Chris RiedyUniversity of Technology Sydney | UTS · Institute for Sustainable Futures
Chris Riedy
BEnv PhD (Sustainable Futures)
About
80
Publications
169,264
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813
Citations
Citations since 2017
Introduction
Chris Riedy is Professor of Sustainability Transformations and Director of Graduate Research at the Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney. He is a transdisciplinary academic with a research interest in governance, communication and social change for sustainable futures. Chris draws on sociological and political theory, narrative theory and futures thinking to design, facilitate and evaluate practical experiments in transformative change towards sustainable futures.
Additional affiliations
March 2000 - present
Publications
Publications (80)
A systemic approach to deliberative democracy de-emphasises the role of discrete deliberative experiments involving minipublics. Instead, this systemic perspective focuses attention on the quality of deliberation achieved throughout distributed governance systems. It opens up the possibility that institutions that do not appear deliberative in isol...
Effective environmental governance requires institutional change. While some actors work to change institutions, others resist change by defending and maintaining institutions. Much of this institutional work is ‘meaning work’, which we define as the practice of crafting, adapting, connecting and performing meanings to purposively create, maintain...
Humanity is faced with the immense challenge of finding a way to live within planetary boundaries (Steffen et al., 2015) while ensuring that all have access to basic human rights (Raworth, 2017). So far, an effective response has proven beyond our collective wisdom. More ambitious efforts are needed. This challenge is of a fundamentally new kind. W...
Modern agriculture is underpinned by a colonial, industrial and productivist discourse. Agricultural practices inspired by this discourse have fed billions but degraded socio-ecological systems. Regenerative agriculture (RA) is a prominent alternative seeking to transform food production and repair ecosystems. This paper proposes that RA discourse...
Deliberate transformation for sustainable futures requires new social imaginaries that collectively envision futures beyond the dominance of neoliberal capitalism. We looked for these imaginaries by surveying change makers working on system transformation and ecological issues. Drawing on a conceptual framework that connects social imaginaries, sto...
Agriculture occupies 38% of the planet's terrestrial surface, using 70% of freshwater resources. Its modern practice is dominated by an industrial-productivist discourse, which has contributed to the simplification and degradation of human and ecological systems. As such, agricultural transformation is essential for creating more sustainable food s...
Humanity inhabits a discursive landscape that stimulates our imaginations, guides and influences our behaviour, shapes our ideas of what is possible, and governs what we perceive as normal. The collective human imagination is currently dominated by a discourse of neoliberal capitalism that contributes to global sustainability challenges such as cli...
This short commentary explores Richard Slaughter’s foresight practice – his strategies and methods for approaching futures thinking and futures doing. I concentrate on three areas where Richard has made significant strategic and methodological innovations that have carried the futures field forward. First, I discuss his foundational work to give fu...
The ‘meat paradox’ is the psychological conflict between people’s enjoyment of meat and their moral discomfort in relation to animal suffering. To date, most studies on the meat paradox have been in Western contexts where meat-eating is a cultural norm. In comparison, little is known about how the meat paradox is experienced in emerging economies s...
Formalised knowledge systems, including universities and research institutes, are important for contemporary societies. They are, however, also arguably failing humanity when their impact is measured against the level of progress being made in stimulating the societal changes needed to address challenges like climate change. In this research we use...
Formalised knowledge systems, including universities and research institutes, are important for contemporary societies. They are, however, also arguably failing humanity when their impact is measured against the level of progress being made in stimulating the societal changes needed to address challenges like climate change. In this research we use...
A neoliberal capitalist discourse dominates global affairs, with devastating effects for ecological integrity and social justice. Diverse alternative discourses challenge its dominance. This paper reviews alternative discourses to surface discursive common ground and conflicts, arguing that this is an important step towards the formation of discour...
In 2007, a team of five researchers led by Richard Slaughter came together for a research project to assess the State of Play in the Futures Field (SOPIFF). The aim of the SOPIFF project was to build a clear picture of the current status of Futures Studies. As Slaughter notes in his overview of the project:
Futures studies and, more lately, applie...
Sydney has emerged as a major global city in the 21st century. We review the “global city thesis” which dominates urban scholarship and practice, and ask whether it adequately captures the Sydney experience. Although the global city thesis is a useful analytical construct for policy makers and scholars, we argue that it does not adequately chart Sy...
