Eco-Social Contracts for Sustainable and Just Futures - Mobilising Collective Power to Deal with the 21st Century Polycrisis. DE

This groundbreaking open access volume explores the emergence and potential of eco-social contracts as a bold and actionable vision to address the interconnected crises of our time climate change, biodiversity loss, inequality, and erosion of public trust and democratic institutions. Increasingly recognized by international bodies such as the UN and in global assessments like the IPBES Transformative Change Assessment, eco-social contracts resonate with calls from Our Common Agenda for renewed solidarity, intergenerational equity, and inclusive governance. They represent a holistic paradigm shift challenging dominant economic paradigms and redefining how we relate to one another, to nature, and to the institutions that govern us.
This book captures that momentum, offering both hopeful inspiration and hard-won lessons on how to unlock collective agency in the face of interconnected crises. Bringing together a remarkable diversity of voices and perspectives from around the world, it features contributions rooted in Indigenous and Local Knowledge systems, feminist and justice-based traditions, and case studies from the Americas, Africa, Europe, South Asia, and East Asia. Bridging theory and practice, the book offers compelling insights into how societies can build inclusive, regenerative, and just futures including eco-social contracts that go beyond wellbeing economies by reimagining not only what economies are for, but how we relate to one another, to nature, and to the institutions that shape our lives.
 
Inger Andersen - Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme:
This volume is a progressive and constructive contribution to building societies in harmony with nature.
 
Kumi Naidoo - President of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, Former Secretary-General of Amnesty International and Executive Director of Greenpeace International:
We must transition from systems that devalue life to economies

List of contents

Eco social contracts for sustainable, regenerative and just futures: Introduction and overview.- Seaweed king: Weaving narratives of loss and renewal in the anthropocene.- Restoring planetary balance: Exploring Muslim eco-social covenants for the earth.- A New Pact with Nature: From Social to Eco-Social Contracts.- Beyond sustainable development, to sustainable societies: Insights from feminist and indigenous theories and praxis.- Advancing Earth system governance: Key achievements and propositions for meaningful progress towards a global eco-social contract.- The European Green Deal: An eco-social contract for Europe?.- Radical democracy, ecology, and justice in India: Experiences from four decades of activist research.- The role of the rights of nature in establishing eco-social contracts.- Eco-social Contracts as a Pathway Toward Inclusive and Sustainable Futures: opportunities, challenges, and lessons learned.- Eco-social Contracts as a Pathway Toward Inclusive and Sustainable Futures: opportunities, challenges, and lessons learned.- The Transformation Flower Approach for Eco-Social Contracting.- The Climate COP: Process and pathways for eco- and peace-promoting social contracts.- Between resistance and cooperation: A balancing act towards new eco-social contracts in Latin America.- Contestation Movements and the Emergence of Eco-Social Contracts in India and Nepal.- Eco-social contracts for sustainable and just futures: Varieties of eco-social contracts in Japanese ecovillages and coliving-coworking arrangements.- The economy we want: Exploring the potential of participatory mechanisms to catalyse economic transformations.- Epilogue.

About the author

Patrick Huntjens is Professor of Social Innovation and Sustainability Transitions at Inholland University of Applied Sciences and member of the Global Research and Action Network for a New Eco-Social Contract (GRAN-ESC). An award-winning scholar and practitioner, he received the 2022 Nautilus Book Award (Gold Medal) for Towards a Natural Social Contract and was named Professor of the Year in the Netherlands (2021). His academic journey bridges disciplines, with degrees in Biology and Ecology (MSc), Political Science and International Relations (MSc, Cum Laude), and a PhD in Complex System Sciences and Policy Sciences (Magna Cum Laude), supervised by Nobel Laureate Prof. Elinor Ostrom. This multidisciplinary foundation enables him to approach complex challenges from a holistic perspective, integrating systems thinking, governance, ecology, economics, sociology and social psychology. With over 25 years of global experience across academia, policy, and practice, Patrick focuses on eco-social contracts, regenerative economies, sustainability governance, and transformative change, with a strong commitment to social and environmental justice. He is a lead author for IPBES, whose globally recognized work received the 2022 Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity and the 2024 Blue Planet Prize. Patrick has also served as a lead mediator in the Israeli-Palestinian water conflict and advised institutions including the World Bank, United Nations, and European Union.
Najma Mohamed leads UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre’s work on nature-based solutions and is a Senior Atlantic Fellow in Social and Economic Equity and member of the Africa Europe Foundation’s Women Leaders Network. Her work focuses on ideas and solutions that address climate change, fight inequality and restore nature to achieve systemic change. She has over two decades of experience translating knowledge into practice through research, advocacy, engagement and influence strategies in international development. From her early work on environmental justice in post-apartheid South Africa, she has maintained her long-standing interest working on nature, climate and equity, including transformative and inclusive approaches to governance, policy and practice.
Katja Hujo is head of the UNRISD Bonn office and leads the Transformative Social Policy Programme. Katja’s academic work focuses on social policy, poverty and inequality, as well as socioeconomic development and the sustainability transition. She studied economics and political science at Eberhard-Karls-University Tübingen, Freie Universität Berlin (FUB) and National University of Córdoba, Argentina, and holds a doctoral degree in economics from FUB. At UNRISD, she is lead author and coordinator of the 2022 flagship report Crises of Inequality: Shifting Power for a New Eco-Social Contract and co-editor of Between Fault Lines and Front Lines: Shifting Power in an Unequal World (Bloomsbury June 2022). In partnership with the Green Economy Coalition, she represents UNRISD as co-convenor of the Global Research and Action Network for a New Eco-Social Contract (GRAN-ESC).
Manisha Desai is the Executive Director of Center for Changing Systems of Power and the Empowerment Trust Endowed Professor of Global Citizenship at Stony Brook University and part of the Global Network for Research and Action for a new eco-social contract. Her areas of research and teaching include gender and globalization/development, transnational feminisms, global justice, particularly climate justice movements and human rights. She is the recipient of multiple awards, including the Sociologist for Women in Society's 2015 Distinguished Feminist Award and the 2016 Faculty Mentor Award from the Compact for Faculty Diversity in the U.S. She has served in many leadership capacities including as President of Sociologists for Women in Society.

