and the rise of climate-denying authoritarianism alongside resource-driven geopolitical conflicts. This book confronts this critical choice, arguing that the survival of human civilisation hinges on embracing the sustainability transition rather than resisting it. Building on the foundational ideas of polycrisis and just transitions introduced in its first edition, this updated volume delves deeper into the dynamics of global change. Drawing inspiration from African relational thinking (the ukamian way), it challenges readers to engage with the evolutionary potential of the present and envision sustainable futures. While the adoption of the UN Sustainable Development Goals in 2015 provided a framework for global progress, the post-pandemic world has fractured along multiple fault lines, amplifying despair and uncertainty. Despite these challenges, the book identifies emerging empirical and ideational trends that offer hope for a more equitable and sustainable future. It explores the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy, highlighting the delicate balance between decarbonisation and social justice in an increasingly unequal world. It examines the resistance posed by authoritarian populism and toxic masculinities, which threaten progress. Ultimately, this book is a call to action, urging readers to understand the complexities of just transitions as a remedy for the polycrises humanity faces. It offers no easy answers but provides essential insights for those committed to building a sustainable and equitable world. This is a book about hope-hope grounded in the transformative power of informed action.

Mark Swilling is a Professor in the Centre for Sustainability Transitions, Stellenbosch University, where he holds the South African Research Chair in Mainstreaming Gender for Energy Security in Poor Urban Environments. He has been a member of the United Nations-affiliated International Resource Panel since 2007 and is appointed by the South African President as a Commissioner on the National Planning Commission. Over the past four decades he has published widely on urban social movements, governance, state capture, African development challenges, just energy transitions, long-wave theory, finance, infrastructure and sustainability transitions.

1. Introduction: Change in the Age of Sustainability 2. Ukama: Decoloniality, Relationality and Sustainability, Emerging Metatheories for the Twenty-First Century 3. Bending the Arc of History: Towards a Relational Theory of Economics, Governance and Finance 4. Understanding Our Finite World: Resource Flows of Late Modernity 5. Global Crisis and Transition: A Long-Wave Perspective 6. Global Energy Transition and the Potential of Energy Democracy 7. Transition Pathways and Social Justice: Germany, South Africa, The Netherlands and India 8. Just Transitions in Africa: Lessons from South Africa's G20 Presidency 9. Greening Developmental States 10. Making Hope Possible Rather than Despair Convincing 11. Resisting Transition: Authoritarianism, Energy Dominance and Electro-Masculinity 12. Conclusion: Reflections of an Enraged Incrementalist