Meat consumption is on the rise in India. However, most studies on meat consumption have been conducted among Western audiences and there are relatively few insights into meat consumption in emerging markets, especially India, which tends to be stereotyped as a vegetarian nation. The aim of this qualitative study was to explore meat consumption pra...
This literature review is an update to the literature review prepared for the previous research project. It therefore discusses key demographic and social trends in ageing and housing for older people in Australia. It then considers the characteristics of cohousing, and how and why it might be a suitable alternative housing model for older Australi...
Older Australians face housing challenges including supply, accessibility, affordability, security of tenure and isolation. This article examines the potential for cohousing to address these challenges. In interviews, professionals indicated that cohousing promises benefits for older people, but identified financial and planning barriers. In contra...
Practitioners of transdisciplinary inquiry, which we define to include research, learning, collaboration, and action, encounter innumerable tensions. Some tensions are universal, while others are unique to that particular inquiry at that point in time. Resolving these tensions requires
innovative practices, which emerge through experience with tran...
Transdisciplinary (TD) research is increasingly recognized as a crucial response to global environmental and social challenges. To support this response, there is a growing need to create spaces where graduate researchers can learn the skills and dispositions needed for effective TD research. One way to develop such skills and dispositions is by bu...
In a rapidly changing and crowded media landscape, food sustainability advocates face new challenges in engaging the public. Participants in digital networks often reside in social media communities that support their own views. This action-research study, which investigates international meat reduction social media campaigns, indicates that certai...
Urban infill development provides high-density housing on former industrial precincts in well-serviced areas of many cities over the past few years. This chapter focuses on how urban infill developments can support one particular set of social innovations-the emergence of a sharing paradigm. Sharing resources, goods and services can enhance urban r...
Australia's population is ageing rapidly, yet we continue to make housing choices as though we will never grow old. New housing typologies, including alternative finance and governance models, will be needed to provide housing options suitable to our ageing population. An emerging response is cohousing, which has the potential to provide liveabilit...
Transdisciplinary research is a bundle of interwoven social practices taking different forms in different contexts. There is no single such practice; instead, there are many different transdisciplinarities. Each has its own particular meanings, materials and skills, in addition to shared elements. In this chapter, I use social practice theory as a...
In the period since the Industrial Revolution, human emissions of greenhouse gases from fossil fuel combustion, deforestation, and agricultural practices have led to global warming and climate change. Observed and anticipated changes in the climate include higher temperatures, changes in rainfall patterns, changes in the frequency and distribution...
A common response to the global sustainability crisis is to argue that human values and culture need to transform. However, the nature of this interior transformation is rarely explored in any detail. Instead, transformation is held up uncritically as the saviour that can get us out of trouble. In this paper, I apply a personal causal layered analy...
This paper argues that a participatory mixed methods approach is more suitable to develop insights into everyday water practices than conventional quantitative end-use studies or stand-alone qualitative behavioural studies. Combining quantitative and qualitative studies provides accurate data on the prevalence and impact of practices, as well as in...
Many management scholars and some practitioners argue that scenario planning remains under-theorised, that it has a weak evidence base, and that, in practice, it is often too reactive. Responding to these critiques, we contribute to the development of sociologically informed scenario practices, which are more proactive (or 'transformative'). The pa...
This chapter applies futures thinking to explore possible scenarios that electric utilities may face in the coming decades. The chapter applies a top-down approach to identify the key drivers that could influence business models. It describes three possible futures in detail. Firstly, the "centralized" future moves toward decarbonization but retain...
Worldwide, livestock and meat production have been identified by key governmental and scientific institutions as major contributors to climate change, intensive water use, high phosphorous use, and other environmental problems. These adverse environmental impacts are increasing, as the global consumption of livestock products is growing rapidly. Me...
This chapter applies futures thinking to explore possible scenarios that electric utilities may face in the coming decades. The chapter applies a top-down approach to identify the key drivers that could influence business models. It describes three possible futures in detail. Firstly, the “Centralized” future moves towards decarbonization, but reta...
Local Government in Australia is currently leading the way in implementing democratic innovations, with participatory budgeting and citizens' juries (amongst other approaches) being used around the country. A key question is whether these are ad hoc initiatives arising from either the initiative of particular players e.g. the Mayor, or in response...
