How can we transition from knowing about the most pressing challenges of our time—climate change, biodiversity loss, and social inequality—to achieving tangible, lasting transformation? Increasingly, experts agree that what is needed is not just new technologies or incremental policy fixes, but transformative change.

“A fundamental, system-wide reorganization across technological, economic and social factors, including paradigms, goals and values” — this is what the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) is calling for.

Transformative change requires breaking down disciplinary thinking. Transdisciplinary initiatives bring together diverse ways of knowing—theoretical, experiential, embodied, and practical—to spark creativity and innovation. These collaborations between researchers, policymakers, and practitioners from different sectors can create the conditions for deep societal transformation.

We call such efforts Transdisciplinary Transformative Change Initiatives (TTCIs). They often succeed in bridging natural sciences, parts of the social sciences, and practical know-how. However, they often focus primarily on technocratic, seemingly “apolitical” solutions. Treating technocratic knowledge as neutral and neglecting reflections on multiple worldviews and questions of who frames the problem in the first place can unintentionally reinforce existing power imbalances and limit transformative potential.

Addressing power and structural inequalities

To achieve deep and just transformation, these initiatives must address the underlying dynamics of power and knowledge systems and structural inequalities. Critical Social Sciences offer the theoretical basis to do so. They examine how power operates in societies, whose knowledge counts, and how inequalities are reproduced or challenged within transformation processes.

A critical social science perspective helps

• to re-politicize debates about sustainability and transformation
• to bring a more holistic understanding of complex crises (the “polycrisis”)
• to support more robust, equitable, and inclusive pathways for transformative change

Bridging the gap: The Translating Transformations Project

Our project, Translating Transformations, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) and based at the University of Zurich, addresses this crucial gap: bringing in critical social sciences perspectives in transformative change initiatives.

Together with research partners, we are co-developing Critical Social Science (CSS) Literacy Tools: practical, reflective methods that help transdisciplinary teams make power visible. The tools invite researchers and practitioners to recognize and engage with power dynamics that shape institutions, collaboration, processes, and knowledge production.

The CSS Literacy Toolbox: for workshops, project kick-offs, or research processes

At the heart of the project is our open-access CSS Literacy Toolbox: A growing collection of downloadable tools on our website. Each tool includes a clear instruction sheet for group activities or reflection exercises. They are suitable for workshops, project kick-offs, or ongoing research processes.

Users can select tools based on their objectives. For example, the “Power of Representation” tool uses an active listening exercise to prompt reflection on how representation—or the lack of it—in society sends subtle messages about whose perspectives are valued, and how that shapes our ability to contribute to shared futures.

In the coming months, our Translating Transformations team will continue to expand and apply the CSS Literacy Toolbox in diverse settings.

Empirically based on large collaborative projects Our CSS Literacy Toolbox builds on insights from two Swiss initiatives—ValPar.CH and URPP-GCB—that bring together academics, policymakers, and practitioners to tackle biodiversity loss and global change. Through an online questionnaire and in-depth interviews, we examined how these collaborations address (and sometimes struggle with) issues of power, inclusion, and diverse knowledge systems. Over the past year, we’ve translated these insights into practice, co-developing and testing our tools at the ITD24 Conference in Utrecht and a workshop on power and agency in Bern, co-organized with SCNAT’s td-net. CSS Literacy Toolbox   Read more on our blog: How Translating Transformations Got Started: The Story Behind Our Toolbox Translating Transformations: What We’ve Learned So Far ITD24 Conference in Utrecht

More information The project is led by Dr. Sierra Deutsch and a small research team including Prof. Dr. Norman Backhaus, Dr. Jinat Hossain and Mirjam Steiger. It is part of the EcoJusT and Space, Nature and Society groups in the Department of Geography. We invite researchers, practitioners, and anyone interested in just and transformative change to explore our work, try out the tools, and connect with us: Project | Translating Transformations CSS Literacy Toolbox LinkedIn Follow and connect with us for updates and upcoming events. Upcoming workshops: Join us for our next workshop on 6 February, 2026 in Zürich and/or at the World Biodiversity Forum in Davos in June 2026.

Mirjam Steiger, Space, Nature and Society