Summary

This groundbreaking open access volume explores the emergence and potential of eco-social contracts as a bold and actionable vision to address the interconnected crises of our time—climate change, biodiversity loss, inequality, and erosion of public trust and democratic institutions. Increasingly recognized by international bodies such as the UN and in global assessments like the IPBES Transformative Change Assessment, eco-social contracts resonate with calls from Our Common Agenda for renewed solidarity, intergenerational equity, and inclusive governance. They represent a holistic paradigm shift—challenging dominant economic paradigms and redefining how we relate to one another, to nature, and to the institutions that govern us.
This book captures that momentum, offering both hopeful inspiration and hard-won lessons on how to unlock collective agency in the face of interconnected crises. Bringing together a remarkable diversity of voices and perspectives from around the world, it features contributions rooted in Indigenous and Local Knowledge systems, feminist and justice-based traditions, and case studies from the Americas, Africa, Europe, South Asia, and East Asia. Bridging theory and practice, the book offers compelling insights into how societies can build inclusive, regenerative, and just futures—including eco-social contracts that go beyond wellbeing economies by reimagining not only what economies are for, but how we relate to one another, to nature, and to the institutions that shape our lives.
 
Inger Andersen - Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme:
“This volume is a progressive and constructive contribution to building societies in harmony with nature.”
 
Kumi Naidoo - President of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, Former Secretary-General of Amnesty International and Executive Director of Greenpeace International:
“We must transition from systems that devalue life to economies that cherish well-being and shared prosperity.”
 
Carlos Alvarado Quesada - Former President of the Republic of Costa Rica:
“The time has come to act collectively in reshaping our social contract—to ensure justice, regeneration, and sustainability.”
 
Mary Robinson – Chair of the Elders,Former President of Ireland and UN High Commissioner:
“This book makes clear that a new eco-social contract must be built on structural justice, intergenerational equity, and inclusive governance that respects cultural and ecological diversity.”
 
Jayati Ghosh - Club of Rome, UN High-Level Advisory Board on Economic and Social Affairs and WHO Council on the Economics of Health for All:
“An incredibly timely and significant book that could not be more relevant for our current planetary emergency. Some light in the seeming darkness!”
 
Karen O’Brien - Co-Chair of the IPBES Transformative Change Assessment:
“Transformation is not only possible—it is already happening. This book shows how we can recognize ourselves as agents of change. When we do, new realities become thinkable and actionable.”

Product details

• Assisted by: Manisha Desai (Editor), Katja Hujo (Editor), Katja Hujo et al (Editor), Patrick Huntjens (Editor), Najma Mohamed (Editor)
• Publisher: Springer, Berlin
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Release: 12.12.2025
• EAN: 9783031991080
• ISBN: 978-3-0-3199108-0
• No. of pages: 380
• Illustrations: X, 380 p. 29 illus., 12 illus. in color.
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > Social structure research; Nachhaltigkeit, Klimawandel, Ökologie, Biosphäre, Sustainability, Politik der National- Zentral- oder Bundesregierung, Environmental Policy, Open Access, Social Justice, Climate Change Ecology, Transformative Change, water equity, ecojustice, democratic innovation