Transformation towards a sustainable human civilisation requires sweeping changes not only to technological and economic infrastructure but also to values, beliefs and behaviours. Agents of social change that are working to motivate such transformations can choose from multiple theories of change to guide their actions. Several of these theories em...
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore metaphors of human awakening in four recent futures works and propose a research agenda on the nature and future trajectories of awakening.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper reviews metaphors of awakening in Slaughter's The Biggest Wake‐up Call in History , the Great Transition Initiative, Gildin...
This paper investigates the social practices of Australian sustainability ‘change agents’ that are working to reduce community energy use. These change agents work to promote change for sustainability, often through leadership of specific projects or initiatives. Their practices are of interest because they influence the effectiveness of efforts to...
Climate change adaptation requires communities to prepare for both extreme weather events and the more gradual shifts that a changing climate may bring. Our project designed and evaluated several face-to-face activities to engage communities in North East Victoria on climate change adaptation. The objective was ultimately to help vulnerable people...
We live in a time when the mundane actions of an individual citizen, such as heating their home or driving their car, add to the sum of human suffering and ecological damage in distant places and times. Greenhouse gas emissions generated from our daily practices contribute to climate change that damages the living conditions of humans and other spe...
Peer reviewed introduction to the Special Issue on Global Climate Change Policy: Post-Copenhagen Discord, guest edited by Chris Riedy and Ian M. McGregor, University of Technology, Sydney.
On 26 September 2009, approximately 4,000 citizens in 38 countries participated in World Wide Views on Global Warming (WWViews). WWViews was an ambitious first attempt to convene a deliberative mini-public at a global scale, giving people from around the world an opportunity to deliberate on international climate policy and to make recommendations...
This article is a personal reflection on what integral practitioners can learn from a dialogue that played out in the pages of the journal Futures. In March 2008, Futures published a special issue on Integral Futures methodologies, in which the authors used the AQAL model to explore futures thinking and methods. I contributed an article that used t...
In this paper, I use a Wilberian integral futures approach to examine visions of the future within the climate action movement and identify sources of agreement and contention. I argue that the Wilberian approach is particularly valuable in drawing out diverse futures associated with differing levels of consciousness. Applying this approach to the...
The Australian Technology Network of Universities (the ATN) is an alliance of five Australian universities, from each Mainland
State, that collaborate on issues and concerns of shared interest. In February 2009, the ATN committed to reduce its aggregate
greenhouse gas emissions to 25% below 2007 levels by 2020. This ambitious target was the culmina...
Sustainable living will require megacity-level infrastructural support designs and paradigms.
The question of how to successfully facilitate the changes needed to avoid dangerous cli- mate change has become a critical one for researchers and practitioners. In this article, I use Integral Theory to guide a scan of one important element of climate change response—household behavior change. The Integral scan is the first step in a long-term re...
Purpose
This paper aims to draw on a global scan of futures literature undertaken for the State of Play in the Futures Field (SOPIFF) project to investigate the contribution of futures work to averting looming sustainability challenges and suggest new strategies for influencing policy and practice.
Design/methodology/approach
The SOPIFF project us...
Richard A. Slaughter
This section presents the views of an expert and does not necessarily reflect those of the Editor, the Editorial Board members or Emerald. It has been published in Foresight as an opinion piece and is completely separate from the double‐blind peer review process the journal operates.
In the context of climate change response, sustainable urban infrastructure needs to deliver deep cuts in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, of the order of 80-90% by 2050. This paper examines how various GHG reduction strategies applied to urban infrastructure open up or foreclose the potential for deeper cuts in the long-term. It uses case studies o...
Causal layered analysis (CLA) is a futures method developed by Sohail Inayatullah and since applied by numerous futurists across multiple content areas. The central assumption of CLA is that there are different levels of reality and ways of knowing; beneath the popular conceptions of an issue (the litany) and more academic analysis of systemic caus...
The water efficiency of toilets in Australia has increased significantly since the 1980's due to the development of the dual flush toilet, and the progressive reduction in average flush volumes with each new model. The accurate modelling of the average efficiency of toilets is very important as a component of demand forecasting, which itself is at...
This paper considers the way in which pricing and decision-making processes in the Australian electricity, road transport and water sectors seek to balance multiple objectives. Specifically, it examines the ways in which the principles of National Competition Policy and the economic, environmental and social dimensions of sustainability are address...
The recognition that natural resources and their processes support human society underpins the notion of sustainability. Key players that are engaged with balancing natural resource protection and use include: Catchment Management Authorities (CMAs); local, state and federal regulators; resource managers and policy-makers; and industrial, agricultu...
In this paper, I develop an integral futures perspective on the global collective. The emergence of a global mind, soul or any kind of collective structure requires simultaneous development in behavioural, social, psycho- logical and cultural realms. Development in any one of these realms has the potential to stimulate corresponding development in...
The Integral framework, articulated by Ken Wilber, provides a comprehensive overview of the systemic, cultural, psychological, behavioral and developmental dynamics that influence any sustainability initiative. This comprehensive map of reality helps teams to better assess, strategize, and design sustainability communications for any scale. In this...
A critical challenge for policy makers in government, business and civil society is integration of exterior and interior forms of knowledge in sustainable development policy processes. In this paper, I propose a theoretical participatory model that attempts this type of integration, building on the cooperative discourse model for public participati...
In this thesis, I explore the implications of integral theory for sustainable development and climate change response. Integral theory seeks to integrate objective and subjective perspectives using a developmental orientation. It addresses issues of subjectivity that have received inadequate attention in mainstream approaches to sustainable develop...
Methodologies for end use analysis have been developed by different researchers in the energy and water fields and in different areas in the world over the last 20 years. While there are core features associated with the methodologies and models used, the differences can provide insight into the ways that they might be improved, as well as the diff...
A common claim during international greenhouse gas reduction negotiations has been that domestic emissions cuts will harm national economies. This argument fails to consider the distorting effect of existing financial subsidies and associated incentives to fossil fuel production and consumption provided by governments in most developed countries. T...
Economic analysis has been central to the development of greenhouse abatement policy in Australia. Current Australian policy is to remain outside the Kyoto Protocol, while still attempting to meet the emission targets established under the Protocol. Australia’s failure to ratify the Protocol has incurred international criticism; it is therefore app...
Sustainable development is often portrayed as the act of balancing economic, ecological and social concerns; this 'triple bottom line' approach to sustainable development is dominant in the corporate world. However, triple bottom line approaches, and most other popular approaches to sustainable development, concentrate on the exterior manifestation...
Projects
Projects (4)
Goal: This Fellowship supports the Royal University of Bhutan (RUB) in its mission to develop the Institute for Gross National Happiness Studies (iGNHaS) as a leading forum for evidence-based research, contributing to policy and development issues in Bhutan. The RUB became autonomous in 2011 with a new mandate for research. Despite policies to promote research, limited human resources and capacity have hindered research outcomes. UTS-ISF’s collaboration with RUB-iGNHaS began in August 2014, resulting in a proposal from RUB-iGNHas requesting capacity building of research theme leaders in transdisciplinary, systems and sustainability approaches to solving development issues in Bhutan. Therefore, 9 RUB Fellows from 7 faculties propose to visit UTS-ISF to learn, practice and implement research in Bhutan that informs public debate and decision-making. Activities in Australia involve training sessions in research methodologies and developing action research projects for implementation in Bhutan across themes such as Gender, Climate & Energy, Governance or Development Economics. Activities in Bhutan include training for more RUB researchers and assisting Fellows with their research projects leading to immediate outcomes. Furthermore, the Fellowship is an investment in Bhutan’s future, developing research excellence to inform better decision-making, leading to better governance and greater stability of Bhutan.
This current project – Kick-starting Cohousing – builds upon previous cohousing research undertaken by the Institute for Sustainable Futures. Our previous research (https://www.uts.edu.au/research-and-teaching/ourresearch/institute-sustainable- futures/our-research/social-change-4) identified significant potential for cohousing to address the housing challenges of older people by improving affordability, wellbeing, social connection and sustainability. Working with a broad cross-sectoral network of stakeholders, we identified emerging cohousing projects but found that they face cultural, regulatory and financial obstacles. Developing and sharing strategies for overcoming these obstacles is the most important next step to move cohousing from fringe applications to the mainstream.
